Moveable-type printing is one of the four great inventions of ancient China. However as the rapid development of modern science and technology, this antique technique bearing Chinese civilization has slowly faded out in our daily lives. As the development of cultural industry in Qingdao, a printing museum which is dedicated to disseminate the development history of Chinese printing has recently made its appearance and attracted the attention of many citizens. Many teenagers come here to learn antique papermaking and moveable-type printing technique and experience ancient Chinese culture.

    When we walked into the moveable-type printing museum on Nanjing Road, dozens of pupils were already gathered there. These students were divided in groups with three to five members. Some of them were tiptoeing to pick up characters on the typing rack. Some of them were bending over the desk and typesetting quietly, some others were waiting in line for printing. According to Mr. Ruan, during the winter vacation, the visitors flooded into the printing museum and most of them were elementary and middle school students. After the students entered the museum, they first learned about the Chinese printing history, the invention and evolvement of moveable-type printing. Then Mr. Ruan taught them to pick up characters, set type and printing, which turned out to be very compelling for students. Particularly at the stage of experience, the children were in high spirits. Each of them took a few of self-satisfactory works and left.

    During our investigation, we found that in the experience area, there are two large composing frames at the wall foot and various types of lead letters are piled neatly on the frames. When the students want to do any print, they need to find the corresponding lead types, and then compose type for the chosen lead types in type matrix, put on the paper for printing after well brushing the ink.

    Parents compliment this way of experience, which combines education with enjoyment. According to Ms. Yang, her daughter Xiao Jing can only remember one or two poems with the traditional way of reciting ancient poems. However when Xiao Jing experiences the moveable-type printing, she can easily remember 3 new poems with the equal time. Besides moveable-type printing, students can also experience the innovative ancient papermaking technique here: they can not only use pulps to make ancient “Marquis Cai Paper”, but also put into various flower petals, tree leaves when pouring the pulps and a natural picture with flower aroma is formed after being dried.

    Mr. Ruan said: “I hope through experience, our next generation can learn more about traditional Chinese culture and let such intangible culture can be passed on from generation to generation.”