“We are trying to provide an overall picture of our country as it is now and what it was in history,” Rasa Drazdauskiene, director of the Organization Committee of Lithuania for the Frankfurt 2002 Book Fair, said during an interview with China.org.cn. For this reason, Lithuania had crafted a display of some 1,500 books on the country which come from both domestic and international publishers. Their books were grouped into different categories such as literature, poetry, history, press and communication, children’s book, and religion, and are arranged in different displays.

“The best way to express our ideas is through books. Books can unite people and nations,” said Rasa. This is also the message President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus conveyed at the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2002. “Books were, are, and will be the tie uniting the past and the present, consolidating our cultures into a single Western Civilization, and relating our civilization to the other civilizations of the world,” he said, “It is very important that this cultural tie continues to strengthen in the 21st century, bringing to our common life more humaneness, unity, and trust.”

Lithuania is a small state on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordering Latvia, Belarus, Poland and the Kaliningrad region of Russia, with 3.5 million people living on 65,301 square kilometers of land. However, it owns about 600 publishing houses, some of which are run by only one person and publish one or two titles each year. In Hall 5, 31 Lithuanian publishing houses are showing their books.

The first attempts of publishing in Lithuania can be traced back to the 15th century. The restoration of its independence on March 11, 1990 had a great influence on the publishing industry. It was then that independent publishing started in Lithuania. From 1990 to 1992, the country saw a boom in publishing. Even books published in hundreds of thousands of editions sold out. Some writers are now turning to the European Union for funds needed for their works.

The lectures in relation to the central theme of “Bridges for a World Divided” were also proving to be a highlight. People gathered at the forum to debate such issues as “How can we achieve lasting peace?” and “How do we deal with terrorism and fundamentalism?”

China in recent years has enhanced its relations with Lithuania. Many Chinese now live there, and more and more Lithuanians have begun learning Chinese and going to China. On one shelf showing Lithuanian literature abroad, a Chinese journal entitled carries a poem by Lithuanian poet Eugenijus Alisanka. The poem has been translated into Chinese. Rasa shows reporters the journal with the greatest delight. According to her, a basketball player from her country is now playing for China. She thinks the cultural exchanges between the two countries are a beautiful thing. “The more, the better.”

(china.org.cn by staff reporter Li Jinhui, October 15, 2002)