Mr. Tan Yue(tight) and Richard Ovenden present at the launch ceremony of CPG Reading Room at the Bodleian K.B. Chen China Center Library.

■BY Xinhua (China Daily Africa)

A reading room named after China Publishing Group Corp was established on April 13,2016 at the Bodleian K.B. Chen China Center Library at the University of Oxford.

A delegation from the company visited the university that day as part of the events commemorating this month's 400th anniversary of the deaths of playwrights William Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu, as well as marking the London Book Fair.

CPG is one of China's largest publishing groups, publishing 15,000 books a year.CPG provided books published by its subsidiaries for the reading room, which includes the Twenty-four Histories, History Retold as a Mirror for Rulers, Encyclopedia of China, Complete Works on Chinese Fine Art and Serial Works by Chinese Contemporary Composers.

CPG President Tan Yue and Richard Ovenden, the Bodleian's librarian, unveiled a new exhibition named Celebrating Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare on the 400th Anniversary of their Deaths: Book Exhibition on April 13 at Weston Library, one of the 40 Bodleian libraries at the University of Oxford.

Books displayed include The Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu, The Handan Dream and Complete Works by Shakespeare.

Ovenden says Bodleian has been collecting books published in China and books written in the Chinese language for over 400 years. The center has more than 50,000 books on China, including 20,000 rare Chinese books.

He says Bodleian has collaborated closely with leading publishers from across the globe, and he believed that CPG would be a good partner.

David Helliwell, curator of Chinese collections at the Bodleian Library, showed several hundred-years-old Chinese manuscripts and rare books and the restoration of old rare Chinese books at Weston Library to the Chinese delegation.

Tan says the exhibition was a great opportunity to work with the University of Oxford in promoting cultural exchanges, adding that CPG and the university would find common ground and achieve concrete cultural projects.

CPG and Bodleian Library then signed an agreement on publishing and building a long-term communication mechanism.