To celebrate the new millennium, the public has been invited to vote for its 10 favourite books.
The Ten Good Books of the Millennium event is jointly organised by the Provisional Regional Council, Provisional Urban Council and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).
From now until December 4, members of the public are invited to select 10 out of 50 shortlisted books. They include works by Chinese and Japanese authors and Chinese translations of books by Western authors. Among them are Beyond Good and Evil, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Utopia, Tzu Chih Tung Chien, Su Tung-po Chuan Chi, Hamlet, Journey to the West and Don Quixote.
The Provisional Regional Council's Culture and Arts Select Committee chairman, Cheung Yuet-lan, said: 'The event aims to review books in terms of readability, feedback and long-term impact on human civilisation in the millennium.' Film director Ng Sze-yuen selected Sherlock Holmes and Rashomon as his Good Books of the Millennium. 'Sherlock Holmes taught me to think logically and Rashomon inspired me to analyse things from different perspectives,' he said.
Yeung Yiu-chung of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong selected Journey to the West and 1587, A Year of No Significance, while Democrat Cheung Man-kwong chose The Little Prince, The Manifesto of the Communist Party and Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales.
A series of programmes will be aired on RTHK Radio One, Two and Five to give a general introduction to the books. The 50 books are also on display at 11 Provisional Regional Council central and district libraries and 11 Provisional Urban Council district libraries.