A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images
A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images
Wee Kek Koon
Opinion

Opinion

Reflections by Wee Kek Koon

A brief history of books in China, from oracle bones to scrolls and string-bound texts

  • Scrolls were the main repository of written texts in China for centuries
  • Printing appeared in the Tang dynasty, but didn’t become common until later

Wee Kek Koon
Wee Kek Koon

Updated: 10:15am, 28 Jan, 2021

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A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images
A Chinese scribe. Photo: Getty Images
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Wee Kek Koon

Wee Kek Koon

Having lived his whole life in the modern cities of Singapore and Hong Kong, Wee Kek Koon has an inexplicable fascination with the past. He is constantly amazed by how much he can mine from China's history for his weekly column in Post Magazine, which he has written since 2005.