The Nantong Overseas Chinese Library, located in Chongchuan district in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, held a signing ceremony for the establishment of overseas book stations on Dec 6, aiming to take advantage of its resources to promote Chinese culture to the world.

The overseas book stations will be set up in influential overseas Chinese groups, schools, libraries, enterprises and relevant institutions in major cities of certain foreign countries. The Nantong Overseas Chinese Library will provide 600-1,000 books free of charge for each station. The books will be renewed and exchanged regularly.

Zhen Xiang, founder of the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library, said that the library has collected more than 50,000 books. Adhering to the tagline "built by overseas Chinese, serving overseas Chinese", the library has donated books to overseas Chinese groups as a reward.

The first five overseas book stations are expected to be completed around Spring Festival next year, and construction on the first 12 stations will be completed in the first half of the following year. By the end of 2022, 20 stations will be built.

In order to better promote the spread of Chinese culture among overseas Chinese, and to help foreigners access and learn about Chinese culture, the overseas partners of the stations are required to manage the stations well and help local overseas Chinese libraries raise books, funds and related collections so as to encourage more overseas Chinese to participate in the construction of overseas Chinese libraries and expand book resources at the stations.

The heads of overseas Chinese groups and enterprises from the United States, Canada, Panama, Suriname, Japan, Chile, Australia and many European countries participated in the signing ceremony.

Founded in 2019, the Nantong Overseas Chinese Library is a privately-run public library in China themed around overseas Chinese and is funded by overseas Chinese from more than 50 countries.