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司徒華的藏書態度

  司徒華是愛書之人,對每本書,不論價值都視為珍藏,在青年略為空閒時,更會親手以雞皮紙包好書本,再用毛筆或鋼筆寫上書名,小心保存。年青時的司徒華,偶爾會在書上留下記號,包括畫線和筆記等,提醒自己對作者的看法。

  華叔喜愛古詩習字,他收藏很多歷代詩詞和名家字帖,特別喜愛杜甫的詩。此外,華叔至為尊崇魯迅先生,視其文獻是最寶貴珍藏,別人把書借走不歸還,他會自行再買以補藏書之缺,他的藏書也有不少重複的魯迅作品。其他的重複藏書也是持這一種態度。司徒華閱覽書籍種類廣泛,認為日本的推理小說可訓練思考,武俠小說的天馬行空可以學習文筆;近年一紙風行的「哈里波特」也不放過,笑說是調劑心情的上佳讀本。司徒華對中共權力鬥爭認識至深,除了在出任草委時親歴其境,還閱讀大量有關內地的各種書刊。他長期訂閱內地出版的多份刊物,了解內地形勢。

  司徒華一生藏書逾萬,他不是每一本書都整本看過,總會先閱覽目錄,挑選有興趣的章節才會細加閱。司徒華在六十年代收藏大量中外兒童讀物,這是因為他義務擔任「兒童報」的總編輯時,每每缺乏來稿之際,便以多個筆名,取材中外兒童讀物素材填滿版位。他往往每週寫故事超過萬字,筆名也超過十個。他做小學校長時,專門開設故事堂,素材很多是來白這些兒童讀物。華叔更於六十年代與友人合資「龍門書店」,複印多種古籍文獻,部份包裝精美。時為大陸文革期間,有大批古籍被銷毁。後因公務繁忙而結束經營。司徒華的藏書中,有部分是音樂書籍,因為在求學及年青時期,有一副好嗓子,喜歡唱歌和做歌唱指揮。

Attitude about book collection by Szeto Wah

  Book-lover Szeto Wah found treasure in every book. In the spare time in his youth, he wrapped the books with kraft papers, wrote the titles with pens or ink brush, preserved them with all efforts. Sometimes, he would leave remarks on the books about the opinions towards the authors.
  Szeto Wah favoured Chinese classic poetry and calligraphy, especially poems from Tu Fu. More than that, Chinese writer Lu Xun was his most respected author and he had collected many of his writings. If others did not return the books written by Lu Xun, he would buy new ones. This was also the reason he had books appeared in several copies. Szeto Wah read extensively ranging from detective novels, Wuxia novels, to even Harry Potter series. He believed inspirations could be gained from different genres. Being one of the member of The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Basic Law Drafting Committee, Szeto Wah had deep knowledge about the politics of China. He had subscribed different publications to understand the circumstances in Mainland.

  The book collection of Szeto Wah was over 10,000 yet not all of them were read entirely by him. He always first skimmed through the content page, selected those which were interesting for further reading. Szeto Wah had collected substantial amount of children’s books in the 1960s for writing columns on Children’s Weekly of which he was the voluntary chief editor. He wrote articles under pseudonyms if there were not enough contributions. He held a story-telling section when he was a primary school principal and materials were chosen from these children books. Furthermore, he opened Lung Mun Bookshop in 1960s which produced copies of Chinese classic texts with other partners. At times of Cultural Revolution, large amount of the Chinese classic texts were destroyed. Later it was closed because of his busy work schedule. Some of Szeto Wah’s collection were books about music because he liked singing and conducting in his younger times.

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