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Human Library gets people talking

On Saturday, dozens of readers met seven living books at a local cafe. Most of them knew about the event through the library's micro blog and had registered in advance.

The living books included a funeral director, a part-time musician, a travel buff with profound knowledge of how to use guidebooks and the parents of an autistic child.

Zhang Na shared the story of her family's experience of managing her son's autism over a decade.

Zhang's son was diagnosed in 1998, when he was only 3, and she had to study the condition and work out training methods on her own. At that time, China lacked advanced autism therapy. Zhang's painstaking efforts greatly improved her son's condition and, hoping to help other families with similar problems, she founded a school in 2003 to offer training to autistic children and their parents.

He Wen has come to the library three times as a "reader." “I found that many people are doing things that are not well-known to the public but are really meaningful to society," he said.

For Huang Huajun, the most exciting part of the human library has been expanding its readership. She now attracts around 80 people to each gathering and has up to 10 volunteers who help with the organization.

The library has no income and no permanent sponsorship. It is largely a voluntary group and the two Huangs sometimes pay the costs out of their own pocket.