LensToLens | A dialogue in printing bridges past, future between China, Germany

WUHAN, April 25 (Xinhua) -- In a workshop in Yingshan County, central China, German scholar Fabian Schrodt carefully pressed paper onto inked clay blocks, recreating an 11th-century innovation from ancient China -- Bi Sheng's movable-type printing.

"Although his methods cannot match today's digital efficiency, they nonetheless revealed the brilliance of modular design long before standardized manufacturing came into existence," said Schrodt, a Wuhan University professor, as characters from a Chinese poem emerged on the page.

His hands-on experience at the Bi Sheng Memorial Hall brought to life the ingenuity of the Song Dynasty inventor, whose clay-type system predated German printer Johannes Gutenberg's metal press by 400 years.

Thousands of miles away in Mainz, Germany, visitors to the Gutenberg Museum have also encountered a similar sense of historic innovation.

According to Lin Chunjie, director of German language department at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Bi's invention was the earliest recorded movable type printing in human history. "The technology spread westward along the Silk Road, and about 400 years later, Gutenberg created metal movable type printing," Lin added.

Gutenberg's version, with its metallurgical refinements and oil-based ink, had an enormous impact on European media.

Centuries later, China is once again shaping the future of printing. At the Drupa Exhibition 2024, the latest edition of the world's premier printing expo held every four years, over 400 Chinese firms participated, nearly double the tally of the previous edition, making China the top exhibitor, ahead of Germany.

"Today, China remains at the forefront in multiple fields, including digital printing and post-press processing," said Marius Berlemann, regional head of Messe Dusseldorf for Asia. Messe Dusseldorf is the organizer of Drupa.