Does William Shakespeare have many fans in China?  

The answer is yes, according to the top management of international auction house Sotheby's.

Sotheby's reportedly brought from London the most important book in English literature: The First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. This was presented in the weekend in Beijing and will be exhibited in Hong Kong from Thursday to Saturday.

"It is one of the happiest moments of my life to be able to have a look at this book," said a visitor at the Beijing exhibition surnamed Wang.

The precious folio will be for sale in Sotheby's auction in London on July 13. It is expected to fetch 2.5-3.5 million pounds (US$4.7-6.7 million).

Published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, the volume contains 36 plays, 18 of which have never been previously printed.

"Without The First Folio, assembled by Shakespeare's friends, 18 of Shakespeare's plays would not have survived," said Peter Selley, Sotheby's English literature specialist.

Selley said that the writer's famous Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, A Winter's Tale, The Tempest, All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Henry VIII, King John, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrewd, Timon of Athens, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Henry VI Part I might have been lost.

Only 750 copies of the folio were printed and about one-third of these still survive, although they are mostly incomplete, according to Selley.

The copy on display in China, being sold by the Dr Williams' Library in London, has been untouched. It is in a mid-17th Century binding of plain brown calfskin, and contains extensive markings and annotations, which shed light on when the folio was put together.

It has been one of the two finest copies to appear at auction in London since World War II, second only to the one sold in 1980 and now held at Meisei University in Japan, said Selley.

It also has the longest uninterrupted ownership by a public library of any copy in the world, from at least 1716 until now.

Dr David Wykes, director of the Dr Williams's Library that is selling the book, said the library "has been proud to own this remarkable copy of Shakespeare's First Folio," but its sale will secure the finances of the Library and safeguard our important historic collections of manuscripts and printed books for future generations."

"We also believe the sale will enable us to enhance the service we offer our readers and to better develop and conserve our unique collection," said Wykes.

The library was established in the early 18th Century under the will of Dr Daniel Williams in Gordon Square, close to the British Library and the University of London. Many of its book collections are of international significance.

The library is accessed by scholars, especially historians, and also students from around the world.

(China Daily May 25, 2006)