An eight-day exhibition commemorating the 187th anniversary of Karl Marx opened Thursday (May 5th) at the China National Museum, on the east side of Beijing's Tian'anmen Square.

It is the first show of communist artistic books to be held in China in honor of the German philosopher and fathers of communism, the museum's curator said.

Nearly 800 exhibits are on display in the central hall of the Museum. Included are nearly 100 biographies, in Chinese and foreign languages, of Marx and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), a contemporary thinker and Marx's collaborator; Communist Manifesto, a key work for communists for generations; 13 Chinese versions of Capital, one of Marx's major works; and five Chinese editions of Marx and Engels on China.

Stamps, post cards, emblems and coins issued by different countries to commemorate Marx are also on display, the curator said.

Han Shuying, former vice president of the Party School of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Central Committee, said, "The key to the development of China lies in the Marxism. The exhibit displays the thoughts, personalities and practices of Marx and Engels."

Marx, born on May 5, 1818, was the most influential socialist thinker of the 19th century. A philosopher, social scientist and historian, he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, though his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance after his death in 1883.

The exhibition was jointly sponsored by the Beijing-based Hongzhan Culture Dissemination Co., Ltd., Beijing University and the People's University of China.

Editor: Wing