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"So my happiness multiplies when reading and collecting newspapers."
For the past 20 years, when he travels across the country either for personal reasons or work, he takes any chance to find old newspapers. He also purchases newspapers online.
When he was on a business trip in Beijing in 2008, he found a new stall in Panjiayuan, the capital's antique market, which he always visits and searches for valuable papers for hours. He found a small piece of newspaper printed in 1901 from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) when flipping through an old book.
"But I pretended to find an ordinary one and persuaded the owner to sell at a much cheaper price," he said. "To get what they want to get, people should be patient and have some strategies."
Yang has spent more than 200,000 yuan ($32,000) collecting newspapers.
"I would sell some newspapers at least twice the buying price. Some precious pieces, such as those published in the 1940s may sell for hundreds of yuan," he said, adding that the benefits are enough to support him to buy more newspapers.
He believes his collection is not for fame but to "serve the people".
He provides news suggestions based on his research into those old newspapers, and sometimes his studies help settle historical mysteries.
"There was a discussion about the precise date of the recovery of the red capital Yan'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province in 1948," he said. "A newspaper Jiebao (victory news) that I bought at a roadside stall in 2010 celebrated the recovery of Yan'an on April 22, not on April 21 as some had claimed."
Once an old courtyard house was found in Shijiazhuang, but people knew nothing about it and even the government departments couldn't find relevant documents. Yang looked through his collection and found old reports about the house's background.
In 2008, Yang displayed newspapers he had collected, which reported previous Olympic Games. The exhibition attracted more than 20,000 visitors, he said.
"I knew his collecting habit before we married and I support him," said Yang's wife Chen Suxian. "Reading is a good habit. I also asked my friends to contribute special newspapers to his collection. Our son loves his father as well as his collection."
Xu Xiliang, 77, a newspaper collector and friend of Yang for 20 years, said: "I read a large number of his newspapers. He does his best to collect from around the country, and I'm sure his collection will be a valuable record for society."
He sold Yang most of his collection because age left him little energy to maintain the habit. "I sold them at a low price because Yang is the man that can make good use of my collections and pass that cultural heritage on to the future generation."
What concerns Yang most now is finding a fixed place to exhibit his collection. "Then we can tell others the stories about these newspapers together."
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