Books are the ladder of human progress, but the Chinese seem to have forgotten this pearl of wisdom from their own past. In the last six years research has shown that Chinese are reading less, something that continues to prompt Zhu Yongxin, Vice Mayor of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, to each year submit a proposal to the full session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top advisory body, calling on the government to designate a "national reading day." Zhu is supported by several famous Chinese writers and this year was his fifth proposal.
In the latest survey on reading in China, only 5 percent of educated Chinese said they read regularly, and the number of readers in the country in 2005 dropped by 11.7 percent compared with 1999. In 2005, those readers were only reading 4.5 books per capita, much lower than the 50 in the United States.
Zhu believes that the unquiet state of mind across the country should be blamed on the shortage of reading, especially reading of classical works. When it comes to school education, although the importance of quality-oriented education has been stressed for years, college entrance examinations are all students care about, and few have any interest in reading.
But what kind of role will the proposed "national reading day" play?
Yu Qiuyu, a famous writer and former president of the Shanghai Academy of Drama, opposes a designated "national reading day" for three reasons. First, there is already International Reading Day each April 23; second, online reading is becoming increasingly popular; and third, travel is more beneficial to gaining cultural experience than reading.
At the same time, a survey on sohu.com, one of China's top Web portals, shows that 74 percent of those surveyed think it's unnecessary to have a "national reading day."
Some scholars point out that the problem is not that the Chinese are not interested in reading, but that there is a shortage of reading materials.
Developing good habits
Feng Lei (www.people.com.cn): In the information age, reading online is becoming increasingly common, which gives us a false impression that we already have enough information and knowledge at our disposal.
For most ordinary Chinese, the habit of reading is yet to be developed. Globally, China ranks first in terms of the number of book and magazine publications. However, for years, the annual per-capita book purchase only amounts to about five, and two when it comes to magazines. Each group of 1,000 Chinese buys only 100 newspapers daily.
Objectively speaking, in China, reading online is far from being a social habit. Most online readers log on to search for information and news, not to read. The difference between reading online and reading real books is obvious. Physically, it's tiring to stare at a computer screen for too long. Online reading is also unable to satisfy the majority's demand for knowledge as much of the information available is of a difficult nature. So in the foreseeable future, online reading is unlikely to totally replace traditional reading.
Moreover, at the present stage, reading online is not available to all Chinese. China only has 100 million netizens, so for those who do not have the option of surfing the Internet, books are still the only choice.
Not every Chinese is as erudite as Yu Qiuyu. For reading to survive, the proposal of "national reading day" is a necessary one.
Zheng Qi'ang (www.eastday.com): According to Yu Qiuyu, as reading online becomes more popular, we are actually faced with an information overload. Under this set of circumstances, there is not a reading shortage, but reading itself is becoming disastrous.
