Children read inside a library in Longyao County in Xingtai, Hebei Province, on World Book Day on April 23 (XINHUA) 

A reading challenge was launched in dozens of Chinese cities on April 23 to mark World Book Day, a day created by UNESCO on April 23, 1995 in celebration of books and reading.

To take part in the challenge, readers were required to register online before 6 p.m. on April 22 and then head to the bookstore of their choice the next day to read books out loud. They could either bring their own books or get those from the bookstore. Those who completed the challenge of continuously reading for four hours and 23 minutes would win a prize—a book.

The activity was jointly launched by the China Pictorial Press (CPP), in collaboration with News.qq.com, an Internet portal run by Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Shumeng, an alliance of Chinese brick-and-mortar bookstores. Over 100 bookstores in more than 60 cities across the country took part in the activity, including the PageOne Bookstore at Beijing Fun, a commercial and cultural complex in central Beijing. 

Mu Shuang, Marketing Director of the CPP, told Beijing Review that the event aimed to bring more people into bookstores and appreciate the beauty of books.

Reading online 

In addition to reading paper books, Chinese people are embracing digital reading. The 2020 Digital Reading Report published by the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association on April 16 showed that the market size of digital reading reached 35 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) last year, up 21.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the number of digital book readers reached 494 million, up 5.56 percent year on year.

It's worth noting that children have become a fairly large reader group of digital books. The report shows that over 74 percent of children started reading digital books from the age of 2, and over 65 percent of them prefer digital books to paper ones. The amount of money spent by parents on children's digital books increased over 56 percent and children spent 29 minutes e-reading on average every day.

Similarly, KaDa Story, an online reading website for children's picture books, released its 2020 report on April 16, together with the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication. The report demonstrates that children accounted for a larger proportion of those engaging in digital reading in third- and fourth-tier cities, while the number of parents paying for their children's e-reading in fifth-tier cities and below had increased by over 100 percent.

Yang Bo, cofounder of KaDa Story, told Xinhua News Agency that the expansion of Internet technology has helped with the promotion of education equality. "Parents in small cities are paying more attention to reading and digital books have provided them with a new option."

More and more readers are willing to pay for high-quality digital content, with 26.8 percent of readers spending an average of over 100 yuan ($15) on online content every month last year.

Online literature proves most popular among e-readers. The 2020 Digital Reading Report further read that of those e-consumers paying over 100 yuan a month for online content, nearly half were acquiring online literary works.

On Qidian, a Chinese online literature site owned by online publishing and eBook company Yuewen Group, readers have developed the habit of paying for online books in recent years. In addition to the traditional model of subscribing to online content, readers nowadays are more willing to pay via other ways, such as directly reimbursing the writers to obtain faster updates of their preferred novels.

However, although more people are willing to pay for digital content, their satisfaction levels with the online reading experiences are not high. Over 80 percent of readers said the quality of online publications should be improved.

Audiobooks, too, have begun to gain popularity in recent years. According to big data on reading-related search activities published by Internet search giant Baidu on April 23, the popularity of both digital and audiobooks increased rapidly in the past year. Searches for digital book and audiobook apps rose by 97 percent and 82 percent, respectively. Those born after 1990 prefer digital books, whereas senior consumers prefer audiobooks.

In 2020, audio content on Ximalaya FM, an online audio-sharing platform, increased by over 60 percent year on year.

According to the 2020 Digital Reading Report, people in China read 6.2 paper books per person on average in 2020, whereas they read 9.1 digital books and 6.3 audiobooks. The number of audiobooks read per person surpassed that of paper books for the first time ever.

The books on Ximalaya FM cover a wide range of topics, from learning a new language, a new skill, to cultivating a new hobby or humanities-related materials.

During this year's World Book Day, the platform hosted its online audiobook festival for the fourth year in a row, launching over 1,000 new audiobooks in collaboration with various publishing houses.

Passing on a legacy 

One library in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, houses an open space which, unlike other sections of the library, features no shelves or book, but only 24 pairs of headphones. This is a full-fledged audiobook reading area created in cooperation with Ximalaya FM. Wu Junqiu, a 74-year-old reader, was listening to audiobooks telling the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"I have poor eyesight and easily feel tired when reading paper books for long hours at a time. I also listen to audiobooks on my phone," Wu told Xinhua News Agency.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. A campaign on Party history learning and education was launched in February.

The 2020 Digital Reading Report shows that digital reading platforms have become an important arena for spreading Party theories. In 2020, multiple digital reading platforms collaborated with online platform Xuexi.cn to set up special columns on the latter covering Party history and theories. Readers have affirmed that these digital resources have facilitated their deeper understanding of Party history.

Additionally, publishing houses have intensified their collaboration with digital reading platforms to expand the reach of Party ideologies. Wang Tong, Deputy Secretary of the Party committee of the People's Publishing House, said the press has published several digital books on the fight against COVID-19 on Xuexi.cn and Migu, a digital content subsidiary of China Mobile, to illustrate the achievements in China's fight against the epidemic.

As a rule of thumb, experts today say that no matter what ways of reading one chooses, it is important that people develop the habit of reading.

Meng Man, a professor at the School of History and Culture at Minzu University of China, told China Central Television that people can start by reading for half an hour every day. After one or two months, one would consequently feel that without reading, something is lacking from their general routine. Just like this, reading would gradually become an intrinsic part of daily life.

Zheng Yuanjie, a writer of fairytales, revealed he'd never had much of a school education and the reason he eventually was able to become a writer was because of his reading habits. He said that whether a person can succeed in life strongly depends on whose influence they are under. Not everyone can have the chance to communicate with a master, but reading a master's book is like meeting them. Therefore, instead of signing their kids up for all kinds of training institutions, parents should help their children develop regular reading habits so as to enable them to develop that competitive edge. BR

(Print Edition Title: A New Chapter) 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon 

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