Civilian library hope to revive book reading in China

Global Business

In a world of smartphones and tablet devices, reading physical books is now somewhat of a marginalized activity in China. But in Beijing, a new civilian library hopes to reverse this trend, and revive the gift of reading in the country in a different way.

CCTV’s Tang Bo reports.

The Civilian Mobile Library is the first and the only of its kind in Beijing. Unlike ordinary libraries that lend books, this one instead gives them away.

People choose a book that they like, register, and take it home, without paying any money. After people finish reading they pass the book to another person.

The idea is to put each of the library’s books into as many hands as possible.

Currently, around 80 percent of the books here are bought by Xu Dawei, founder of the library, and the rest are from donations.

Without any sponsors, it costs more than 10,000 yuan ($1537) a month to keep the library going.

But Xu Dawei insists on doing it. He hopes to make the library more mobile in the future and be able to send free books across China, and one day even beyond.


Chinese using both paper and digital devices to read more

Modern technology has defiantly changed the way people read, as more are now picking up tablets rather than books.

But in China young readers are now combining the love and convenience of both. CCTV’s Mao Dan reports .

 

More Chinese are settling down with a good book across a variety of platforms, and reading has become an increasingly fashionable social activity.

Reading support This statistic shows the number of public libraries in China in 2014, by region. In 2014, there were 172 public libraries in the Chinese Hebei province.

Reading support
This statistic shows the number of public libraries in China in 2014, by region. In 2014, there were 172 public libraries in the Chinese Hebei province.