From the Chinese Press

Why Chinese read fewer books?

It is worrying to know that on average Chinese people read only five books a year, a lot fewer than their counterparts in developed countries. This has led some people to seek legislation to help cultivate reading habit among Chinese people. But people, as readers, alone are not to blame for the sorry state of affairs given the huge waste of resources to achieve prosperity in the publishing world, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

At the beginning of this century, "green publishing" was made part of the country's development strategy, but the plan failed to help China catch up with the developed world when it came to implementation. Statistics show that China has the largest book inventory in the world which, according to market prices, is worth 88.4 billion yuan ($14.4 billion). The contents of most of these "invalid published" books are shallow. In other words, such books are devoid of any creativity and value.