Chinese reading habits stir new debate
Are Chinese reading well? Are they reading enough?
Such questions are being raised in the wake of some alarming observations. The Tenth National Reading Survey in 2013 by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication found that on average each Chinese person reads 4.3 printed books and 2.35 digital ones each year. A survey by Guangxi Normal University Press asked readers which book they had most struggled to get through. Chinese classic A Dream of the Red Mansions topped the ranking.
"Get on a subway in China, and all you'll see are people dozing off or hunching over their cellphones," says Yan Gongda, artist, calligrapher and member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. "But while I was in Europe, people on subways were reading books."
