Vital chapter

The Soong Ching Ling Angel of Peace Art Group performed a song on April 2, International Children's Book Day, to raise awareness about the importance of reading among children in the country.

The lyrics are simple yet profound: "I am a book. You are a book. We are all books. My soul is the story that I tell. Every book tells its own story."

The Chinese-English song draws inspiration from the message by Greek writer Vagelis Iliopoulos and the poster by the Greek illustrator Photini Stephanidi for the 2023 International Children's Book Day. The lyrics have been adapted and composed by Chinese musician Wang Shimi.

The song was released at the Rural Children's Reading Forum, part of a series of events for International Children's Book Day, which aims to call for the improvement of reading resources and environment for rural children across society.

Hosted by the Children's Literature Working Committee of the Publishers Association of China and the Chinese branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (CBBY), the forum was held at the National Library of China in Beijing. It brought together well-known experts and scholars, as well as representatives from rural areas who are dedicated to promoting reading among children, to discuss the development of rural children's reading in the country. The speakers touched various topics related to the development of reading among rural children such as the functioning of rural libraries, improving other reading services, promoting reading with local features, and highlighting the importance of reading for children's growth.

Wu Shulin, head of the Publishers Association of China, says relevant organizations in cities should pay more attention to rural areas, as reading is an effective base for the prosperity of society.

Based on data from the latest National Population Census, there are approximately 89 million rural children aged up to 15 in the country, with over 6 million "left-behind" children of migrant workers.

In comparison to their urban counterparts, rural children experience a limited reading environment, face greater challenges in cultivating reading habits, and generally score lower on reading indicators.

Wei Yushan, head of the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, says promoting reading among rural children is currently a top priority for nationwide reading initiatives that require collective efforts from parents, schools, rural library administrators and volunteers from all walks of life.

Wei says emphasis should be placed on cultivating children's reading habits, with the key approach being to enhance their ability to read texts.

"Text reading plays an essential role in a child's growth and future development, serving as the foundation for learning, comprehension, writing, language expression and logical thinking," he says.

Sun Zhu, CBBY president, says promoting reading among rural children is undoubtedly a key part of the national campaign and that by fostering good thoughts, habits and conduct through reading, rural children can contribute to the overall development of society.

Zhang Mingzhou, former head of the International Board on Books for Young People, says the CBBY has been celebrating the International Children's Book Day since 2007 and the scale and influence of the celebration have continued to expand.

On April 2, 2021, the celebration of the Book Day was held at the Palace Museum under the theme "reading starts with children".

"The vitalization of rural areas is closely linked to the vitalization of rural education, and the latter cannot be achieved without promoting reading among rural children," Zhang says.

"Reading is a powerful tool, and extracurricular reading in particular can greatly enhance students self-learning abilities. For rural schools with relatively limited access to high-quality educational resources, this is especially significant," he adds.

"I was a rural child from the mountains of Northeast China. By chance, I came across an original Chinese picture book called The Little Seed's Travelogue, which sparked a strong interest in reading and classroom learning within me," Zhang recalls.

Despite the relatively underdeveloped teaching conditions in his small mountain village, Zhang says he was able to pass various exams and gradually step out into the outside world.

"During my over 20 years of working for the International Board on Books for Young People, I have made friends from all over the world, whose personal experiences also demonstrate the irreplaceable value of reading for personal growth," he adds.

Dream Builders, a public welfare project that will aim to promote reading among rural children, was also launched during the recent forum. The project will kick off in Shanghang county, Fujian province, with reading activities at local rural primary schools.

Zhang, also the president of the Life Tree Culture Promotion Center, says the project calls on writers, illustrators, editors and publishers to create and publish quality books that are better suited for rural children, and appeals to teachers, parents and reading advocates to allocate more time to read with children.

"We aspire to empower rural children's dreams by enabling them to read, so that they can have a beautiful childhood, and create a better life for them. We believe that by doing so, the children will have the ability to contribute to building a better country and the world," Zhang says.

Other events were also organized in the country by local libraries of different levels and schools to commemorate International Children's Book Day. The events included parent-child reading sessions, online reading activities, public welfare lectures and literary salons. Foshan Library in Guangdong province released the 2022 annual report on children's reading. The library also gave out awards to principals, teachers and children. On April 2, a "children's drama practice base" was inaugurated at the library.

Li Cuili, a resident of Lishi village, Neihuang county, Anyang, Henan province, has made it her life mission to encourage reading. In 2008, Li founded Weiguang, a space she created in her local convenience store after purchasing 500 books for the villagers to read for free.

"I read a story about Socrates instructing his students to clear a field, and the best way to do so was by planting crops instead of just removing weeds, which inspired me," Li recalls. "With the power of reading, I hope to plant the seeds of healthy and positive cultural values in the soil of our community."

During the early years of Weiguang, one challenge Li faced was a lack of reading culture in the village, resulting in few borrowers of books. She tried ways to attract people to the space, especially children. After years of effort, the reading atmosphere in the village has improved, with more locals visiting her library.

For the past 15 years, Li has invested over 400,000 yuan ($58,200) in the library, which she made from farming and running the store. She has condensed her efforts into forming a reading promotion strategy that emphasizes the importance of providing convenient borrowing services, offering supporting incentives, creating a conducive reading atmosphere, cultivating sustainable reading habits and nurturing volunteers.

"I aim to attract more knowledgeable, capable and compassionate individuals to pay more attention to reading in rural areas, in order to help build a thriving rural culture and provide necessary resources," she says.