CHINA is facing a reading crisis, with more than 50 percent of people surveyed believing they don’t spend enough time reading and only 20 percent satisfied with their reading time, China Daily said.

    According to Xu Shengguo, head of the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, the country’s reading rate last year was 78.6 percent, which means that percentage of people read books, periodicals or newspapers or were involved in online reading, while 21.4 percent read nothing at all.

    Xu said the academy launched an annual survey on the reading quantity of Chinese people in 2005 and found that each read 4.5 to 4.7 books on average per year between 2005 and 2014.

    Last year, Chinese people read only 4.56 books, compared with 12 in France, 11 in South Korea, nine in Japan and about seven in the United States. In addition, more than 40 percent of Chinese people read less than one book throughout the year outside of textbooks.

    A training session on reading sponsored by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was held in Beijing last week. It was the first meeting for the Leading Reader project, a training series for teachers, officials, college students and bookstore owners to promote nationwide reading. It will be held on weekends during September and October.

    Xu added that in addition to factors such as the large population base in China and imbalance of regional economic development, the shortage of public libraries is widespread. Reading parties in the community are in need of greater promotion.

    Wang pointed out that people in Beijing read 9.47 books each year on average other than textbooks, which ranks first in China. But that is much fewer than Israel, where 64 books is normal. “If we want to promote the nationwide reading rate, we have to encourage more grassroots reading programs,” Wang said.

    (SD-Agencies)