Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

THE 26th Shenzhen Reading Month launched yesterday evening, positioning the city as a vast “urban living room” for literature. More than 3,000 cultural activities are planned, many highlighting the city’s integration of technology with reading and learning.

The opening ceremony was held at “Eyes of the GBA,” a newly opened cultural landmark in Bao’an District. The annual festival, a major civic event,  comprises 49 highlighted activities and hundreds of additional events across the city.

This year’s program is built around three key innovations: a new landmark, a new platform, and a new funding model.

The “Eyes of the GBA” complex itself represents the new landmark. More than a bookstore, it combines cultural spaces with parkland and integrates technology with traditional reading.

A new platform, the “Pengcheng Academy of Literature,” was also unveiled. It is designed as a creative hub supporting the development of books, films, animation, and games, aiming to produce more local stories for both national and international audiences.

The “Public Reading Special Fund,” a new funding approach described as the first of its kind in China, was established. It is intended to provide sustainable financing for reading programs and encourage private sector involvement in cultural development.

With the theme “Enjoy Reading in the AI Era,” technology is a central focus. Free e-book packages will be offered to residents. Forums and events on artificial intelligence and digital literacy workshops are also scheduled.

The emphasis on technology aligns with local reading habits. According to the recently released “2025 Shenzhen Public Reading Development Report,” the city’s adults read an average of 22 books in 2024, more than half of them digital. Daily screen-based reading time averaged nearly four hours.

The city’s latest library facilities reflect this tech-forward vision. The Shenzhen Library’s northern division, for instance, uses an automated retrieval system to fetch any of its 5.4 million physical books within 10 minutes. AI-powered reading booths and digital reading rooms are also becoming common in public spaces.