Editor's note: The following has been translated and edited from an article that appeared on People.com. It concerns Chinese national reading rates, and the surprising statistic that the average Chinese person read only 4.3 books in 2011, compared to several times that number in Korea, Japan, and Western countries. In the article, Xu Shengguo, a representative from the National Center for Reading Research and Promotion, offers some perspective on how surprising the number actually is, and whether or not Mo Yan's recent Nobel Prize win can give Chinese reading rates a kick in the pants.

In 2011, the average Chinese person read 4.3 books. In comparison, the average Korean read 11 books, the average French person 20 and the average Japanese person 40. This statistic has been cited by many as a clear sign that China needs to encourage more reading, and they're probably not wrong. But where did the number 4.3 come from? Are we really becoming one of the world's "worst-read" countries?

We took these questions to Xu Shengguo, director of the National Center for Reading Research and Promotion at the Chinese News and Publishing Institute.

Where did the number 4.3 come from?

 "In 2011, Chinese citizens aged between 18-70 years were found to have read an average of 4.35 (paper) books, one of the results of the 9th National Reading Survey," said Xu. The results of the survey he mentions, conducted by the Institute's parent organization—the General Administration of Press and Publication—at the end of 2011, were released on April 23, 2012, on the eve of "World Reading Day".

As Xu explains, the National Reading Survey was instituted in 1999 and is now conducted annually. Part of a comprehensive long-term study on cultural consumption and carried out by CCTV market research and other professional survey companies, the survey uses international standard social research methods, collecting approximately 20,000 samples. Covering books, periodicals, audio recordings, internet, and other mobile media services, as well as reading festivals and rural book programs, the survey is widely seen as an accurate barometer of the Chinese national reading situation.

Though some see the 4.35 figure as a national wake-up call, a more professional eye may dismiss it as unsurprising. Xu explains, "Last year's survey recorded an average of 4.25 books per year; the year before that it was 3.88, and in 2008 it was 4.75. So what we're seeing is a fluctuating pattern, but that doesn't give us license to be optimistic." According to Xu, decreasing reading volumes are a worldwide trend, not purely a Chinese phenomenon. However, by international standards, Chinese reading volume is relatively low, quite unbefitting an ancient civilization with such a long tradition of scholarship and literacy.

When can we expect a national reading revival?

In other countries, reading often takes the role of a "presidential project", with the head of state personally advocating for national literacy. The British government, for instance, allocated tens of millions of pounds toward a public reading project that gave every mother and preschooler a gift bag with a notebook, pen, and stickers to promote literacy, a project which has since been adopted by more than 20 countries and regions worldwide, including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Britain also has a program called the "One Pound Book Plan" where children can buy certain books for just one pound.

Mainland China currently has no such national reading programs, although we do have a few local ones, like Beijing Reading Season, Shanghai Reading Month, Hangzhou West Lake Reading Festival, Suzhou Reading Festival, Shaanxi Sanqin Reading Month, Hunan Sanxiang Reading Festival, Guangzhou Lingnan Reading Festival, Xinjiang Tianshan Reading Festival, and Inner Mongolia Grasslands Reading Festival. We also have charity organizations like those that build libraries in schools, local book clubs throughout the country, and several commercial endeavors like the Children's Publishing House to encourage reading among young children.

But it's not enough. "From government leaders to ordinary mothers and children, we should all remodel the way we think about reading. We need to make reading part of our national strategy and set up national reading festivals and national reading funds as soon as possible," says Xu, who also mentioned that representatives at the CPC and CPPCC have already suggested such measures multiple times, and hopes that they can be passed as soon as possible.

Why wasn't "e-reading" counted?

In recent years, digital reading has grown to levels unexpected even by experts. In 1999, the National Reading Survey reported that only 3% of citizens used the internet, and no "e-reading" rates were recorded. In 2011, the rate of internet use rose to 54.9%, e-reading to 40%, and mobile reading to 27.6%. And yet, as the 9th National Reading Survey indicates, national "e-reading" rates were recording at an average 1.42 "books" per person.

Xu explains that the problem lies foremost with the inherent difficulty in using "books" as a unit of measure, when most e-reading is done in chapters or sections. Secondly, because most mobile and other digital reading is of newspapers and other periodicals, it is problematic to count them in the same measurement as traditional "books".

 "Digital reading is valuable and meaningful, deserving of our attention. But results of global attention on reading all indicate that it's still impossible to simply say whether e-reading is good or bad. It cannot replace traditional reading, because a few regrettable issues, like damage to children's vision, and the constant distraction of hyperlinks causing the reader to be unable to focus on the reading itself. E-reading can cause attention-span fragmentation and "shallow" reading." Xu maintains a cautious attitude. When the iPad first came out, people said it was a "reading killer", which, on some level, perhaps wasn't so outrageous a claim.

Will Mo Yan's Nobel win inspire a national reading revolution?

According to reports, the publishing group "Genuine & Profound" ("精典博维") owns the next three years of publishing rights to the works of Mo Yan, China's recent Nobel laureate, including a 20-volume anthology priced at 700-800 RMB, which the group hopes will sell a million copies. Xu does some quick calculation: "Although the anthology is mostly a collector's item, assuming maybe two people read one volume from each set, we'd need ten Mo Yans just to get a 0.01 increase in national reading rates." Of course, this result doesn't include re-reading of old books, single editions, or digital versions of Mo Yan's novels.

From a publishing point of view, the emergence of a new literary giant will naturally promote an increase in reading levels, as Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has proven with her seven volumes, already translated into 70 languages in 200 different countries.

Xu reports that relevant government organs are currently deliberating on how to best make use of the inspirational potential presented by Mo's Nobel win. "Regardless of to what degree," Xu admits, "this is undoubtedly an opportunity."

Source: People.com
 

Related links
In the Spotlight: A Chinese Blogger's Analysis of Nobel Winner Mo Yan
Ebook Readers in China: Your Favourite Books Anywhere
Literary Legacy: Five Must-Read Chinese Novels for Foreigners

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