April 23, World Book Day.
Reading is an eternal and often new topic. Some people change their fate by reading, some people make their lives vast because of reading, some people run from reading to "poetry and distance", and some people gain happiness and strength in books......
Today, we're going to pick five questions to talk to you about reading.
Reading paper or reading screen, did you read a book today?
At 7:08 in the morning, Xiao Qi, an office worker, stepped on Beijing Metro Line 5 in the direction of Songjiazhuang on time at Beiyuan Road North Station, found a comfortable position to stand, took out his mobile phone, clicked on the reading software, and sank into his spiritual world. During her nearly hour-long commute, she finished reading the last chapters of "The Old Man of Mountains and Rivers", and then walked out of the subway station and stepped into the spring light of Beijing.
This young accountant, who is usually used to dealing with statements and figures, calculated such an account for the reporter: on the commuting road, if you read an average of 300 words in one minute, it will be 18,000 words in one hour, and at 200,000 words per book, you can read one book in about 6 days on average. The accumulation of small amounts has allowed her to read more than 100 general education books in the past 5 years of work.
According to the results of the 20th National Reading Survey, the comprehensive reading rate of mainland adult citizens in 2022 is 81.8%, and the per capita reading of paper books is 4.78 and the per capita reading of e-books is 3.33, both of which have increased from the previous year.
Day after day, when you follow the crowd of people into the crowded city morning rush hour subway, as far as the eye can see, you will always see all kinds of readers holding various "screens", looking around, and some people holding books and contemplating as if they have become a realm of their own. Such a cityscape is a subtle symbol: in the ever-changing contemporary society, there is always a corner of the book.
Looking back at the history of human civilization, the evolution of books is a history that can be read: from the ancient sedges, silk slips, and scrolls to the modern printed books and electronic magazines, the form of books is changing; from the once enthusiastic about visiting bookstores and libraries to today's online shopping crowdfunding, reading screen and listening to books, the way the public reads, buys, and selects books is also changing......
On April 22, citizens read in the city study room in Longquan Lake Park, Luquan District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Chen Qibao)
Paper or screen? The digital age reflects the diversity of people's reading choices and lifestyles today.
"Commuting is a complete and uninterrupted time that is worth making the most of. At first, Xiao Qi read paper books, because it gave her a "sense of physical achievement", turning from the first page to the last, weighing the "weight of words". But later, because the subway was too crowded and it was easy to stand unsteadily when reading paper books, Xiao Qi bought a thin and light e-reader. Later, she chose to read e-books on her mobile phone, which she didn't like backpacks.
Like many e-book readers, "read more and buy carefully" is Xiao Qi's principle. In her mobile phone album, there is a reading series that has been updated since she was an undergraduate, which is used to store "favorite sentences that I encountered while reading books". In the first few years, it was mostly photos of paper books, but then it gradually became electronic screenshots, and now even if you look at paper books, you will transcribe the notes on your mobile phone for easy review.
Zhang Huiyu, a scholar at Peking University who is engaged in grassroots communication and journalism social history, still retains her hobby of visiting bookstores and buying paper books.
Walking into the office at the end of the corridor on the fourth floor of the Meng Man Wei Building, all that catches your eye is the overwhelming number of books - "rooting" from your feet and "kissing" with the ceiling. From the yellowed news and historical materials to the academic frontier that has not yet faded from the plastic seal, Zhang Huiyu's collection of books is layered and intricate, co-located in the same time and space, and is extremely vibrant. In the shade of vines, the bookcase acts as a partition, and it is a world for scholars to read and research.
Zhang Huiyu's good books come from the family's exposure since childhood. "My father stayed in school as a teacher after graduation, because he didn't have money to buy books when he was young, and after starting a family, he was a bit of a 'revenge consumer', so when I was a child, I went to bookstores with him the most. He laughed.
After entering Peking University at the end of the 90s of the last century, Zhang Huiyu, who was determined to engage in humanities and social sciences research, also began to buy a large number of books, from Wansheng Book Garden, Fengrupine and Guolin Feng, all the way to Boya Hall and Wild Grass Bookstore. "I remember when I was doing my PhD, I put the books on the wall side of the bed, gave way to some of the beds, and slept with the books every night. After returning to the school to teach, as a "professional reader", visiting bookstores and catching new academic trends has become his weekly activities.
"I just bought this book, and it's directly related to the research I was doing on the history of journalism in the base area. Between interviews, Zhang Huiyu took out a copy of the Atlas of Revolutionary Base Areas published by the National Library Publishing House in December last year from a stack of books nearly one person tall and handed it to the reporter.
When asked whether she would also "buy books like a mountain, read like a thread", Zhang Huiyu said frankly that buying books by herself is often a kind of "symbolic possession", buying more and seeing less, especially now that there are many ways to obtain information, and it is far more convenient to consult electronic materials than to move the tome in the study. But a book tidying up in your spare time is like buying and tidying up your closet, decompressing and enjoyable. Reading paper books is also a habit of reading and consuming over the years.
The book is affectionate like an old man, and every blind date is sad and happy in the morning and dusk. As your choices become more diverse, what do books mean to you?
On a spring night, Cheng Aiqin, a retired engineer from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, came to the far west with the narration of the audio book broadcaster-"I remember that in the summer pasture, the afternoon sun was thick and heavy...... From Li Juan's Altay and Ye Guangqin's old Beijing, to the wind and clouds of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the universe of the three-body problem, Cheng Aiqin felt that although he was listening to books, he had broadened his horizons and gained inner peace.
When she was young, Cheng Aiqin focused most of her energy on the study of professional books, and always felt that she did not have so much time to read "idle books". In the years when he was about to retire, by chance, Cheng Aiqin listened to the commentary on the "Dream of Red Mansions" series of audiobooks, and immediately fell in love with this way of "reading": first, it is convenient, especially for the elderly with reduced eyesight, and second, the broadcaster will rub their emotions and opinions into the narrative, which is more ironing.
"After listening to it for a long time, it's like an old friend who accompanies me. Cheng Aiqin said with a smile, "When a person is cooking, choosing vegetables, mopping the floor, washing dishes, when walking, he stays quietly in any corner, or lies on the sofa at home, just listens, and can do two things at the same time, doubling the efficiency." ”
The ancients talked about the "three methods of reading", and the time on the right away, on the pillow, and on the toilet can be used. Nowadays, with the development of science and technology and the extension of urban life, whether it is walking and cycling, taking a plane or taking a high-speed train, reading seems to be carried out in a "marching" way. Reading books, regardless of the occasion, regardless of the "way of opening".
Make friends with books and meet friends with books. From exchanging books for reading, copying and reading, to sharing in the circle of friends, and reading in teams online, the temperature of books has always flowed in interpersonal communication and integrated into the subtleties of life.
In the Beijing Book Building, a software architect sitting cross-legged on the floor reading a book told reporters that the book he had in hand was recommended by a work partner in the circle of friends. He especially likes to collect interesting postscripts of books, so he has created a collection on Douban.com, specially uploading these authors to thank him, and every time a netizen who doesn't know each other collects this list, he will feel a sense of accomplishment.
A Ph.D. student who is engaged in historical research said that he especially likes to buy old books because they have traces of their previous owners. "It's like opening a blind box, reading with readers from decades ago through the annotations on the margins, and sometimes I have a heart, and this kind of resonance across time and space touches my heart. He once found the inscription of the famous historian Mr. Tang Changru in an old book, and this kind of surprise and happiness is indescribable.
"With the help of virtual reading spaces, people can also interact with each other, and from this there are some cultural types. From the perspective of scholars, Zhang Huiyu paid attention to the "shared annotation" function launched by some reading software in recent years. "On and off the screen, the essence of the communication function of books has not changed, but it has shown a high degree of differentiation and circle on the Internet. He said.
Zhang Huiyu, who has a large collection of books, has retained the habit of donating books to students for many years. In September 2020, master's student Qiu Peng received a novel titled "The Parrot of Eden" in Zhang Huiyu's first class on "Grassroots Communication Theory and Methods" as a reward for the class report. At the end of the semester, almost all of the more than 20 students who took this course received donated books. Later, every time I went to class, I was full of anticipation, 'What books did Teacher Huiyu bring today?'" A few years after graduation, he still vividly remembers how he felt when he received the book gift from his teacher.
In the digital age, whether to pursue portability or enjoy the touch of holding a book in your hand, the lingering fragrance of ink, whether to "see the seams" or focus on the "slowness" in the fast-paced life, may be a matter of opinion, but in Zhang Huiyu's view, the charm of books as a spiritual connection and meaning inheritance has never diminished.
"The purpose of donating books is also to hope that students will not lose the ability to read a book in its entirety. As an ancient medium, books are a systematic and inductive collection of knowledge. Even with the continuous derivation of e-books and audiobooks, this collection form has not changed. Zhang Huiyu said.
On April 21, students from Haitang Primary School read at the Dazu District Library in Chongqing. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Tang Yi
Sentiment or market, what is the way for physical bookstores to survive?
"May I come in?"
At the door of the Fudan second-hand bookstore in Shanghai, an uncle wearing a straw hat, a flash delivery uniform, and trouser legs rolled up to his knees asked a little crampedly after parking the battery car.
"Bookstores have the meaning of existence because some people need books and some people want to read books. You're the host here, welcome!" the shopkeeper greeted warmly.
Zhang Qiang always remembers this reader, "He has come later, and he will buy books almost every time he comes."
This year marks the 24th year of Fudan Used Bookstore. It is a bookstore that is not only books but also books, with a total of 180 square meters and more than 50,000 books on two floors.
The day of the interview was a weekend, and Zhang Qiang told reporters that the store was doing well, and four or five hundred books were sold that day. In recent years, he has been selling an average of about 300 books a day.
In today's serious challenges faced by physical bookstores, why can a small bookstore have such sales?
Zhang Qiang analyzed, one reason is price. He noticed that when people came to the bookstore, every time they chose a book, they had to pull out their phones to check the price online. "We're confident because most of our books, no matter what platform they're on, are relatively cheap. "There is no need to pay postage, there is no need to wait for courier, and the competitive price is enough for readers to place an order on the spot.
Another reason is the unique category of used bookstores. "When a book is first published, it's not clear what it's really like. After the test of time and the selection of scholars, the books that enter our second-hand bookstore are carefully selected and screened. Zhang Qiang is proud of the quality of the books in his store.
What truly reflects the ability of the owner of a second-hand bookstore and makes the bookstore run for a long time is the balanced control of prices when collecting and selling books. "If it is too expensive to collect books, it will be expensive and difficult to sell, and if it is too cheap to collect books, people will not want to sell them to you, and you will lose customers after a long time. The price of the books in our store is good because I can give a reasonable price when I receive the books. After selling for so many years, I know how much I can sell for a book when I flip it through my hand twice. ”
But even if the book sells so well, Zhang Qiang still feels that "opening a bookstore is not a good business, only people who like to touch books can do it, regardless of whether they make money or not." The rent is too high and the profit is too thin, but he resolutely does not consider selling more profitable coffee and cultural creativity in the store. "I really don't object to others doing it, but I insist on making a traditional bookstore, so that young people, especially children, can see what a real used bookstore is like. ”
"Those who can stick to our line of work may be more or less like me, a little silly in the eyes of others, but I enjoy it. As long as I can hold on, I'll keep doing it. Speaking of the operation of the bookstore, Zhang Qiang was helpless and satisfied.
Zhang Qiang's "helplessness" is a reflection of the situation of the entire bookstore industry. One of the latest data is that in 2023, the short video channel will become the second largest book sales channel after platform e-commerce, and the market share of physical bookstores will further drop to 11.93%.
Even so, new bookstores are opening all the time. For example, in February 2023, in Lujiazui, Shanghai, where every inch of land is valuable, a mixed-knowledge bookstore with an area of nearly 2,000 square meters was born.
This is a bookstore owned by an author, and the owner is a mixed knowledge team that created the phenomenal bestseller "Half Hour Comics" series and has more than 60 million followers on social platforms.
Luo Runzhou, the co-founder of Mingzhi Culture, who was a designer, personally led the interior design. About half of the store's book business area is located, and the remaining space includes a small theater, coffee, catering and other areas. "Walking around the store is like visiting a knowledge exhibition, and you can easily learn a lot of interesting knowledge, which is also the advantage that we have accumulated from making content for a long time. ”
He told reporters that the original intention of opening a bookstore was to build a physical platform that could meet, observe and listen to the needs of users. In the past, as a company that helps people solve the problem of knowledge learning, Mingzhi has been helping everyone learn knowledge online, and in the future, they want to do this offline. The bookstore will not only sell books and cultural creations, but also provide different forms of services and products.
Luo Runzhou revealed that the bookstore has just been open for a year and is close to the breakeven point, with turnover, profit margins and foot traffic all climbing. "Our way of survival is to get customers to come in and walk around twice and then get knowledge. ”
As a "bookstore that can draw knowledge", Mixed Knowledge Bookstore has an exclusive activity that has been well received, that is, the main creative team of "Half Hour Comics" leads customers to draw knowledge. "For example, I took the children to draw the history of the Xia Dynasty, and while learning knowledge, I also learned how to visualize knowledge. ”
In addition, they are also exploring a new business of "mixed knowledge + city co-creation", cooperating with local governments to tell the knowledge of a city with comics and display it in the bookstore space. Several projects are in full swing.
There are some things that the mixed knowledge team only realized after the bookstore opened. For example, a bookstore is a cultural window displayed to the outside world, which is not as thick as a museum, and naturally has the gene of being close to people, carrying the demand for cultural publicity.
"Therefore, we must always think about what unique value we can provide. All bookstores that do well must survive only if they meet people's needs and have value to society. Luo Runzhou said.
On April 22, a reader was reading a book in Qingquan Book City, Hengnan County, Hengyang City. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Zhongzhi
In fact, the physical bookstore, which has been sung down for more than ten years, has not been defeated by e-commerce, nor has it been eliminated by the times. "At present, the transformation and upgrading of physical bookstores has achieved phased results. The number of brick-and-mortar bookstores nationwide has shown a stable state, and some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have increased slightly. A large number of specialized and new bookstores have come to the fore and shown good prospects for development. At the 2024 China Bookstore Conference held on January 9 this year, Ai Limin, chairman of the China Book Publishing Industry Association, said.
In 2016, 11 departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Supporting the Development of Physical Bookstores", and many bookstores found their own way to survive. Whether they persist or innovate, the efforts of bookstore people always revolve around the same thing: connecting people and reading. As a result, the bookstore has become a place full of stories.
At the end of March this year, the opening of a bookstore on Zhongguancun Street in Beijing attracted the attention of many book lovers. Because this bookstore is their newly returned "old friend" - Feng Irisong.
In 1995, Wang Wei, a teacher of the Department of Philosophy of Peking University, together with a group of scholars, founded Feng Rusong Bookstore, which has become a well-known bookstore known as the "cultural coordinates of Beijing" with its high-quality book selection and strong academic atmosphere, and has engraved it into the common memory of countless students. However, in 2011, due to the deteriorating business situation, Feng Irimatsu ceased business.
13 years have passed, and the situation of physical bookstores is still grim, why is Feng Irisong "reborn"? and what does it rely on to survive?
Ding Yongxun, the manager of Feng Rusong Bookstore, told reporters that the restart of Feng Rusong was more out of feelings than commercial considerations. An alumnus of Peking University, who loves reading and has benefited from the old Feng Irisong Bookstore, after obtaining certain resources through entrepreneurship, initiated the restart of the bookstore with gratitude and bought back the trademark of "Feng Irisong".
The old store is newly opened, and the legend continues. The "rebirth" of the wind into the pine is like a fable, telling people that beautiful things will eventually follow. After the opening of the bookstore, some old readers rummaged through the cabinets to find the old wind Irimatsu membership card that they had never been willing to throw away, and some young students who had heard the story of the old store from the teacher rushed to witness the opening of the new wind and pine with excitement.
Now the wind is loose, with three floors and an area of about 1,000 square meters, and when you walk, you can feel that the details have been thought out everywhere, creating a space where a person and a good book meet. Ding Yongxun knows that the environment of the bookstore is completely different from that of Feng Irisong. However, he believes that the most important and core value of a bookstore is still the selection of books. Feng Irimatsu insists on selecting high-quality books, not what sells well.
He plans to do a good job in the selection of books and the environment of the bookstore first, and then with enough patience, he will once again make the new wind into a cultural coordinate. They are ready to invest at least 10 years in this regard.
Today's brick-and-mortar bookstores have their own unique skills and ways of living. "If you were to find a keyword for today's brick-and-mortar bookstores, I think it would be 'innovation'. Cheng Sanguo, president of Baidao New Publishing Research Institute, who has been paying attention to the physical bookstore industry all year round, said. He believes that after experiencing the 1.0 era of only selling books and the "bookstore+" 2.0 era integrating different formats such as coffee, cultural creativity, and cultural salons, China's physical bookstores have entered the 3.0 era of exploring more possibilities and repositioning their own value.
In his view, China's brick-and-mortar bookstores have become all-encompassing urban public cultural spaces. "In addition to providing reading services, they also do things for museums, art galleries, theaters, concert halls, and, of course, restaurants and cafes. In fact, our brick-and-mortar bookstores do a lot of substantive work for public cultural services. If more guidance and support can be given to such bookstores, they can fill many gaps more flexibly and efficiently. ”
On April 16, in the reading room of the National Library of China, many readers were reading books and studying on their own. Photo by Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Wang Mingyu
Check-in landmark or cultural palace, has the library changed?
On Saturday morning, the warm spring sun shone over the square of the National Library of China. Mr. Liu, who lives nearby, brought his computer and joined the queue of readers waiting to enter the library early.
Taking half a day out to read at the National Library on weekends is a habit that Mr. Liu has insisted on for many years: "My home is quite quiet, but I prefer to come to the National Library. There's an atmosphere here that allows me to calm down better. ”
At 9 a.m., the National Library opened. After going through the security check as usual, Mr. Liu found a location in the reading room with good lighting by the window, and started a beautiful and fulfilling weekend.
What kind of atmosphere is this? Standing on the fourth floor overlooking the whole space, the whole space is like a square spiral, as if to "suck" people into the ocean of knowledge. At a certain moment, you may even feel that time stands still, only thoughts flow in the air, and a strong humanistic atmosphere comes to you.
There are no high walls, no courtyard gates, no reservations, as long as you want to come, you can walk in at any time, and get close to the "noble soul" at the lowest cost.
The predecessor of the National Library was the Jingshi Library, which was established in 1909. Its appearance has become a landmark event for the opening of modern librarianship in mainland China. The history of the development of mainland libraries can be traced even further.
As early as thousands of years ago, Sima Qian wrote in the "Historical Records" when mentioning Lao Tzu that the surname is Li, the name is ear, the word Dan, and the history of the Zhou Shou Tibetan room. The storage room was the place where the Zhou Dynasty collected classics, which is equivalent to the current National Library and Archives. In this sense, Lao Tzu is also regarded as the earliest famous librarian in the mainland.
Although there were already places to collect books in the mainland, at that time, whether it was a government collection or a private collection, the space was mostly private, and there was a lack of interaction with the public.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, with the implementation of the "New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty", a public library movement was launched, and a number of public libraries represented by the Beijing Normal Library came into being. The so-called "public" means that it is open to the public and does not set thresholds. Since then, the library has become an important place to deeply participate in social life and cultivate the public spirit of exploration in modern times.
During his work in the library of Peking University, the young Mao Zedong studied books such as "The Communist Manifesto" and "History of Socialism"; the young Shen Congwen studied hard in the Beijing Normal Library and constantly absorbed literary nutrients through extensive reading......
In modern times, as an important place for knowledge enlightenment, dissemination of ideas and cultivation of civilization, the library has produced celebrities and inherited the historical and cultural memory of the Chinese nation.
To this day, people are still active in the library, and everyone can meet the library in their own way: it can be a one-person reflection, a date for two people, a weekend for a family of three, or a group of people talking and colliding. This is the unique charm of the library - a space that carries the original intention and pursuit of "inheriting civilization and serving the society".
At the beginning of this year, "Why Should There Be a Library in the World" was widely praised as soon as it was put on the shelves, and the current Douban score has exceeded 9 points. This book tells the story of the author Yang Suqiu presiding over the construction of the library in Beilin District, Xi'an.
In September 2020, Yang Suqiu, who came to the government department from Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, received the task of preparing for the construction of a public library in the district. She was dumbfounded by the bookseller's book list: there were a large number of emotional chicken soup books, and there were very few classic books.
"The soul of a library is the bibliography, and no matter how beautiful the decoration furniture is, if the bibliography is bad, all the work done will be wasted. Yang Suqiu hopes that readers will come and say that the books in this library are not fooling.
She plunged headlong into the sea of bibliographies: she posted comments on Weibo, referred to the cataloging principles of libraries in Beijing and other districts and counties in Xi'an, searched the Internet for various bestseller lists, identified annotators and translators, and finalized translations...... Like picking beans, carefully selected and selected for admission.
Architecture is the "table", and the book is the "inside". The number of libraries is increasing, and it also fully considers the needs of the development of the times and the actual needs of readers, focusing not only on cultivating readers with high-quality books, but also attracting audiences with unique architecture. They are not only cultural temples, but also city landmarks.
In the busy Shanghai, Hunan Yuelu Academy and Shanghai Xujiahui Academy "go both ways", and the cooperation between ancient and modern academies has attracted the attention of readers. Walking into Tianjin Binhai Library, layers of white stairs spread out in waves, as if putting people in a science fiction scene. On the beach of Nandaihe, Qinhuangdao, a seaside public library sits alone between the sea and the sky, and many people come from thousands of miles away......
This is a corner of Yongxing School in Sansha City, Hainan Province, taken on April 14. Courtesy of Yongxing School
This beauty originated from the library and was passed on to the southernmost school in the motherland - Yongxing School in Sansha City, Hainan Province. Every day after lunch, the children would come to the book corner and write down the reading record card while reading picture books.
Yongxing School, located on Woody Island, is the only school in Sansha. Guo Xing, vice principal of Yongxing School, told reporters that the children here study and live on the island all year round and have little contact with the outside world.
The school has built a "mobile library" along the area where students have classes, meals and activities, and placed more than 8,000 books and electronic picture books in reading places such as book corners, book bars, reading huts, children's homes, and parent-child reading homes.
The little girl, Chen Ziyi, is in the third grade this year. Every day after school and dinner, she always likes to go back to the school children's home to read. In the campus library, a small heart has a big dream. In one of her essays, Xiao Ziyi wrote, "I want to be a teacher and lead more students to see the world farther through reading......"
On the wall of the school library, there are immature reading record cards: "The little girl is kind and helpful, and she has gained happiness herself" and "Protect our blue ocean"......
Reading infiltrates young minds, children learn knowledge, learn to think and express. "Woody Island is not big, but when the children walk into the library, they can see a sea of stars in the book that is wider than what they see. Guo Xing said.
What attracts students to the library is not only their dreams, but also the sprints before exams and the deadline for their papers. There is a point of view that some university libraries have become self-study rooms, is it worth advocating such a "hard to find"?
"As a public service space, the library carries many meanings. According to Mr. Zhang, who works in a university library in Beijing, there are a large number of documents and books in the school library, and whether students come to borrow books or study on their own, they are essentially thirsty for knowledge, and library resources have also been used.
Dormitory-classroom-library, Wang, who is in his second year of graduate school this year, is not bored with his daily life of "three points and one line". "There are some books in emerging subject areas that you can't see from the outside, but you have them in the school library. In the six years since entering the school, from adding e-reading screens to increasing the number of e-books, Wang has witnessed every small change in the school library, "now it is smarter and more humane."
Today, libraries have long since transcended the confines of the campus. Data shows that the number of public libraries in mainland China has increased from 55 in 1949 to 3,303 at the end of 2022, an increase of nearly 60 times.
On Sunday afternoon, An Yangbing, an elderly man who lives in Beijing's Xicheng District, rode his bicycle to the Guangnei Street Public Library. His habit has been the same for decades: pick up a copy of the day's newspaper and borrow a book that is enough to indulge in for an afternoon.
The Gwangnai Street Public Library is located in a quiet corner of the alley. In this library, which covers an area of about 600 square meters, there are more than 50,000 books of all kinds, which is a cultural space for the community and a spiritual home for Uncle An after retirement.
"You can not take a nap, but you can't not read a book. "Unknowingly, Uncle An is already the oldest and longest-serving reader in this street library.
Uncle An still remembers that when the library first opened, the space was cramped, and many times he could only stand and read. There is also a consumption area in the library, so it is difficult for readers to read without consumption.
Nowadays, all consumer items have been removed from the shelves, and flowers and greenery have been added, enriching the variety of books. Starting this year, no deposit is required to apply for a reader card. In libraries at all levels in Beijing, one card for borrowing and returning books is universal.
"In the first 10 months of last year, more than 3,800 reader cards were issued, and in the first three months of this year, more than 12,000 books were lent out. Ren Ai, director of the library, introduced that the library also regularly holds popular science lectures and intangible cultural heritage handicraft experience classes, and residents are very enthusiastic about participating. In the future, she hopes to provide readers with more space, smarter services, and richer cultural activities, so that the library can be easily reached.
In the library, picking up a period of time, flipping through a book, drinking a cup of tea, it is so quiet and beautiful. A carefully selected book becomes a light source that attracts people to stop and stay for it.
Do I read or read me, and how can reading be redefined?
"The greatest wisdom in life is to let go of yourself, which is the inspiration I got from Su Dongpo. "Dressed in green, sitting cross-legged...... Wu Minjie in front of the camera uses easy-to-understand language to tell historical figures such as Su Shi and Zhuangzi and obscure historical knowledge.
The self-media blogger "Yi Gongzi" is at the gate of the Sansu Temple in Meishan, Sichuan, preparing to shoot a reading program on WeChat video account and other platforms. Photo courtesy of the interviewee
As the founder of the art science popularization platform "Accidental Art", her personal IP "Yi Gongzi" is more well-known. From a radio host to a self-media blogger, "Yi Gongzi" has gained more than 30 million fans on the whole network and has become an active disseminator of traditional Chinese culture.
In the era of mobile Internet, "Yi Gongzi" helps readers travel through the millennium and feel the inner world of the ancients as if they were there. However, in fact, in ancient times, when there was no laser printing, Xinhua bookstores and online reading apps, it was not easy for readers to get books.
The allusion of "Luoyang paper is expensive" tells such a story: during the Western Jin Dynasty, the talented son Zuo Si wrote a "Sandu Fu", which attracted people to copy it, and the paper in Luoyang, the capital city, was in short supply, and the price of paper rose sharply.
The preciousness of paper and the low literacy rate made it very difficult for the ancients to read. In the current explosion of information, books are no longer luxurious, writing and reading more have become a matter of pleasing oneself, and the connotation, extension and form of reading have changed.
In the digital age, books are becoming rich media, and the definition of reading is also being generalized. The object of reading is not only print, but also a collection of information in various forms such as text, video, and audio. Many young people believe that watching knowledgeable short videos is also a kind of reading.
"History hides the laws of the operation of everything, how to read history so that it can be used by me......" The post-90s girls all sat in front of the camera and introduced the "Twenty-four History" to the audience. She has shot more than 900 videos like this since 2019. On social media platforms, there are many people like Du Liang, who introduce the books they have read to the audience through short videos, pictures and texts, and netizens call them "reading bloggers".
Du Liang said: "I hope that the output content is knowledgeable, or can bring comfort to readers." Adhering to this concept, Duliang has now more than 40 million fans on various social platforms and promotes more than 400 kinds of good books.
On the one hand, the emergence of a large number of book bloggers has lowered the threshold of knowledge and rejuvenated most books that were boring in the past among readers, and on the other hand, it has also adapted to the increasingly fast pace of work and life of modern people, and can understand and learn their own fields of interest in a relatively short time.
A survey by relevant institutions found that in the eyes of Gen Z readers, the boundary between pan-reading and serious reading has been dissolved. Among the favorite books of the post-00s, online novels are the first, comics/picture books are second, and sixty percent of readers who like online novels use online reading.
At the same time, after reading a lot, many young people also have the urge to write output, and "gear up" to embark on the road of creating online novels full-time.
"As a vivid practice of public participation, global co-creation, and highlighting the originality of Chinese culture, online literature has grown into the most active, most audience, and widest coverage of the literary style, as well as a vivid cultural business card that tells Chinese stories well and disseminates Chinese voices. According to a report released by the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in February this year, by the end of 2023, the number of full-time and part-time authors of online novels will reach 24.05 million, and the number of works will be 36.2 million.
A group of knowledgeable people poured into the circle of online writers, including university professors, court judges, and computer doctors...... They are familiar with scientific principles and historical facts, and are good at creating realistic works like traditional serious writers, and even have a tendency to attach an index of papers and data sources at the end of the article.
The novel "The Lancet and the Wild Rose" by the post-90s online writer Lemon Yuyan was recently published, and the attending doctor of the tertiary hospital in reality told reporters that because he likes to read, he wants to write it himself when he looks at it.
"If inspiration comes, even if I come home late after checking the ward, I can't help but turn on the computer and type out the words in my heart. She also introduced to reporters the friends around her, "There are people from all walks of life, such as doctors, policemen, veterans, lawyers, etc., who bring professional content into the Internet, and there are also takeaway brothers, blue-collar workers, etc., who change their lives through their imagination and talent." ”
Some university scholars have pointed out that due to the increase in fragmented reading and shallow reading, students are often able to talk eloquently about the theoretical framework, concepts and academic topics of literature, history and philosophy, but are speechless when it comes to specific works. From shallow reading and extensive reading to deep reading is an important topic for the cultivation and reshaping of young people's reading habits.
"Paper reading has not been replaced, and abstract text reading is very important for the cognitive growth of teenagers. Children's literature writer Cao Wenxuan believes that paper reading has formed a culture, and reading a paper book with exquisite binding will give readers an aesthetic enjoyment.
"People's Artist" Wang Meng's views in "Poetry and Wine in the Youth-Wang Meng on Reading and Writing" are more "orthodox": "It is the most ordinary paper book that expresses the charm of thought, the tranquility of thought, the concentration of thought, and the consistency of thought. ”
"Whether it is a paper book, an e-book or an audiobook, the reading medium is different, reflecting the differences in reading and thinking habits of different individuals. "Yi Gongzi" said that digital reading has become an inevitable trend, which can promote the development of reading in a more systematic and personalized direction.
"But for myself, I'm more used to or enjoy the process of reading with paper books. Combined with her own creative experience, she told reporters that she needs to spend a lot of time reading all kinds of books every day, and prefers the flipping feeling of paper books, including being able to record some feelings at the time on the book, marking some stories worth sharing with everyone, etc., which is not provided by e-books.
"Traditional Chinese characters are typeset vertically, and some people think it's too difficult to read when they buy them back. Reading blogger Du Liang talked about his experience when he recently shared Qian Mu's "Outline of National History" with the audience, "Real in-depth reading is sometimes like a struggle, you may have an unpleasant reading experience, but the final harvest is definitely beautiful." ”
On April 16, readers read books in Hefei Xinhua Bookstore Sanxiaokou store. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fu Tian
From being shelved to the public, how can ancient books be "lived"?
"As long as the poems are there, the books are there, Chang'an is there!" At the end of the movie "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an", the words of the poet Gao Shi became the "finishing touch".
Ink is a river, from the reader, the bibliophile, the engraver, the author, all the way back to form a big book that can be read repeatedly. Contemporary book revisers know this best.
Wang Bin, who is in his 50s, is such a person. The Liaoning Provincial Library, where he works, has a rich collection of ancient books, with 610,000 ancient books, including 120,000 rare books, including Pu Songling's manuscript "Strange Tales from Liao Zhai" and Song carving "Hug Puzi Inner Chapter" and other rare and unique books.
Repairing books is practice, and the restoration process of ancient books is cumbersome, and only practice makes perfect. "There is no room for mistakes, and every process must be carefully and breathlessly concentrated. Wang Bin said.
Since 2007, when the mainland implemented the "Chinese Ancient Books Protection Program", the number of restorers like Wang Bin has increased from less than 100 to dozens of times. They buried themselves in the remnants of old papers, racing against time, continuing the style of ancient books and preserving Chinese wisdom. By the end of 2021, more than 3.85 million ancient books had been restored across the country.
Prosperous times to repair the classics, Ming time to cultivate the will. Since the new era, the cause of ancient books in mainland China has ushered in new development opportunities.
Protection is for utilization, and sorting serves reading. In the contradiction between storage and use, we have found the way to digitize.
In the past, the collation of ancient books was difficult, the research cycle was long, and the presentation was low. Nowadays, being in a corner of the study and reading the ancient books of the world has not only become the daily life of researchers, but also the favorite of ordinary readers.
On the official flagship store of the National Library Publishing House operated by a certain platform, Wang Guowei's "Bamboo Book Chronicle" ranked first in sales, with a unit price of 10 yuan and rave reviews. Book friend left a message: "Open this book, a glance at the ancient and modern bamboo book chronology, ordinary readers in this way face the ancient books, get enlightenment, is a happy thing." ”
Physical book lovers are in good supply, and online reading is also convenient.
The Yongle Dadian high-definition image database (Volume I) was officially launched on the ancient book digitization platform "Classics of Ancient Books", which is open to the public free of charge, including 75 volumes of content, involving a total of 14 rhymes, 17 rhyme characters, and 1,800 books. The heavy classics that were once confined to the deep palace have become cultural food within the reach of the people.
"The interactive and visual presentation is more in line with contemporary reading habits, and the immersive reading experience shortens the distance between ancient books and ordinary readers. Wei Tong, one of the leaders of the platform project and an assistant professor of the Department of Information Management of Peking University, said.
From "one volume in hand" to "one screen and 10,000 volumes", for scholars, it has shortened the production cycle of academic achievements, profoundly changed the research paradigm and way of thinking, and for readers, they can look at this body, this life and the world from a broader perspective in the wise man's advice that has come through time.
In the sixteenth year of Kangxi, he was a teacher in Beijing.
"You" first entered the astronomy department of Qintianjian. On the observatory, "you" stood beside Nan Huairen, and the stars shifted, and you connected the star maps together, and the four elephant holy beasts appeared in front of you in turn.
Taking off the VR equipment, you look out the window at the high-rise buildings, the traffic is busy, and the crowd is bustling.
This is the "time-traveling" that players can experience in the second part of the online surreal exhibition experience project "Ancient Books Travel", "Ming and Qing Archives: Qintianjian Nanhuairen Inscription".
This project was produced by the First Historical Archives of China, and selected the "Observation of the Celestial Phenomena and the Presentation of the Celestial Phenomena from the Beginning of Autumn to the Autumn Equinox" written by Nan Huairen, a missionary to China who served as the Qin Tianjian of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty.
With the progress of VR, AR, 5G and other technologies, represented by virtual reality, digital exhibition halls, smart explanations and other applications, new technologies are more and more widely used in museums, ancient books can "enter" the world, and people can also "walk" into ancient books.
Relying on the cultural products of ancient books, a dazzling array of them are constantly emerging.
When traveling, "Chronicles of Huangshan" and "Chronicles of Mount Tai" have become excellent travel guides; traditional recipes such as "Food and Doctor's Heart", "Shanjia Qing Offering" and "Suiyuan Food List" have become characteristic treasures for merchants to attract tourists; "Collection of Ancient and Modern Tablets", "Mustard Seed Garden Painting", "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes" and other artistic ancient books have become the first choice for tourists by integrating cultural and creative souvenirs.
"The 'knowledge warehouse' represented by traditional ancient books is entering the modern society in the form of various 'golden cicadas shedding their shells' to achieve new abandonment. Weng Lianxi, an expert in the protection and identification of ancient books in the Forbidden City, said that only by attracting more young people to understand and fall in love with ancient books can the ancient Chinese culture be filled with new vitality.
Embedded in the traditional social ecology, it may not be noticed, but in fact, it must be separated for a while. Ancient books, especially large-scale ancient books as national projects, are both tangible symbols and intangible bonds in maintaining national lineage, carrying forward culture, and enhancing national self-confidence.
In addition to national projects, social forces are also joining the ranks. The "Great Oracle Bone Inscription" mini-program revitalizes the source of Chinese characters, the short video platform helps users read and interpret ancient books online, and the large-scale platform uses digital technology to organize rare books scattered overseas...... Rare and rare books are going to hundreds of millions of ordinary people, and "ancient book fans" are growing by millions.
"Farming and reading have been passed down for a long time, and poetry and books have been passed down for a long time. From oracle bones to carved stones, from bamboo slips to yellow silk, from "paper longevity for thousands of years, ink and change" to digital reading of e-books, Chinese classics have been in the same vein for thousands of years, endlessly.
Understand the past, read the present, and look forward to the future. We follow the words from the depths of history, and we will also be bathed in the fragrance of books and run into the future.
No matter how the form of reading changes, no matter how the time and space of reading change, "open book is beneficial" will never go out of style.
When you open the book, you open up the world and yourself.
Open the book, right today.
Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph