Reading the future

Let's Read: For the Rural Libraries in the Mountains and Fields

Zhang Shusen gives up a doctor's job to stay in his hometown, a village deep in the grassland in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, to manage a small reading house.

Han Xieyu, a 12-year-old boy who uses a wheelchair, finds escape in the books he borrows from his village library.

Writers Li Donghua and Xu Lu feature 17 stories like this about people whose everyday lives are brightened by 587,000 rural libraries in the country.

Xu Zechen Novellas and Stories

Xu Zechen, who was born in 1978－the year when the reform and opening-up began－is a representative writer of his generation. And the 35 stories in his three-volume collection record his writing career of 21 years.

"A great work is the one that focuses on core emotions and problems of a certain era with core language," says Xu, adding he finds his "hometown", "Beijing" and "the world" are three of his major channels to explore the core literature of the time.

Where's My Home

The book－about penguins and global warming－uses a technology that is typically not used in printed books.

The Penguin Frozen Book is printed with a type of special ink that melts and disappears when the temperature is more than 20 C.

A touch can change the color on the book. And the interaction reminds readers－children and adults－about the environment.

The Chinese book has caught the attention of foreign publishers.