Why Chinese read fewer books?

It is worrying to know that on average Chinese people read only five books a year, a lot fewer than their counterparts in developed countries. This has led some people to seek legislation to help cultivate reading habit among Chinese people. But people, as readers, alone are not to blame for the sorry state of affairs given the huge waste of resources to achieve prosperity in the publishing world, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

At the beginning of this century, "green publishing" was made part of the country's development strategy, but the plan failed to help China catch up with the developed world when it came to implementation. Statistics show that China has the largest book inventory in the world which, according to market prices, is worth 88.4 billion yuan ($14.4 billion). The contents of most of these "invalid published" books are shallow. In other words, such books are devoid of any creativity and value.

Besides, these books are over-packaged, reflecting the wrong direction the publishing industry has taken. To raise the sale of their books, publishers have been focusing on "face-lift projects" by designing unnecessary hard-covers and plastic packing. But such books are seldom seen in foreign bookstores because such packaging is usually used for textbooks.

Extravagantly packaged books, coffee table editions, for example, are always bought by people as showpieces or to gift someone. As such, they have little reading value. Worse, over-packaging is not only a waste of precious resources, but also pushes up prices. This artificial increase in book prices has to some extent shut the door on genuine readers.

What publishers should remember is that only by providing good quality books to readers can such waste of resources be avoided and a genuine cultural prosperity cultivated.

(China Daily 10/16/2013 page9)