Growing reading culture

Much like village libraries, new channels to access reading materials have kept popping up and have become popular among the Chinese readership in recent years, from traditional paper books to book excerpts on TV shows, and from social media apps to “kindling.”

Recently, the Chinese TV program Readers has been a hit since its debut on China Central Television (CCTV) on February 18. The weekly talk show invites people from all walks of life to read aloud excerpts of poems, essays and books they like or wrote.

Airing over the weekend, the show has sparked fresh enthusiasm for literature, in part because of the high-profile guest readers including China’s first