According to a survey, Chinese people’s reading habits haven’t changed over the past several years. The survey says only about 59 percent of the people in China read paper books. It also says a large number of people don’t read. It is partly because there aren’t enough public libraries. China has less than 3,300 public libraries, compared with more than 160,000 in the United States.

In order to encourage the public to read more, Shenzhen government has done a lot. In November every year, Shenzhen welcomes its Reading Month. More than 1,400 reading activities will be held for this month, including book sales, music performances, film screenings, and online and offline lectures by experts.

In 2012, Shenzhen created the first government-led “reading promoter (阅读推广人)” training program in China. People doing different jobs become reading promoters to encourage more people to read, especially the teenagers.

Shenzhen Reading Month has been an activity held every November since 2000. Many famous writers were invited to the Reading Month. Yu Guangzhong was invited in 2007, Bai Yansong in 2015, and Deng Yiguang in 2022. Reading has become an important cultural and spiritual symbol of Shenzhen.

On October 21, 2013, Shenzhen was named “Global Reading Model City”. Shenzhen is the only city in the world to receive this name. Being a young city of immigrants, Shenzhen is developing a culture for reading, which shows the spirit of humanity.