Introducing Children to the Joys of Reading

By staff reporter GONG HAN

Children can now find appropriate books in the school library.

An unofficial movement has sprung up as writers and publishers of children’s literature, primary school teachers, and many others have taken up the cause of promoting children’s reading.

LIKE in Western developed countries, Chinese children’s reading habits are being threatened by television, video games and the Internet. In response to this, an unofficial movement has sprung up as writers and publishers of children’s literature, primary school teachers, and many others have taken up the cause of promoting children’s reading.

Lin Xiaoxi, who is known by the epithet A Jia, is a pioneer of this movement. He runs a bookstore Hongnibacun, or Red Clay Village, in northern Beijing, which is entirely dedicated to children’s books. In its display area there are neither dictionaries nor collections of compositions and test questions that are bestsellers among Chinese children’s publications. Instead, the room is filled with thousands of titles of children’s literature.

Yet with so many books waiting to be read, the aisles at Red Clay Village are almost entirely devoid of people. During my visit, the only signs of life I saw were a couple of staff members sealing books into packages and one lone customer strolling between the shelves. This is normal for a weekday, as most sales are made on the store’s website. Only on the weekends does the bookstore fill with activity, when parents and children come in to read together at the reading club.

Organizing book clubs like this is just one of A Jia’s activities outside selling books. He also visits schools to give lectures, translates foreign children’s books into Chinese, and exchanges ideas online with parents, who he often advises to read stories to their children every day to form the habit of reading. “I’ve been encouraging parents and children to share their passions for years,” A Jia said.

Growing with Children

For years, Chinese bookstores have been in decline. Red Clay Village has been built into a thriving business since it was started from scratch 13 years ago. Today, the bookstore is prominent in the industry and many children’s book publishers from Taiwan and Hong Kong visit the store when they come to Beijing to find books not available anywhere else. A Jia himself has received attention from the press for his fame as a prestigious promoter of children’s reading.

With its hands-on approach to bringing books into people’s lives, Red Clay Village organizes two kinds of reading clubs – one where parents and children read books and play games together, and one where adults discuss books. From time to time the bookstore also organizes outdoor trips for member families.

However, of its several hundred thousand members, less than 20,000 buy books from the store and participate in its activities regularly. Many prefer to buy the books recommended to them from other online bookstores that often offer a discount.

“I can’t stop them from buying books for sale on other online stores,” A Jia said. But he insisted that Red Clay Village offers parents more than just books. “Our project helps parents grow with their children. We discuss with them their children’s reading problems, archive children’s responses to reading, and recommend books that they may find interesting.”