MKsports 14th Beijing Reading Festival has kicked off at the Lao She Theater in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: Courtesy of the organizer in Beijing" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2024/2024-12-05/106b54cf-e35c-4fff-8582-a1fe78a0ba09.jpeg" />

The 14th Beijing Reading Festival has kicked off at the Lao She Theater in Beijing on Thursday. Photo: Courtesy of the organizer in Beijing

The 14th Beijing Reading Festival kicked off at the Lao She Theater in Beijing on Thursday. 

This year's event highlighted the diverse ways in which reading is being promoted, with video product explanations of books emerging as a significant highlight.

One of the guests, Li Yanfei has been explaining literary works through self-made videos since 2021, earning his over 1.8 million followers and more than 80 million views on his social media account. Li spent half a year writing an 80,000-word interpretation of One Hundred Years of Solitudeand self-created an animated series to deconstruct the novel and presented it in a concentrated 160-minute video work, receiving great reviews.

"The most important thing I want to do is to use short videos as a ladder to reading, allowing the scattered literary works in different regions to be picked up by the public," Li told the Global Times after the event.

According to a latest reading data report, the number of book-related videos over five minutes long had increased by 279.44 percent year on year, while the playback and playlist collection of these videos increased by 65.17 percent and 276.14 percent respectively. 

Additionally, livestream viewership in this area nearly doubled.

"A niche book, due to a 50-second book recommendation video, has been reprinted 41 times over three years, with a total print run of 4 million copies. Video works have become one of the important promotional channels in the current publishing industry,"  said Wu Zhuangzhuang, a general manager of a cultural company based in Shanghai, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Over the past year, Beijing has actively promoted a quality and influential reading culture through different plans. 

This includes the launch of 12 catalogs featuring 170 types of fine books from Beijing, and spring and autumn Beijing Book Fairs.

These book fairs have attracted a total of 837,000 readers and visitors, according to a press release from the Beijing Publicity Department on Thursday.

Following the successful application of the Beijing Central Axis as a World Heritage Site in July, related reading venues have increased in popularity. 

According to the latest data, Beijing held over 30,000 reading events in 2023, impacting and reaching more than 20 million people and leading to the steady growth of the city's comprehensive reading level.

In addition, Beijing has also strongly supported the development of physical bookstores, with over 2,100 currently in operation, and continues to carry out reading activities at the grassroots level.

Li Jingze, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, said during the event that national reading activities have not only improved the cultural literacy of citizens but also injected new vitality into the city's cultural development. 

On the day of the event, the Beijing Youth Reading Promotion Alliance was officially established.

The alliance aims to integrate resources from multiple parties to promote the development of youth reading habits and improve youth reading literacy.

Since the inception of the first Beijing Reading Festival in 2011, Beijing has continued to deepen the reading campaign, creating a strong atmosphere of love for reading, good books, and reading well throughout society, the press release noted.