Digital reading gains momentum as mainstream among Chinese

The newly released national reading report of China has shown that digital reading gained more momentum last year as the mainstream among Chinese people.

More than 60 percent of Chinese prefer reading on digital devices or via the Internet in 2018, according to the survey which the report was based on.

Conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication (CAPP) from August to December 2018, the survey had a sample size of 19,683 people from 29 provincial-level regions and is the 16th of its kind.

Reading prevails with digital methods

Around 80.8 percent of Chinese adults read books, newspapers or magazines in 2018, a slight year-on-year increase, extending the rising streak to six years in a row.

About 76 percent of the respondents had accessed reading content through digital channels, including online reading and reading on mobile gadgets, up from 73 percent in 2017.

Chinese adults on average read on an e-reader for 10.7 minutes per day in 2018, more than in 2017.

According to Wei Yushan, head of the CAPP, the growth of digital reading made reading generally more popular among Chinese, but has also led to the diminishing numbers for paper reading.

Only 38.4 percent of those surveyed said they preferred reading paper books, a 6.7-percentage-point yearly decrease, while Chinese adults read only 26.38 issues of newspapers per capita in 2018, down from 33.62 in 2017. The figure for reading magazines shrank from 3.81 to 2.61.