"Some 30 years ago, reading extracurricular titles was deemed by most parents as not doing the real business of 'learning'. Now both schools and parents believe in its benefits," Zhu says.

Among his new titles published this year, one by Unity Press entitled Rendezvous in Spring is a collection of his diaries as a CPPCC member during the two sessions in 2013-17.

Two sessions refers to the annual gathering of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's biggest annual political events.

"It's a raw and panoramic personal record of what happened as a member and what we do during the two sessions. I'm offering it to a wider audience," Zhu says.

Another new book he has compiled offers tips for solving problems caused by stay-at-home learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zhu hands in proposals each year centering on promoting reading, as well as education, in rural and remote areas.

One of his most influential proposals is the High-Speed-Rail Reading campaign. In 2019, the annual number of journeys on the country's HSR were 2.29 billion.

"It's possible in space and time, with the railways running on strict timetables, and with enough flow of passengers," Zhu says, suggesting the opening of rail library services and delivering books just like food.

"E-reading on trains can also be made more accessible," he adds.

He reads a book and writes diaries, daily. "If I did not, I would be fretful".

Zhu has also collected more than 4,000 books signed by their authors.

He believes the best way to help learning and thinking is by writing. Busy every day, Zhu rises very early, and begins his day by reading and writing. This routine has been unchanged for decades.

"It's kind of gift from my father, a schoolteacher. Since my first day at school, he would drag me out of bed early to practice calligraphy. I never became a calligrapher, but I'm accustomed to knowing that when people are usually brushing their teeth, I've already been working for two hours," Zhu says.

No wonder Zhu has a large and expanding body of work being published, not just in Chinese, but also in more than 20 foreign languages in 40 countries and regions, including English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Russian and Spanish.