Technology drives away Chinese from ancient literary tradition

By Yuan Hang Source:Global Times Published: 2013-8-20 13:53:01

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT


Cai Lun, the father of paper, has always been honored as a heroic figure in Chinese history. His refinement of paper creation in the year of 105 won him a permanent place in the pantheon of Chinese inventors, and led to a boom in reading that made Chinese far more literate than most ancient cultures.

However, it's hard to imagine that a country with such a long literary tradition now barely hits the books at all. In 2012, Chinese read 4.39 books per person, largely at the same of the 2011 statistics of 4.35 books per capita.

This recently released news prompted a flood of self-deprecation on the Internet, with comparisons to other countries predominating.

Americans read an average of 7 books in 2011, the French 8.4, and the Koreans, no doubt trying to back up their claim to have invented the printing press.

Earlier this year, China turned into the world's biggest market for smart phones, with 380 million users. More than 14 million iPads were sold in one quarter alone. It's now common to see people posting on Sina Weibo or playing phone games on the subway, but they'll bleat if challenged on their lack of reading that "I don't have time to read books."

With the average commute in China's cities coming in at about an hour, there's actually plenty of time for even slow readers like myself to enjoy a book on the subway. I normally get through four books a month this way. So it's not a matter of a lack of time, for most people, but an unwillingness to tackle literature.

New technology has made reading much more accessible than ever before. I don't need to carry physical books, but can just bring them up on my smart phone.

Advanced technology has already made reading on an electronic terminal a pleasant thing, which has the feel of a real book.

Electronic devices facilitate easy reading, but the fragmentation of Internet culture has also come at a cost.

The vast array of time killers now just a button press away, from games to music to social media, steal away precious hours that could be devoted to worthier pursuits like reading.

Since the arrival of Weibo, the reading habits of most of its 500 million users have been gradually changed.

Weibo provides an instant information service, but all messages are limited to 140 characters. For a generation getting used to bite-sized bits of information, the prospect of a full-length text may prove painful.

But perhaps blaming technology for the decline of literature is off-base. Although Chinese literary master Mo Yan was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature last year, the country still has less winners than, for instance, the tiny island of Trinidad, which boasts both V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott.

Is China actually producing writers people want to read?

With a publishing industry that's more concerned with profits than quality, and one where the lack of quality editing shows all too clearly in works which are often obvious first drafts, perhaps we should be lambasting the creators rather than the readers.

The boom in online publishing, where creativity abounds, has made teenagers devotees of books in a way far beyond their seniors.

Those between 14 and 17 read more than 10 books a year on average, and their choice of literature is often online. Maybe technology, in the end, will be more savior than threat for China's literature.

The author is a freelance writer based in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn



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