Chinese actress Yao Chen Photo: Li Hao/GT In a heartfelt address at the Global Times "Reading Spring" sharing event, Chinese actress Yao Chen, speaking in her role as a reading promotion ambassador, reflected on the profound role literature has played in her life. 

She began with a question: What has accompanied you through loneliness, given you the courage to express yourself, and quietly changed your life? For Yao, the answer has always been reading.

Yao recalled her childhood, when her family subscribed to many newspapers and magazines. The rustle of turning pages and the scent of fresh ink remain vivid memories. 

She loved fairy tales, once even cutting open her sofa after reading a story in The King of Fairy Tales that claimed little people lived in cans, only to be startled by a mouse hiding inside.

Her father once gave her a book, Pippi Longstocking, and the nine-year-old red-haired heroine became Yao's first idol. Pippi was strong enough to lift a horse, endlessly optimistic and generous, and gloriously free. 

"To this day, she is still the person I most want to become," Yao said. Those imaginary friends from books helped her through countless dark, lonely nights, allowing her to make peace with fear.

Reading also planted a seed of expression. As a student at the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy, Yao mimicked the style of writer Eileen Chang, penning youthful love stories to share with classmates. Though her early writing was immature, the desire to express herself had taken root. Later, she turned to blogs, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, or RedNote as platforms to document her daily observations and reflections, another way to stay connected with the world.

Perhaps most significantly, Yao credits reading as an essential tool for her acting career. As an actress, she explained, one must understand scripts and characters, but life experience alone is never enough. 

"You can't keep cutting trees only from your own forest," she said. Reading allows her to enter lives beyond her own. 

While filming the Chinese drama Minning Town, she played Wu Yuejuan, a character based on real-life poverty-alleviation official Lin Yuechan. 

Unable to travel back to the 1990s, when the character lived and experienced life in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Yao immersed herself in written and video materials. One description of children shivering in a classroom without doors or windows moved her to tears. This reading transformed her performance. She gave the character warmth and authenticity, a leader who speaks plainly, shares heartfelt meals with colleagues, and keeps her promises.

"Reading is the source of shaping a character," Yao concluded. In today's information-rich age, deep, immersive reading remains irreplaceable. She hopes more people will embark on this journey to find inspiration, understanding, and freedom through reading.