Photo: VCG

China has launched a nationwide upgrade of its vast rural reading room program, rolling out targeted reforms to improve outdated grassroots cultural services as the landmark National Reading Promotion Regulations (NRPR) take full effect nationwide.

The new guidelines aim to revitalize rural reading resources, cater to local residents' evolving reading habits and advance cultural revitalization across the countryside, Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

This comes after the national pilot reform and the official implementation of the NRPR, which provide legal backing for China's nationwide reading campaign. 

On the front lines of implementation, rural cultural operators and local residents have hailed the reform as a long-awaited fix for grassroots cultural shortcomings.

Huang Ying, co-founder of the Qingtian Academy, a time-honored rural cultural venue in East China's Jiangxi Province, told the Global Times on Monday that the upgraded policy offers clear guidance for rooted, community-driven rural reading development. 

"Rural reading bridges the information divide and enriches villagers' spiritual lives," Huang noted. It particularly benefits rural youth, complementing regional educational resources and broadening their ­horizons.

According to Huang, revived from a 700-year-old traditional academy, the Qingtian Academy has embodied the policy's core concepts long before the national overhaul. 

It houses over 1,100 ancient books and 20,000 modern volumes, boasts a professional expert think tank, and runs distinctive farming-reading integration programs, intangible cultural heritage workshops and regular reading salons. 

"We do not merely place books on shelves, but plant cultural seeds in rural communities," Huang said, adding that diversified, accessible activities have turned passive viewing into active participation among villagers.

The policy's people-oriented, flexible approach has also won wide praise from rural readers. In Minqin county, Northwest China's Gansu Province, farmer-writer Pei Aimin recalled how local reading rooms have transformed rural cultural life over the years. 

"Years ago, I was the first villager to borrow books from the village reading room," Pei told the Global Times on Monday. "Back then, even printed books felt precious to rural residents."

Today, digital upgrades under the new policy have revolutionized rural reading experiences. Scanning QR codes enables villagers to access online books, audio readings and instructional videos anytime. 

Local farmers now rely on digital reading resources to learn greenhouse planting techniques, solve agricultural equipment malfunctions and master fertilization skills, turning cultural facilities into practical tools for rural production and daily life.

"Even someone who doesn't read much can now learn step by step. It feels almost magical," Pei said.

Industry observers say the targeted, anti-formalism upgrade marks a pivotal step in implementing the national reading regulations. It shifts rural cultural construction from superficial expansion to connotation-driven development, laying a solid foundation for balanced urban-rural public cultural services and long-term rural cultural revitalization.

Liu Weicheng, head of the Hubei Provincial Library, sees the reform as an opportunity to turn provincial-level institutions into hubs that channel resources downward. "We coordinate reading promotion brands, service data and recommended booklists across the province, then push quality resources down to city and county libraries, and further into village reading rooms," he said. 

Li Er, an acclaimed Chinese author and professor at Peking University, emphasized the fundamental significance of a standardized national reading promotion. 

"Quality reading underpins cultural inheritance and helps people understand a diverse world rationally," Li told the Global Times on Monday. 

He stressed the need for authoritative expert evaluation of reading resources to counteract fragmented, low-value information prevalent online, calling for improved mechanisms to guide public reading and consolidate positive cultural values.