In order to implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and strengthen cultural construction under the guidance of Xi Jinping's socialist ideology with Chinese characteristics in the new era, activities to advance national reading are flourishing.
In the government work report Premier Li Keqiang gave on behalf of the State Council at the second session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC) in 2019, he stressed that we should advocate for nationwide reading and promote the construction of a learning society. As a mainstay of building a learning society and a powerful educational country, the Open University of China (OUC) has exerted its organisational advantages in the task of advancing national reading and formed a unique reading brand.
The OUC Branches Collaborate to Carry out In-depth Nationwide Reading Activities
On World Reading Day on 23 April 2019, all OUC branches issued papers to deploy nationwide reading activities.
The OUC Hunan Branch carried out the "reading classics, learning new knowledge, and living a good life" reading activity within its system. In line with the concept of "reading together in the same university and obtaining the knowledge of thousands of volumes", a series of online and offline activities were held in order to lead students to read together and join in a knowledge contest. Meanwhile, a series of essay collection activities on "reading classics and cultural inheritance" were carried out with the aim of creating an atmosphere and environment of nationwide reading and building a better campus culture.
The Jilin Branch will take its 40-year anniversary as an opportunity to hold a series of activities to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of teachers and students, by means of sharing a good book, recommending good books, holding a photography contest with the theme of "Forty-Years On, New Prospects for the OUC,” and holding a hard-pen calligraphy contest with the theme of "Building a Reading Campus to Welcome the 40th Anniversary", in order to create a favorable atmosphere for people to "learn to love reading, read good books, and be good at reading" and promote the construction of a reading campus.
The Zhejiang Branch launched a series of festive learning and reading activities with the theme of "Promoting Traditional Culture and Understanding the Essence of Traditional Chinese Studies.” A series of activities, including reading classics, book review, telling book-related stories, an exhibition of Zhejiang local characteristics and traditional culture, the reading excellent Chinese traditional cultural series, competitions to select the best reading environment, and digital reading were carried out to pay respect to traditional Chinese culture, inherit the classics of Chinese studies, and create a humanistic campus with a reading atmosphere.
More than 20 other branches also kicked off Reading Month activities around World Reading Day. These included the Jiangxi Branch’s reading month activities with the theme of "Learning, Thinking, Practice, and Understanding and Achieving Unity of Knowing and Doing", the Hunan Branch’s "reading classics, learning new knowledge, and living a better life" national reading activity, and the Nanjing Branch’s series of reading activities with the theme of “love the library and build a good learning atmosphere.”
The OUC Headquarters Creates Plan to Help Overcome Poverty by Advancing Nationwide Reading
In order to implement the project of poverty alleviation through education and promote the nationwide reading campaign in poverty-stricken areas, and since the OUC launched the “Long March Belt” Education project Targeted at Poverty Alleviation, which has received the attention and support of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Education, the OUC headquarters has coordinated reading resources and donated a total of 27 libraries for places including Qinglong and Weixian counties in Hebei province, Shangyou county in Jiangxi province, Chengkou county in Chongqing, Li county in Gansu province, and Shanyang county in Shaanxi province, each with about 6,000 copies and 1,500 kinds of books, worth a total of more than RMB 540,000. These libraries have provided a rich source of reading resources provided for local people.
The OUC’s Taofen Bookstore
Reading and Learning
During the construction of the libraries, the OUC headquarters adhered to the goal of promoting reading and helping to overcome poverty. Considering the scope of the audience, the libraries aim to meet the reading needs of as many local people as possible. The libraries stock social science and literature books that are popular with the public and have attracted many readers.
Meanwhile, the campus network authorisation service of the common literature databases of the OUC’s Digital Library has been opened up to the recipient study centres free of charge in order to realise the direct coverage of all the mainstream databases in China by the resources of the digital library.
Great achievements over the past ten years
In 2006, the Ministry of Publicity and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, and Television, together with other relevant departments, organised a nationwide reading campaign. Based on the requirements of this campaign, different forms of reading activities were organised across the OUC organisational system. Since 2008, the OUC headquarters has issued a number of papers to lead the activities, which have been responded to actively by all members of the system. Reading activities with distinct themes, rich content, and diverse forms have been carried out, highlighting the OUC’s systematic advantages in promoting universal reading.
In 2008, in combination with World Reading Day, the OUC launched a nationwide reading activity with the theme of "Digital Books, Happy Reading" to encourage teachers and students to "connect with libraries and get close to digital books.” Through a series of activities, such as book recommendation, lectures, seminars, speech contests, calligraphy and painting exhibitions, debates, and poetry and prose recitals, reading has become one of the main activities in open universities.
Since 2009, the OUC and the Library Society of China have jointly launched a nationwide reading programme. The theme of the "Wetland China Travel 2009" activity was "Experience Wetlands through Knowing and Doing, and Love Mother Earth.” The activities were divided into three stages: popularisation and publicity of wetland knowledge, reading about and investigating wetlands, and wetland awareness and environmental protection. The activities included recommended reading, lectures, seminars, and essay competitions.
From 2010 to 2016, the theme of the "Hand in Hand: Rural Youth Reading Action” activity was "Nurturing the Heart with Books.” The activities made full use of the advantages of the OUC’s school-running system and integrated the resources and technology of Distance Open Education and the digital library into nationwide reading. The universities in the OUC system, in accordance with local characteristics, invited experts to recommend books, organised for book donation and resource distribution, and carried out other specific activities, including establishing Rural RTVU Bookstores at grass-roots demonstration sites, conducting expert lectures and themed reading and essay competitions for rural youth, selecting "rural youth reading demonstration sites,” and conducting a sampling survey of the current situation of popular science reading among rural youth, which helped to promote and guide reading, popularise agricultural knowledge, foster rural culture, and serve the construction of a new socialist countryside.
Since 2017, in order to implement the key actions of the poverty alleviation through education project, the OUC Nationwide Reading Campaign has been carried out in conjunction with the "Long March Belt" Education Project Targeted at Poverty Alleviation, which has helped local study centres to enrich their reading resources.
A series of reading activities have become the featured projects of the OUC’s campus culture and branded projects related to national reading have attracted a great deal of attention from society. Many honours and awards have been received from both inside and outside the system. In 2010, "Hand in Hand: Rural Youth Reading Action" obtained the guidance and support of the Action Plan for 2010 National Reading Activities promulgated by the Ministry of Publicity and the Central Office of Spiritual Civilisation in China. In the evaluation of various reading activities sponsored by the Library Society of China, the series of nationwide reading activities organised by the OUC were awarded the Best Case Award in the Case Selection of Reading Promotion Activities in Communities and Townships in 2011, First Prize for Essay Collections in the 2011 Library and Classic Reading Seminar, and First Prize in the 2013 Case Selection of the Nationwide Reading Conference. The OUC Library was also given a National Advanced Reading Unit Award by the Library Society of China in 2010 and a permanent national Nationwide Reading Demonstration Base honorary title in 2011 for its participation in the activities.
By Zhao Xuan, Zhang Hongli and Fu Bo,OUC