Hong Kong holds series of activities to mark World Book Day

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's public libraries organized an array of activities, including storytelling sessions, magic shows, talks and a creative competition, to mark the annual World Book Day.

At a prize presentation ceremony for the World Book Day Creative Competition on Sunday, Kevin Yeung, secretary for culture, sports and tourism of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said local public libraries have been nurturing reading as a consistent habit of the public through quality and diversified collections and reading activities on various platforms.

Yeung said that April 23 will be designated as the Hong Kong Reading for All Day from next year, and the public libraries will collaborate with stakeholders to organize a series of large-scale reading activities.

This year's competition is themed as Tasty Reading, which was participated by 1,800 entrants from some 300 schools. Participants shared their experiences and thoughts on food and daily life in the form of paintings, book reports and essays.

The Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Library, Shenzhen Children's Library and Macao Public Library have also organized competitions under the same theme to enhance the cultural exchanges in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

"In this competition, I could enjoy reading with my classmates on campus in a relaxing fashion and at the same time completed the challenge, which made reading more interesting," high school student Tsui Tze-long said.

According to a recent survey by the Hong Kong Publishing Professionals Society, the median number of books read by Hong Kong people was six last year, and nearly 70 percent of the respondents said they had the habit of e-reading.

To designate the Hong Kong Reading for All Day on April 23, the HKSAR government hopes it could help further promote the benefits of reading in Hong Kong.