Quick Answer: How Do People Read in China Today?
Chinese reading culture today spans printed books, screens and audio. In a national survey covering 2025, the adult reading rate across measured formats reached 82.3 percent. Adults averaged 4.81 printed books and 3.58 electronic books. Those figures capture different aspects of reading.[1][2]
- Print: Books remain part of everyday reading alongside screens.[2]
- Digital: Phones, electronic books and audio make it possible to read or listen in shorter sessions.[1]
- Places: Libraries, bookshops and city reading rooms (城市书房, chéngshì shūfáng) provide spaces for reading and events.[3][4]
One reader can use several of these formats and places.
A reader may borrow a novel, listen to a chapter while traveling and later join a discussion about the same work. A national survey can count aspects of those activities, while reading spaces and publishers give them a setting.[1][3][4]
What the National Reading Survey Counts
The 2025 survey found that 79.0 percent of adults read on mobile phones and 80.8 percent used at least one form of digital reading. Its broader measure includes formats such as listening to books and video discussions of books. A respondent can be included in more than one category.[1]
Average books read answers a different question from a participation rate. The averages of 4.81 printed and 3.58 electronic books are per adult in the survey reporting. Some adults read many more books and others fewer than those averages.[2]
How Phones Change the Reading Session
Installments suit reading in small amounts. Chinese web fiction (网络文学, wǎngluò wénxué) developed a business around published chapters, some available through paid access. A person may return to the same serial repeatedly across a week. Chinese web novel genres explains the kinds of stories readers encounter in these catalogues.[5]
Where Print Reading Happens
Reading rooms can put books on everyday routes. Examples include reading corners in Wuhan subway spaces and small public reading rooms in Zhejiang. These spaces continue the broader story of Chinese public libraries by making collections or reading seats available outside a main library building.[3]
A bookshop can offer a different combination of reading and conversation. Puhe Reading Space in Binzhou began as a traditional bookstore and also uses livestream discussions to connect with readers. A livestream also lets people join a book discussion when they cannot come to the shop.[4]
How Reading Moves Between Formats
The same title might be sold as a physical book, delivered in digital installments or discussed online. Each format changes what a person can do with the time available. Reading on a phone can fit a short interval, while a public reading room offers a place to stay with a text or meet other readers.[1][3][5]
FAQs About Chinese Reading Culture
Have Phones Replaced Printed Books?
No. The national survey records both printed books and digital reading. The same adult can read in several formats.[1][2]
What Is a City Reading Room?
A city reading room is a local reading space, often embedded in a neighborhood or a place people already use. Its hours, collection and borrowing arrangements vary.[3]
Do Audiobooks Count as Digital Reading?
The 2025 survey includes listening to books among the digital ways people engage with reading. It reports electronic books read as a separate measure.[1][2]
Sources
[1] National Press and Publication Administration. Results of the national reading survey
[2] National Reading website. Findings of the national reading survey
[3] National Press and Publication Administration. Reading initiatives and public reading spaces
[4] Xinhua. How physical bookstores use digital tools
[5] China Writers Association website. Four stages of Chinese literary websites