Reading guides new fashion, atmosphere of literature fills Xi'an City

The 2019 Asian Bookstore Forum, with the keynote of "Space Innovation - 
Unleashing a New Era", was inaugurated in Xi'an on July 6, 2019.

The forum was hosted by the Department of Culture, Radio, Film, TV, Press and 
Publication of Xi'an and Xi'an High-tech Zone Management Committee, organized 
by Yan Ji You, and co-organized by Sanlian Lifeweek ,Openbook, Bookdao, and 
Context Lab. Famous writers, designers, bookstore entrepreneurs, public 
cultural spaces, publishing houses, and profession representatives were invited 
to jointly contemplate new development trends of bookstores, writers, and 
publishing houses and explore new vitality of culture industry.  

There were six thematic forums, including theme forum, writer forum, bookstore 
forum, designer forum, publisher forum, and public cultural space forum, 
following a Shaanxi Literature achievement-sharing session. Discussions were 
conducted for a whole day. 

"A good bookstore is the holy land where readers rest their souls, the sign of 
cultural inheritance, and an unique city brand," Hongwei Lian addressed. In 
recent years, the number of physical bookstores in Xi'an increased from 827 in 
2017 to more than 2000 at present. Xi'an jumped to the 5th in the ranking of 
China bookstore. Physical Bookstores revived through innovative integrating 
modes, including "book + coffee", "book + culture", and "book + technology".

At this forum, authoritative book-related data lists, including "Xi'an Reading 
Portrayal", and "WeRead City Reading Index" were released. According to these 
index, Xi'an was the 5th in the ranking of "Cities that loves reading the 
most", just after Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. At the same time, 
Xi'an was the first in the ranking of "Classics Reading" and "Technology 
Reading".

As the initiator of the Asian Bookstore Forum, Yan Ji You, with "Make Life 
Different" as the idea and physical space as the background, insists on its 
originality to construct a culture bridge via its own efforts, in order to 
continuously energize Chinese Bookstores and promote the development of 
bookstore industry.

SOURCE: 2019 ASIAN BOOKSTORE FORUM