Some confusion about reading

gzlaser

YU Qiuyu, one of China's well-known essayists in these days, recently came out against setting up a \"National Reading Day\".

Yu gave three major reasons for opposing a national day for reading: 1) There is already an annual \"International Reading Day\" on April 23; 2) We are living in an information explosion, and if we add in online reading, it's not a deficiency we face, but an explosion; 3) Reading both enlightens you and wastes your time. To make his point, Yu argued that the reason Confucius, Laozi, Mozi, and Zhuangzi were so great was that they did not even read one-10,000th of what we read now.

But I would say that, in making his point, Yu confused the joy of reading with the drudge. In the case of the former, reading can be an endless source of pleasure as well as information, insight and inspiration; while, with the latter, it's a meaningless pain and a source of boredom.

Whether we need more reading or not also depends on what we read. If we read something that we enjoy and get benefit from, say, the classics, then naturally every day should be reading day. If, however, we read something useless that tires us out, say, celebrity gossip, then even part of a day is too long.

I would also suggest that Yu has confused reading with Internet browsing. The former is a deliberate effort to understand something whereas the latter is an idle attempt to feed one's addiction.

I'd like to conclude by saying that Yu has also confused the learning one gets by reading with that of travel. Both are important – neither more so than the other. It all depends on what one needs at a given time, in a given place.

So, I would argue that Yu's opposition to a \"National Reading Day\" is unjustified because of its pessimistic view of reading, especially the reading of books. I would in fact ask that Chinese read more books. According to one survey, the Chinese on average read only five books a year! There's a huge difference between reading a book and just thumbing through one. Reading for joy is good for all of us.

21st century