Students have a chat during a visit to the Shenzhen Book City CBD Store on Sunday. They were among 32 young Hong Kong reading enthusiasts who participated in this year's Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Study Plan. Photos by Hu Lei
▲ Peng Fang, a member of the Shenzhen Folk Literature and Art Association, gives a class on opera masks, an intangible cultural heritage item, to students.
Students listen to a staffer with Qianniao Books at Shenzhen Bay Park introduce the book bar.
Students pose for a group photo in Tencent's Binhai Building.
Shenzhen has launched over 1,900 reading activities to promote diverse reading experiences in celebration of the 29th World Book and Copyright Day and the Ninth Shenzhen Minors Reading Day, which fell on yesterday.
SZ-HK co-reading
Shenzhen and Hong Kong share a common cultural heritage. After the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Twin Cities Reading Consensus was released during the 24th Shenzhen Reading Month last year, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have continued to carry out a series of reading activities to mark this year's World Book and Copyright Day.
Hong Kong held its inaugural Hong Kong Reading Week and the 2024 Hong Kong Reading+ on Saturday.
On Sunday, Qianniao Books, a book bar nestled within the scenic Shenzhen Bay Park, welcomed 32 young Hong Kong reading enthusiasts who have joined this year's Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Study Plan.
These young readers took a bus from the Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint to Qianniao Books, Shenzhen Book City CBD Store, and Tencent’s Binhai Building for visits and activities.
"We hope Hong Kong young readers can truly experience Shenzhen's unique cultural and technological strength," said Tong Yudan, senior manager of Shenzhen Book City CBD Store's planning center.
The Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Study Plan is part of a series of reading promotion activities launched by the two cities. The activities, which run from April to November, feature three to five research and learning routes.
As a yearly highlight of the World Book and Copyright Day, this year's "Half-hour Reading Together" event was carried out in collaboration with Hong Kong, Macao, Guangxi, and Hainan. Seven main reading venues in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Hong Kong, Macao, Nanning, and Haikou invited citizens to enjoy the pleasure of reading.
Louis Cha, the Chinese martial arts novelist who wrote under the pen name Jin Yong, has been hailed as an important cultural symbol in the Chinese-speaking world. To commemorate the centenary of Cha's birth, the Shenzhen Library collaborated with the Hong Kong Central Library to hold a themed literature exhibition yesterday.
A reading carnival
Wang Jingsheng, recipient of the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, Yin Changlong, a literature savant, and Ding Ning, an expert in artificial intelligence, held dialogues on the topic of "How to better read in the era of AI+" at the Shenzhen Library yesterday.
Chen Yan, vice chairman of the China Writers Association and winner of the esteemed Mao Dun Literature Prize, was invited to meet readers in Jihua Subdistrict, Longgang District.
In addition, major Shenzhen Book City stores and bars under the Shenzhen Publishing Group have planed nearly 100 events and invited famous figures to hold book launches and meet-the-author sessions.
Two themed book exhibitions were held in six major Shenzhen Book City locations.
On Monday and yesterday evenings, local landmark buildings, including the Kingkey100 Building, Ping An Finance Center, Hon Kwok Center, China Resources Building, and One Shenzhen Bay, were lit up to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day and the Ninth Shenzhen Minors Reading Day.