Some in China have proclaimed that the country has a “reading crisis” (yuèdú wēijī / 阅读危机).

Only 5 percent of the 1.3 billion Chinese population has a habit of reading books, according to a report released by the China Publishing Research Institute in 2005.

Xi [Shu, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a board chairman of a publishing company based in Beijing,] argued frequent use of the Internet can lead to people’s easy satisfaction with a smattering of knowledge without deep thinking.

I haven’t been able to find the original of the 2005 report, so I don’t know how “habit” is defined, or even “books.” (What percent of those with the “habit,” for example, read primarily comic books?) And are students excluded? Regardless, it doesn’t sound good.

sources:

• Chinese political advisor stands for “Year of Reading” to overcome “reading crisis”, Xinhua, March 11, 2006
• 政协委员席殊建议:2007年定为“全民阅读年”, Xinhua, March 12, 2006
• 中国出版科学研究所