On the stage, cultural scholar Cao Baoming captivated the audience by weaving together a series of books to narrate the allure of Northeast China's folk culture; among the bookshelves, students meandered through special sections featuring People's Education Press and Chinese National Geographic, selecting volumes to savor... In Changchun, Jilin Province, the recently opened "Zhe You Shu" cultural space has swiftly become both a new destination for readers to purchase and enjoy books and a fresh platform for cultural exchange.
The fragrance of books carries the farthest. In recent years, Jilin has placed significant emphasis on nationwide reading initiatives, innovatively advancing the construction of an integrated model combining "physical bookstores + civilized practice + reading spaces," actively organizing a rich variety of public reading activities, and solidly safeguarding the right to read for all citizens across both urban and rural areas, allowing the scent of literature to permeate the landscapes between the Changbai Mountains and Songhua River.
Upgrading reading spaces has been central to optimizing public reading services. In Changchun, the Xinhua Bookstore on Chongqing Road, which has weathered nearly 80 years, now operates under a new name—"East Study · Xinhua Leisure Bookstore."
The renovation extended beyond just the name. The bookstore added over a hundred leisure seats and cleverly utilized window-adjacent and corner spaces to create multiple cozy reading areas. "There are noticeably more places to sit down and read inside the store now; it's wonderfully comfortable," remarked Chen Yu, a local resident who spent a quiet afternoon immersed in a book by the sunlit window, enjoying a tranquil reading session.
In recent years, the Jilin Provincial Xinhua Bookstore Group has undertaken upgrades of its existing stores, strategically establishing five distinctively themed studies in Changchun oriented to the "east, west, south, north, and center," each with unique characteristics. "The East Study enhances both hardware and services, the West Study focuses on academia and art, the South Study blends retro style with cultural tourism appeal, the North Study is dedicated to professional poetry themes, and the Central Study highlights local cultural and creative features, forming a cultural pattern of 'a city filled with the aroma of books'," explained Wu Ronggang, Deputy Manager of the Store Chain Direct Operation Center at the Jilin Provincial Xinhua Bookstore Group. The group is accelerating its transformation from merely selling books to actively creating composite cultural experience spaces that integrate reading, salons, exhibitions, cultural creations, and various other formats.
Using books as a medium, Jilin actively promotes the "physical bookstores + civilized practice + reading spaces" model, transforming 68 Xinhua bookstores into bases for promoting civilized practices and establishing 37 new types of reading spaces such as "bookstore + museum," "bookstore + community," and "bookstore + campus." "We are continuously optimizing public reading services, encouraging physical bookstores to improve reading conditions and host reading activities, thereby fulfilling their role in serving nationwide reading," stated Jiang Yang, Director of the Publication Department of the Jilin Provincial Committee Publicity Department.
As night falls in southern Changchun, the lights burn brightly at the Jiyue Qishe Reading Room. "It's close to home, has a vast collection, and makes borrowing books very convenient," said Liu Entong, a primary school student and frequent visitor. Across Jilin, the glow of city reading rooms can be found in shopping malls, parks, and communities. The province has currently established 151 such city reading rooms, developed through both government investment and social participation, collectively creating new public cultural spaces that are aesthetically pleasing, functionally optimized, richly supplied, and distinctly characteristic, serving as excellent nearby reading options for the public. Over the past two years, Jilin has also consistently released a selection of high-quality cultural tourism books and set up free "Shuxiang Jitu" reading points and "Jitu Study" rooms in 8 waystations along the G331 highway section in Jilin, 2 stations on the Shenyang-Baishan high-speed rail line, and 80 highway service areas, allowing citizens and tourists to enjoy reading even while traveling.
Integrating reading into daily life is key to deepening its promotion. "Mr. Heading North," "A Concise History of Jilin"... Changchun reader Wang Hao reflected on last year's reading list with satisfaction: "From summer through winter, the Northeast Book Expo allowed me to purchase my entire annual reading list in one stop."
In early summer 2025, the second Northeast Book Trade Expo was held in Changchun. Over five days, the expo attracted participation from nearly 800 cultural enterprises from within and outside the province, exhibited and sold over 400,000 types of publications, drew more than 4.5 million online and offline visits, and generated cumulative transactions amounting to approximately 234 million yuan.
"During the agricultural off-season, I love sitting by the vegetable garden to read, learning about farming and history. Knowing about the expo, I wanted to come early to see the books," said Chu Hongchang, an 82-year-old farmer from Gongzhuling City, Jilin Province, who left home around 4 a.m. during the expo to arrive early. "Reading allows me to understand the vast world, even from the fields."
Serving as a meeting point for book lovers, the Northeast Book Expo has gradually evolved into a significant cultural engine for collectively showcasing the development achievements of the Northeast publishing industry, deeply promoting the popularization of public reading, and boosting regional cultural prosperity.
The promotion of nationwide reading relies not only on major events but also on integration into the fabric of daily life. The aroma of books fills communities. "What poems are related to horses?" "With spring breeze得意, the horse's hooves fly swiftly," "Recall those years, iron-clad steeds, swallowing vast miles like a tiger"... As the host posed questions, the audience eagerly responded during a poetry exchange and sharing event themed "Finding Poems on 'Horseback' · Elegance and Lasting Fragrance" at the Qiaoxi Community Yuanxiangshu Grid Party-Mass Service Station in Meihekou City, Jilin. "There are many children in our jurisdiction with strong reading demands. We regularly hold reading sharing activities to plant the seeds of reading in their hearts," said Jiang Pinyu, the station master.
The scent of ink drifts over the fields. Setting up book stalls at the market, Shanyou Town in Songyuan City brought a mobile library to the fair, making it convenient for villagers to read and borrow books while shopping. "This initiative makes reading resources more 'active' and allows cultural services to 'sink down' to the grassroots, letting wisps of book fragrance permeate the countryside," said Yang Yizhong, Deputy Mayor of Shanyou Town.
Jilin actively promotes the establishment of a reading promotion activity network covering the entire province, having continuously cultivated the "Fragrant Jilin" Reading Season branded activity for ten years, using benchmark events to lead the popularization of reading trends. A vertically integrated mechanism connects provincial, municipal, and county levels, fostering a province-wide reading ecosystem where "each locality has its own brand, each locality its own特色." Horizontally, publicity departments deepen collaboration with education departments, trade unions, the Communist Youth League, women's federations, disabled persons' federations, and others, meticulously creating a batch of distinctive, targeted public reading brand activities such as the "Reading Moves Campus" activity, the "Chinese Dream · Labor Beauty—Read Classic Books, Strive to Be Era Artisans" worker creative reading activity, family parent-child reading activities, and "Ji Xiao Hong Reading Online," achieving comprehensive and wide-coverage reading promotion services. "We will focus on building 'Reading+' public cultural living room scenes covering urban and rural areas as well as transportation corridors, delivering reading services to every corner of social life," said Wang Di, Deputy Head of the Jilin Provincial Committee Publicity Department and Director of the Provincial News Publication (Copyright) Bureau.
Ensuring reading access for all demographics is crucial for strengthening public reading safeguards. At the农家书屋 (rural library) in Chuangye Village, Xianghai Mongolian Township, Tongyu County, Jilin Province, a calligraphy plaque inscribed with "Let Culture Lead Tomorrow" hangs above the reading room door. "Reading is even more necessary in the countryside. Villagers gain knowledge and feel the weight of culture through reading," said Lin Haijiang, the library's administrator.
In 2017, Lin Haijiang converted a vacant room in his house into a library, which initially held just over 200 books. With support from various parties, the library now boasts a collection of over 5,300 books, attracting many villagers to read there.
The transformation of this single rural library epitomizes Jilin's recent efforts to strengthen public reading safeguards. The province allocates special fiscal funds annually, primarily targeting special groups such as financially disadvantaged students, urban and rural residents in difficulty, and persons with disabilities, distributing 50,000惠民购书卡 (beneficiary book purchase cards) and over 100,000 electronic reading cards, effectively safeguarding the basic reading rights of various groups and ensuring the warmth of reading reaches all corners of society.
With a simple click, logging into the "Jiyue Wan Jia" (Jilin Reads for All Households) public-benefit digital reading platform brings medical journals onto the screen. "As medical students, these free digital resources help us broaden our channels for acquiring professional knowledge," said Jia Jinlu, a student at Baicheng Medical College.
In recent years, Jilin has utilized a digital普惠 (inclusion) model to break geographical barriers, focusing on developing the "Jiyue Wan Jia" platform which freely provides no less than 100 million articles/items of online digital reading resources and audiobook services covering literature, technology, art, and other fields. It also grants university students within the province free one-year access permissions, supporting their online reading, academic retrieval, and downloading of vast resources including journals, master's/doctoral theses, newspapers, conference literature, yearbooks, standards, patents, and reference books.
Currently, Jilin possesses a network of 9,328 rural libraries, 1,839 community reading spaces, 1,034 physical bookstores, 66 university libraries, and 67 public libraries serving as grassroots cultural strongholds, constructing a reading system that blankets both urban and rural areas and strives to fully meet the reading needs of all population groups. "Jilin is strengthening systematic planning, deeply advancing the construction of a scholarly society, encouraging more public cultural spaces to undertake reading promotion tasks, while simultaneously invigorating the publishing and book markets, and accelerating the formation of a cultural trend where all people love reading, read good books, and are skilled at reading," said Cao Lubao, Member of the Standing Committee of the Jilin Provincial Party Committee and Head of the Publicity Department.