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Chinese people read less

This news makes me very sad. Via CNN:

Last year, 51.7 percent of literate Chinese read books, a drop of 8.7 percentage points from 1998, Xinhua said quoting a survey by the China Publishing Sciences Institute. More than 90 percent of Chinese are literate, official figures show.

It's a day that Chinese, especially the Communist Party, celebrate the century of Deng Xiaoping. Deng designed a new "open" strategy when he led the party, thus was also thought as the saver of China from old close system. Most urban people gets benefits from this policy since it supports free market and free choice of lifestyle. However, Deng did also leave the democratic and political issues to new leaders of Communist Party. They are facing many dilemas today, the globalization of diversified society v.s. controlled voice and behavior, a fast growing economy v.s. more wide income gap between rural and urban areas, etc.

The book figure above shows many meanings to current China society.