Peking University, April 24, 2017: 23rd April is the World Book Day decided by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1995. As the full name "World Book and Copyright Day" shows, the purpose of this day is to encourage more people to enjoy reading and to respect and protect intellectual property rights. The importance of reading is also pointed out in the report on the work of the Government where "Nationwide Reading" is advocated.
Echoing this proposal, Peking University (PKU) Library designed serial events with the topic of "Spreading the Voice of Reading" and held the opening ceremony of its serial events on the evening of 20th April. The purpose is to encourage more students to read and cultivate reading culture on campus. The opening ceremony also saw the awarding of "Weiming Reading Stars" to those students who borrowed the most books from the library in 2016.
BieLiqian, vice president of PKU Library, introduced the serial events "Passing the Voice of Reading" at the beginning of the ceremony. The events consist of 5 sections: 2016 PKU most popular books' exhibition, reading lectures, awarding of "2016 Weiming Reading Stars", book exchanging market and reading the same books among teachers and students.
In the reading lecture following the ceremony, professor Li Ling from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature gave a wonderful speech of "Looking back at the 20th century: changes of Chinese historical cultural landscape". After sharing his personal reading experience, he pointed out that reading does great help for cultivating a peaceful mind and solving practical problems in life. In his speech, Li said that the 20th century could be divided into 3 stages by the establishment of PRC and the reform and opening policy. The cultural landscapes varied in different historical stages and were closely combined with the historic relics. At last, with concerns about the current situation of those historic relics, Prof. Li stressed the importance of protecting those crucial relics. This speech inspired students' thought on how to take necessary measures to protect relics and encouraged them to share ideas in the Q&A session.
Xiao Qun, Party secretary of PKU Library, on behalf of the library, expressed great gratitude to Prof. Li for his wonderful speech. He hoped that all PKU students can follow Prof. Li's way of studying: "Walk ten thousand miles; read ten thousand books", and apply the knowledge they learn from books into real practice.
“2016Weiming Reading Stars” list
Postgraduates:
Liang Jian (School of international Studies, borrowed 1260 books)
Chen Wenhao (Law School, borrowed 997 books)
Zhou Jianqiang (Department of Chinese Language and Literature,borrowed 729 books)
Song Xue (Department of Chinese Language and Literature,borrowed 478 books)
Zhou Xueying (School of Foreign Languages,borrowed 415 books)
Undergraduates:
Yang Qiyan (PKU Health Science Center, borrowed 606 books)
Kang Weiyang (Department of Philosophy, and of Religious Studies, borrowed 389 books)
Huang Ju (Yuanpei College, borrowed 349 books)
Liu Yihan (School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, borrowed 327 books)
Zhao Shiqing (Department of Chinese Language and Literature,borrowed 262 books)
Lin Mila (Department of Chinese Language and Literature,borrowed 262 books)
Written by: Su Lan
Edited by: Yan Shengnan
