What are the most popular books amongst Chinese readers? In light of World Book Day, What’s on Weibo gives an overview of the most popular books and readings habits in China.
Starting from the 21st of April, Amazon China has been organizing a campaign titled “Love Reading” to promote nationwide reading. As part of the campaign, that was held in light of World Book Day (April 23rd), the e-commerce giant carried out an extensive survey on the reading habits and preferences of Chinese readers. The survey had more than 11,000 participants from over 500 different Chinese cities.
China’s reading habits
The survey reveals that China has a large reading population; 80% of participants read more than half an hour per day, and half of the surveyed have finished more than 10 books over the past year.

According to the survey results, digital reading has increased in popularity. 84% of the surveyed have digital reading experiences, and Kindle is now surpassing smartphones as the preferred electronic reading tool. Despite the digital developments within the world of reading, paper books remain the preferred choice for many Chinese readers; 80% like to read both digitally and on paper, while 16% say they choose paper books exclusively.

Reading habits vary depending on gender, age and education. Between the two sexes, women tend to read more as a hobby, while men often read for career planning or knowledge acquisition.
Preferred topics of reading are different amongst age groups. The post-2000 generation mostly reads original literature and study-related books; the post-80 generation prefers finance and baby-caring. Post-60s turn to social sciences and philosophy.
China’s most popular books
Amazon.cn also published the top popular paper books and Kindle books for the first season of 2016. Literature and novels are the most popular genre, followed by financial management and social sciences. Within the last category, history is the most popular social science topic.
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According to Amazon’s list, books that were orignally published in English are generally more popular than books written by Chinese authors.
Top Paper Books of 2016
• The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry [岛上书店] by Gabrielle Zevin, 2015 (Novel, originally English)
• Miracles of the Namiya General Store [ナミヤ雑貨店の奇蹟] by Higashino Keigo 東野圭吾, 2014 (Novel, originally Japanese)
• The Willpower Instinct [自控力] by Kelly McGonigal, 2013 (Self-Help, originally English)
• Everything I Never Told You [无声告白] by Celeste Ng, 2015 (Novel, originally English)
• So Slow, So Beautiful [这么慢,那么美] by Tintin Sverredal, 2015 (Travel, originally Chinese)
• Genius Left Lunatic Right [天才在左疯子在右] by Gao Ming 高铭 (Biography, originally Chinese)
• Spark English: Tests and Practices for CET 4 2016 (Examination, originally English)
• Passing by Your World [从你的世界路过] by Zhang Jiajia 张嘉佳 , 2013 (Novel, originally Chinese)
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind [人类简史] by Yuval Noah Harari, 2014 (Social Science, originally English)
• The Kite Runner [追风筝的人] by Khaled Hosseini, 2003 (Literature, originally English)

Top Kindle Books of 2016
• Miracles of the Namiya General Store [ナミヤ雑貨店の奇蹟] by Higashino Keigo 東野圭吾, 2014 (Novel, originally Japanese)
• What Life Could Mean to You [自卑与超越] by Alfred Adler, 2006 (Self-Help, originally English)
• The Shortest History of Europe [极简欧洲史] by John Hirst, 2011 (Social Sciences, originally English)
• The Three-Body Problem [三体全集] by Liu Cixin 刘慈欣, 2012 (Science Fiction Novel, originally Chinese)
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry [一个人的朝圣] by Rachel Joyce, 2012 (Novel, originally English)
• The Complete Sherlock Holmes [夏洛克·福尔摩斯全集] by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Novel, originally English)
• General History of China [中国通史] by Lv Simian 吕思勉 , 2009 (Social Sciences, originally English)
• Everything I Never Told You [无声告白] by Celeste Ng, 2015 (Novel, originally English)
• Never Imagined [万万没想到] by Wan Weigang 万维钢, 2014 (Science, originally English)
• Good, Touch the Head [乖,摸摸头] by Da Bing 大冰 (Biography, originally English)
Reading Nation
Reading books is a habit for many Chinese. According to Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, 58.4% of China’s adult population regularly reads books. Meanwhile, the internet has become a platform for these readers to connect with other book lovers.
Popular Chinese news media like Sina.com, Sohu.com and People.com now all have book sections with recommendations and reviews of new arrivals. In the reading section of online community Douban, users can add entries of books or share their thoughts.
For the World Book Day this year, Sina Weibo launched a special topic titled ‘Page 24, Line 4’ (#23页第四行), where netizens were asked to post a picture of the specific line of the book their reading, and to share their views on the book.
For businesses, World Book Day was a good marketing opportunity. Major online book retailers like Amazon.cn, Tmall.com and Dangdang.com all had sales to promote book purchases, leading to higher sales. For some retailers, like Dang dang, sales were so succesful that their site temporarily crashed due to excessive traffic.
Encouraging reading is also a matter of focus on the state agenda. The publicity department of the PRC previously launched a “nationwide reading” (全民读书) campaign in 2006, as part of promoting the learning society. Chinese Academy of Press and Publication has also been releasing annual reports on reading habits of Chinese citizens. The latest report was released on April 19 in Beijing, which pointed out that China is now reading more than before – truly a book-loving nation.
– By Diandian Guo
Sources:
http://www.199it.com/archives/465029.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2016-04/22/c_128921238.htm
http://cips.chinapublish.com.cn/yjsdt/201604/t20160419_173544.html
Image: featured image by Whatsonweibo,
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2015-04/22/content_20502019.htm
Additional editing by Manya Koetse
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Ed Sander
April 28, 2016 at 4:33 am
A claim like ‘and Kindle is now surpassing smartphones as the preferred electronic reading tool’ and the fact that the survey was done by Amazon says a lot about the representativeness of the sample group and overall reliability of this research.
Tenzinz
May 30, 2017 at 1:52 pm
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Plantday
October 26, 2020 at 1:02 am
Well all the books on weibos list are danmei novels and the most anticapted adaption are also usually danmei novels.Yet I can never see any metion of them. Whats with that.
CaveStone
October 26, 2020 at 1:05 am
Every popular books ranked on weibo are danmei and lets not forget all the fanart for the novels and anticipated adaptions. So where the metions…
Not like they dont get publishing either .