Reading is an important cultural strategy for China in modern times and an important way for the country to inherit and develop its traditions and spirit, said Yan Hongbin, deputy director of the Palace Museum in Beijing, at the opening ceremony of a nationwide project to promote reading among children at the museum on International Children's Book Day earlier this month.

Li Pan, who hosts a reading program on China Central Television, introduced the project at the ceremony.

Li said it aims to persuade society to create a good atmosphere for children to develop a passion for reading and to help them broaden their vision, enrich their knowledge and nurture their sense of goodness and justice.

The 17th National Reading Investigation Report released in April last year showed that in 2018, Chinese adults on average read 3.32 books, and minors 8.91 books. Among minors, 80.4 percent read, lower than the 84.8 percent in 2017.

The biggest drop was among the group aged up to 8 years old, down from 75.8 percent to 68 percent. In this age group, only 68.7 percent of children regularly read in the company of their parents, a decrease from 71 percent in 2017.

Moreover, children in this age group on average read only 7.23 books that year.

The statistics serve as the backdrop of one of the seven major tasks specified by the government to promote reading among the people, including strengthening efforts to increase children's reading in the company of their parents.

Speaking at the ceremony, Wang Huan, who heads Shijia Hutong Primary School in Beijing, said children need to gain knowledge not just from textbooks, but also from other works.

"Reading will not only broaden children's vision, but it will also help to shape their personalities and boost their courage to conquer difficulties," Wang said.

"If children can foster good reading habits, it will benefit them throughout their lives, and it also might urge their parents to read," she said.

Museum director Yan said that young people are the future.

"From Journey to the West to the science fiction work of Jules Verne, children can read characters traveling by wind or in submarines through the oceans.

Now in reality, we have spaceships and submarines. Dreams are dreams before we walk step by step to realize them, and reading is among the first steps," he said.

"We hope that starting from childhood, all Chinese people will develop a love of reading."