The Ministry of Culture yesterday reported that Taiwanese read an average of two books per year, a situation that worries Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said.
Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) presented a report on strategies to boost the nation’s publishing industry at a Cabinet meeting in Taipei yesterday.
According to the report, there has been a lack of interest in reading among Taiwanese and that interest is still declining.
On average, Taiwanese read two books per year, compared with 10 books per person per year in France; 8.4 books in Japan; 10.8 books in South Korea, 9.2 books in Singapore; between 10 and 15 books in Israel; and 15 books in Russia, the report said.
In 2010, Taiwanese spent an average of 4.7 hours reading per week, or 40.3 minutes a day, less than the average of 5.1 hours a week, or 43.7 minutes a day, in 2008, while the percentage of Taiwanese who never spend money on books increased from 45 percent in 2008 to 47.5 percent in 2010, it said.
Among those who do not buy books, 33.7 percent said in 2008 that they were not interested in reading. The ratio rose to 35.1 percent in 2010, it said.
The total expenditure of Taiwanese on books in 2008 was NT$1,374, or 0.29 percent of the nation’s average national income. In 2010, the amount was NT$1,536, also about 0.29 percent of the nation’s average income, it said.
With the increasing prevalence of the Internet, digital publishing and a growing Chinese publishing sector, local publishers face mounting challenges, Cheng quoted Jiang as saying at a press conference following the Cabinet meeting.
“What was all the more worrying was the nation’s poor reading habits,” Jiang said as he urged the Ministry of Culture to cooperate with the Ministry of Education to cultivate better reading habits, Cheng told reporters.
The strength of a nation lies in its publishing industry and other cultural industries, and nurturing good reading habits to enlarge the reading population is fundamental to sustaining the nation’s publishing industry, Jiang said.
Deputy Minister of Culture George Hsu (許秋煌) said the ministry would strive to help local publishers explore the Chinese market by asking China to lower tariffs on Taiwanese books during Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) negotiations.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
FUKUOKA SITUATION: Japanese media reported that the pathogen is expected to be identified by the summer, while the CDC downplayed the idea that it was hMPV A “mysterious cold-like illness” reported in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture does not seem to be a new disease, but Japanese authorities have been asked about the situation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The Fukuoka Prefectural Medical Association on Wednesday told a news conference that a “mystery cold” that has become a hot topic on social media is “highly likely to be caused by some kind of viral infection,” Japan’s KBC News reported. “Many people are experiencing symptoms starting with a sore throat, followed by a runny nose, phlegm and a severe cough,” KBC News reported, citing association officials. Health authorities are
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) arrived in Taiwan yesterday ahead of upcoming AI and technology events, saying he plans to meet with clients and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) during his visit. After landing at Taipei Songshan Airport, Huang posed for photos with fans and handed out Yakult drinks to reporters and supporters waiting at the scene, saying he has “a lot to do” during the trip. Asked about reports that Nvidia’s planned headquarters site in Taipei’s Beitou Shilin Technology Park could break ground on May 27, Huang said that if the company holds an event, he would
Carrefour Taiwan is to begin using a new name from the start of July, but it cannot divulge the name until then, the chairman of the supermarket chain's parent company said today. President Chain Store Co chairman Lo Chih-hsien (羅智先) was asked by reporters after a shareholders' meeting to confirm whether the company has settled on a new name for the supermarket brand. In March, the government-registered name of two Carrefour Taiwan branches was quietly changed to "Le Chia Kang" (樂家康) in Chinese, raising speculation that has been selected as the name. Lo said that because of local regulations and contractual obligations, the
RSS