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.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
A fourth person has died in a food poisoning outbreak linked to the Xinyi (信義) branch of Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in Taipei, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said on Monday. It was the second fatality in three days, after another was announced on Saturday. The 40-year-old woman experienced multiple organ failure in the early hours on Monday, and the family decided not to undergo emergency resuscitation, Wang said. She initially showed signs of improvement after seeking medical treatment for nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but her condition worsened due to an infection, he said. Two others who
The long-awaited Taichung aquarium is expected to open next year after more than a decade of development. The building in Cingshui District (清水) is to feature a large ocean aquarium on the first floor, coral display area on the second floor, a jellyfish tank and Dajia River (大甲溪) basin display on the third, a river estuary display and restaurant on the fourth, and a cafe and garden on the fifth. As it is near Wuci Fishing Port (梧棲漁港), many are expecting the opening of the aquarium to bring more tourism to the harbor. Speaking at the city council on Monday, Taichung City Councilor
Taiwanese should be mindful when visiting China, as Beijing in July is likely to tighten the implementation of policies on national security following the introduction of two regulations, a researcher said on Saturday. China on Friday unveiled the regulations governing the law enforcement and judicial activities of national security agencies. They would help crack down on “illegal” and “criminal” activities that Beijing considers to be endangering national security, according to reports by China’s state media. The definition of what constitutes a national security threat in China is vague, Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said. The two procedural regulations are to provide Chinese