Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Round Table.
You're listening to Round Table and Limeing joined by NewHoling and Branden Yeats in the studio.
Coming up on today's show, April 23rd marks the World Book and Copyright Day, which is designed,
designated by the UNESCO to promote the enjoyment of books and reading.
On this special occasion, we take a look at the growing interest in community libraries in Chinese cities.
Meanwhile, the 2024 Beijing International Film Festival is underway in the Chinese capital.
The final winners of the 10 Tan Awards will be announced at the event,
and diverse selection of domestic and international movies will be on exhibition in Sena Maus across the city.
Today on Round Table, we direct your attention to some of the highlights of the Weeklong Festival,
and in roughly 25 minutes from now, we will present the second episode of our English radio drama,
Echoes of Kool-Liang.
We hope you enjoy a story of connection and friendship that has lasted beyond a century.
Now, on Round Table, we celebrate the World Book and Copyright Day,
and this is a day, as we said earlier, designated by the UNESCO,
as to celebrate and promote the enjoyment of books and reading, and this has been a tradition or more like a norm since the year 1995.
Every April 23rd, we celebrate the day, observe the day in different cities around the world.
The day was actually chosen to honor the anniversary of the death of both William Shakespeare and Miguel Durceventus,
who both died on the day, actually 16-16.
The day is celebrated in over 100 countries around the world, aiming to promote the joys and reading and value of books.
They both die on the same day.
Yes.
In the same year.
Probably not.
Are they on the same year?
In the same year?
Wow, that's a...
I did not know that.
On the same day, for sure.
And people around the world actually have different activities,
celebrating the day, especially in the day and age of digital media,
full on and more.
Especially for people working in publishing industry,
they feel the need to more and more encourage people to read,
which is actually beneficial to each and every individual as well.
And that is one of the reasons that on this occasion, UNESCO and the International Organizations,
representing the three major sectors in the book industry, publishers, booksellers, and libraries,
would select a world book capital.
That's a thing for this special day.
Right.
The initiative actually started in 2001 with Madrid,
being the first city to be honored.
Each city selected as world book capital,
commits to promoting books, reading, and the publishing sector.
And to organizing activities over the course of the year.
Well, this year, the capital is a stress books in Germany,
and China is yet to have one on the list of World Book Capital.
Yes.
And the campaign starts today.
We're going to be next.
We're going to be next.
Absolutely.
And for those of you who are interested in trying to make your city a book capital of the world,
what you can do is actually try to prepare the information for an application
to go through the application process.
And you have to propose the plans to promote books and literacy.
And these programs should include public and private partnerships,
involve various cultural events like book fairs, author readings, workshops,
and initiatives that encourage reading among all age groups,
especially targeting those who have limited access to books.
And plenty of that is ongoing currently in the build up to World Book Down.
I know there's hundreds of events taking place across China, which is great to see.
Exactly.
Which is why I think we should definitely prepare the information and material to apply
because we are already doing many of those things.
For example, in Shandong, that's the province.
Actually, on April 20th, the 14th city of books was launched
at the Jinan City Library in Shandong Province,
with elementary school students participating in book exchange event
in Chongqing. For example, you see kids and teachers are reading through,
are reading both paper books and also through tablets and different types of digital facilities.
And also in Nanchang, there are reading activities,
reading for an hour campaign.
And it's reported that over 3,000 readers participated in the event that day
and more than 4,500 copies of the initiatives were distributed to a lot of different people.
Hopefully all of these reading campaigns are helping with
making the kids put down those cigarette cards that we were talking about last week
and picking up books instead.
I'm sure they're doing that at least for that day.
Yes.
In fact, beyond the specific date,
there are also campaigns being launched across the country to promote reading.
I think specifically in the city of Beijing over the past few years,
we've seen the effort in building and expanding, in fact,
expanding the access to books in my residential community.
There are these vending machines where you can scan a code and buy certain books.
Even in the, you know, over the weekend, I went to a football court, you know,
a football field and right beside the field, there was this vending machine
that I described earlier where you can just scan a code and buy books.
So Beijing really minks it.
I love the idea of, you know, a football player at half time going to a vending machine
and instead of getting an energy drink, picking up a book.
Or maybe after a match, you feel like you want to enjoy some peaceful and quiet leisure time.
Absolutely.
And actually for the coming, well, actually this year in 2024,
for invaging various public libraries,
is going to held around 700 public reading events.
And you get to see the variety of these different events.
Some of the events would encourage people to attend certain speech made by masters.
Some of them would invite them to go on a tour to different places and promote books
with the theme of that tour.
So different activities encouraging people to maybe get exposed
to two different types of books that they didn't realize that they're into.
And even on university campuses, I think we've discussed it before,
or I've seen it in the news recently,
where a couple of university campuses are having these reading events
where they're encouraging students to read books and then to come forward into certain classes
or events and share with the crowd their experiences of reading and what it meant to them.
So it's creating this kind of system where people are able to share their personal experiences
that they gained from reading certain books.
And I think that's something that a lot of prospective readers need to hear.
Is that yes, reading is, I suppose it takes more effort than just watching a movie
or watching a TV series or something like that.
But it often creates a personal experience that you may not have had without it.
And I think people sharing those experiences will also encourage others to take up reading
that may not have done so prior to hearing that information.
Of course, there are these and more occasions that we've developed and designed to promote reading.
And in fact, we are looking forward to some more data on the reading habits of Chinese people.
I mean, I think later the day we'll have more results coming from the event that's being held exactly today.
And also when it comes to reading, despite the lack of the most recent data,
we can in our daily life observe some changes that we personally experience when it comes to reading.
I think the number one issue is today, the Chinese people are no longer cleaning
only to the paper books when they read.
And digital reading has been a good thing, even though Amazon seems to have lost a battle
to domestic brands when it comes to the market for digital readers, electronic readers.
Still, that's pretty much a huge market.
More Chinese brands are really rising to popularity.
Meanwhile, I think when people was time being more and more devoted to video streaming platforms,
reading has found a way to, you know, sneaking to these markets as well.
All websites like Billy Billy or I think mostly Billy Billy.
More often than not, I can come across a video that is actually the reading of a book.
And sometimes with AI technology assisting the production of the video,
you can hear the audio book at the same time get an animated version of the book,
doing that, certainly has the reading experience.
I've kind of noticed this trend on subways as well.
When you do get a lot of people that are looking at their phones, obviously just waiting to get off at the next stop or whatever it may be.
And I would say it's equal in terms of the amount of people that are watching either short videos on a streaming app.
But again, half the amount of people are also looking at their phones reading.
And I would normally assume that they were reading news headlines or whatever it may be.
But when I actually observed what people were doing and scrolling very slowly,
I realized that they are actually reading, which I think is a great trend and also a great way to make time pass by on the subway.
Yeah. So let me mention artificial intelligence helping people get information or helping people read or select the books they want to read.
Actually, there are so many different tools.
And I think that has also become a trend for people's life that is instead of picking a paper book and start reading and taking notes and finish reading what people do now.
They have a lot more choices nowadays. For example, you mentioned the read aloud tools that allows people to convert text to speech, making books accessible to those who are visually busy or even visually impaired.
Sure.
And we've also got different language translation and comprehension tools, changing or translating books or access to non-native speakers to understand the kind of books that they want to read, but they do not understand the language.
Making translators obsolete.
Well, not exactly because I feel like sometimes when you're reading, if you're reading for pleasure, if you want to get the beauty of the language of the wording, then you need a good translator.
But if you're only trying to abstract or trying to find out the exact piece of information, then a translating machine might be good enough.
And in the meantime, we've also got AI tools generated concise summaries of books allowing readers to quickly grasp the main points.
Or Cheat on the homework.
That happens as well. And there are even better ways to cheat. That is, we've got AI-powered interactive reading assistance that can answer questions about the text you provide them.
I wish all of us a kid now back in high school. Life would have been so much easier.
Or you can be a better kind of kid that is to use the AI-powered study aids, which means you can give the AI tools the kind of book you want to read the PDF file.
And then the AI tool can actually generate study sets for the book content. They can generate flashcards. They can even create personalized study plans based on the content of a book.
Amazing.
So there are so many different tools out there. All you need to do is to have the inspiration, to have the courage, and also have the patience to actually start reading.
Well, AI certainly has helped make reading more efficient. But I think sometimes reading is... no, efficiency, the word is overrated in this sense that not everybody, not every brain is fine tuned to accept, to withstand efficiencies.
Sometimes our brain takes a little time to digest and understand and comprehend certain meaning, being conveyed in books.
And so I would suggest that, of course, these AI technologies are very helpful, but reading is a process in an office self.
It's a process that trains your mind, that adapts your mind to whatever information there's going about around you. And if you find that artificial intelligence is not helping you getting the necessary information, not training your brain enough, then perhaps slowing things down a bit is the smart way to do it.
I guess it depends on your goal. So if you're reading for leisure, I would definitely recommend what you would just suggest now, but with regards to studying, it sounds like, especially if you have so much to study, and I think a lot of high school and university students are sometimes inundated with the amount of work that they have to do.
It sounds like some of these AI tools can really...
Black hearts.
Yeah, can really help them focus and fine tune their studying, which I think is fantastic.
Right. Reading really has changed a lot over the past few years, and another thing that we observed on roundtable is the popularity of community libraries.
I mean, these libraries have been built. We've been talking about it for the past few years, and they really have been built since more about 10 years ago, and the number really are bound in big cities like Beijing.
But all of a sudden, particularly this year, there are more talks about community libraries. Why is that? Why is it that something that was built probably 10 years ago suddenly becomes more popular these days?
I think it's because they are being rediscovered as a great place to spend your leisure time, because we have the conversation about being introvert versus an extrovert, and a lot of young people identify them as an introvert.
They do not want a super busy place where they can chat out loud with their friends, what they actually need is a quiet place with hot water, with air conditioner, with Wi-Fi, perhaps.
To spend some quiet and concentrated time, and they discovered that these community libraries are good place to do that.
These places can not only provide them with a comfortable environment to either read or to study their own stuff, but in the meantime, more importantly, it can give them the sense that they are getting the grasp of their routine of life.
That is, they spend certain amount of time every day or every week in the library, making it a habit of their daily life, and that makes them feel like they've got this anchor or this kind of pillar spiritually or mentally that they need in their life.
The keyword is convenience or accessibility, because community libraries by its name means that it's an institution located within your residential community or within a walking distance of that residential community.
The key thing is that some people are saying that they don't need to get changed, they don't need to put out makeup, or they need to just walk, cause the door and just walk to the community library, and maybe they'll immediately be immersed in a reading booth, and that seems to be the advantage that community libraries are presenting to those who really want to read.
In the meantime, I think the system that comes with the community library has somehow improved. We all know the national library of China or the municipal library of Beijing, but these are high level libraries, certain rules might have to be imposed on those who visit.
But then when it comes to community libraries, perhaps you can afford to be a little casual, perhaps you can afford to not wear makeup and show up, perhaps you can afford to bring your own books and try to do your own homework within the premise.
Most of the system allows readers to borrow books and return it in a different location, perhaps a book that you borrowed from the municipal library of Beijing, you can return them at the community library.
This obviously involves a lot of investment in terms of resources, but it certainly is making life much easier for those who do want to read and who do want to make use of these community libraries.
And this is the moment when I want to extend my gratitude to the city planners who invited the invented the idea of a 15-minute reading circle that is within 15 minutes, you get to go to a community library and enjoy your leisure time.
You'll listen to a round table coming up highlights of the ongoing Beijing International Film Festival.
Looking for passion? How about fiery debate? Wanna hear about current events in China from different perspectives? Then tune in to round table, where East meets West and understand is the goal.
Being lightened by films united as one, that's the main theme of the 14th Beijing International Film Festival. There's currently going on in the Chinese capital. It's an occasion when movie industry insiders and scholars and even movie goers get together to enjoy and celebrate the art of the filmmaking and the
producing them and appreciating and making use of light and telling stories.
Definitely actually the Beijing International Film Festival is held from April 18th to the 26th this month. And the control of the events definitely would be the Tian Tian Award.
It is officially the official competition section of the Beijing International Film Festival. Each year it comprises a maximum of 17 full-length feature films during the festival. A seven-member jury committee will watch the short-listed films and select the films and filmmakers to be awarded in 10 categories.
So that is going to be a feast for movie goers. And in the meantime, as many other film festivals out there, it is already a celebration and a carnival. Actually carnival is one of the key words of the event.
For people that they can spend some time in the town of films, they can attend different movie screenings both online and offline. And there are even events such as nightfares such as on-site real-life music performances as well as...
Boxing matches apparently. Boxing matches as well. And esports competitions to attend and to watch. So so many different fun going on currently.
I mean the competition obviously is important for moving industry professionals and insiders. I mean this is an occasion where they have an opportunity to showcase their own product and make friends and communicate and get valuable exchanges. But on the other hand, the film festival also is an occasion for the average movie goers or even the average residents in the city to have an opportunity to see movies that otherwise...
Isn't immediately available in the in the in the what is the the pin down or the in the movie schedule movie schedule the regular movie schedule the market oriented movie schedule.
So we have a number of movies in fact more than 240 outstanding Chinese and foreign films and that will be screened from April 18th of 27th at 27 partners, cinemas and venues. I mean I used to cover Beijing International Film Festival.
And one of the things that really got me hooked up is the the chance of watching movies that aren't exactly available otherwise in commercial movie cinemas. So every year around this time people are getting really getting excited about whether they can get a ticket to see this could be a historical movie, could be a classic movie, could be something that's from a nation that's not particularly well known in terms of the movie.
And in terms of the movie landscape still they get a chance to be viewed to be aired on these occasion.
Well actually not only that there are different themed or sub selection of different movies as well. For example we see restored classics using cutting edge technologies to help bring classics back to the screen and making them 4k film.
And there are themes featuring women's voices. They will screen impressive female themed films and also admission is another sub theme and that's becoming increasingly popular.
Yes definitely.
And also a new section where new sub section this year is live theater. This sub section will present a rich variety of recordings of live Chinese and foreign stage plays and performances in cinemas. So as to explore the diverse future of cinema.
And of course there is a special sub section featuring French movies this year because this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China Friends Diplomatic Ties. So classics and latest French films that spend around 6 decades include bend of outsiders, Lavian Rose, these movies would.
Yes a classic would also attract I would assume a lot of viewers. And I think among the discussions A.I's influence on films also one of the trending topics amongst industry insiders from all across the world.
So it will be interesting to see from my perspective what influence A.I will have on films going forward into the future. I think that will be a very interesting trend to keep an eye on.
Yes you also should like on the other eye catching event that people can sign up for during these international film festivals that is there are seminars and discussions that is open to those who have bought a ticket.
So there are discussions about documentaries or maybe this year like Brendan said earlier discussion about how artificial intelligence technology is going to affect the moving industry and how these professionals are going to deal with the onslaught of this technology.
So this is certainly quite interesting. I actually had a chance to talk to a lot of movie professionals on these occasions. So if you are a media professional or if you are a avid movie fan then these are the occasions that you must cease upon to get that exposure.
And there are plenty of movies that we just mentioned earlier and that's being promoted at the festival. Anything that stands out for you.
Yes I am quite interested about this film called Not a Word that is directed by Hannah Slack and it seems to involve a variety of topics. It involves conversations, the relationship between a mother and a son. There is a criminal aspect to it. It also involves relations between students at school.
So I think it covers a variety of topics that could really interest a large audience. So I think that's something to keep an eye on. You can definitely buy a ticket and well of the film festival and go check it out. As for me I picked a movie called I Love You to the Moon and Back.
Sounds like a children's story. No it's a very lovely story about this newlywed couple who work in different cities and they meet once a month traveling on a slow train.
And because they both got a special day off and they decided to surprise each other on each other's cities.
From what to the moon and back? They keep on missing each other on the train to the opposite directions, the opposite cities. I think it'll be a cool and fun and sweet movie to watch.
Maybe a reason for couples to be angry about why don't you talk to me before buying the train tickets. What a waste of money.
I think it's an element of surprises.
