The First Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Children and Teenagers Reading Promotion Action was unveiled in Beijing on May 31 to mark the International Children's Day and the implementation of the Regulation on Promoting Nationwide Reading. More than 200 people attended the activity. 

Wang Gang, Vice-Chairperson of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), said that reading is the most profound carrier for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to further strengthen cultural exchanges, nurture children's soul and build regional consensus. Wang called on children of the region to take books as their companions, draw strength, nurture fine character and enrich lives through reading classical literature.

Du Rui, President of the CCTF, said the activity is of great importance to foster family reading traditions, carry forward revolutionary traditions and cultivate the new generation with noble ideals and aspirations. She urged people from different social sectors to work together to safeguard the healthy and happy growth of children and teenagers. She encouraged children and teenagers to draw inspiration from reading, firm up ideals and convictions, and foster a deep love for the Party and the country.

Ma Hong, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Beijing Radio & Television Station, introduced that the station will fully leverage its media resources and platforms to showcase extraordinary youth reading works and disseminate reading culture. She added that 200 public welfare reading corners will be established, and charitable reading groups will be built to hold regular reading activities in communities, villages and special education schools.

The activity brought together public welfare forces to support the balanced development of regional reading resources. Kaiming Charity Foundation donated 1.0974 million yuan (US$ 161,382) to the CCTF. Several other organizations donated nearly 100,000 books and e-readers.

Jin Xin, Vice-President of Kaiming Charity Foundation, called for more efforts to bridge urban-rural gap in reading resources, ensuring each child in the region has access to equitable and high-quality reading resources.

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During the event, the women's federations of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei jointly launched a special action initiative on promoting reading on campuses and in communities as well as families. Representatives of families and students called on children to persist in daily reading and delve into classic works, and asked the whole society to promote parent-child reading and cultivate family reading traditions.

The event also featured situational and original plays, which portrayed warm scenes of parent-child reading, the dedicated efforts of rural teachers, and the profound connotation behind fostering virtue through reading and nurturing soul through culture.

The action is open to children and teenagers of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, who can regularly upload the short videos of their recitation works. A series of online and offline reading activities are scheduled to be held as well to build a long-term mechanism of reading promotion.

In the next step, the CCTF will take the building of 200 special reading corners on campus as a carrier to further advance public reading in 12 cities with the anticipated participation of over one million families in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The action will further promote the all-round development of children and inject new vitality into the coordinated development of culture in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.