The annual “4.23 Reading Day in the City of Macao” event kicked off yesterday at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Black Box Theatre, and Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) President Leong Wai Man said that her bureau was committed to promoting the concept of “Reading Enriches Life” and thus transforming Macau into a “City of Reading”.
Yesterday marked the annual World Book Day commemorated every April 23 since 1995.
According to the ceremony, about 150 reading activities, including the upcoming “Library Classroom” and “Librarian for a Day” programmes targeting primary and secondary school students, will be part of this year’s event, adopting the “1+N” approach, i.e., one main venue + N (number) branch venues, encouraging the participation of the general public in promoting Macau’s reading atmosphere. So far, about 100 local entities have signed up to become “reading spots”.
The ceremony noted that the “Reading Day in the City of Macao” will bring the public a number of “exciting” activities, in which the “Macao Library Week” will be held at the Macau Cultural Centre this weekend, featuring book exchanges, periodicals, workshops, game booths, performances, book exhibitions, book sales and distribution, while pop-up reading activities featuring literature combined with music and storytelling will be held in various parts of the community this and next month. A Pop-up Library will be set up regularly in different parts of the city so that residents can obtain books free of charge.
Delivering a speech during the ceremony, Leong announced the launch of a “Book Exchange” activity, which will be held in both the peninsula and Taipa on the fourth Saturday of every month from May, providing a platform for the public to share their favourite books and reuse idle reading resources at home.
“This year’s event has also expanded the latitude of its connection with the mainland. In addition to cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA), such as Dongguan Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Macau, in conjunction with Nanning in Guangxi and Haikou in Hainan, jointly organised the “Read Together for Half an Hour” activity [each at a different venue and time in those cities on April 15-23], aiming to promote inter-city reading, bring together the cities and foster cultural and emotional exchanges among different places through reading,” said Leong.
Nine local schools have had the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s (IC) “self-service book pick-up kiosks” installed to enable students to borrow books at any time and any place to optimise the use of public library resources, and Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Deputy Director Wong Ka Ki pointed out in a speech that reading was crucial to students’ development, adding that his bureau has joined hands with the Cultural Affairs Bureau to co-organise various reading incentive schemes since last year, three of which have attracted the participation of students from 54 school divisions, with a total of over 13,000 attendances.
Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ) Deputy Director Wong Ka Ki (left) and Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) President Leong Wai Man deliver their speeches separately during yesterday’s kick-off ceremony of the annual “4.23 Reading Day in the City of Macao” event, at the Macau Cultural Centre’s Black Box Theatre. – Photo combo: Yuki Lei
Students from Ilha Verde Secondary School of the Macau Commercial Association (ACM) lead the kick-off ceremony guests and participants in the reading on the stage at the Black Box Theatre yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
