Lishui, April 4 (Chai Yanfei, Shao Yanfei, Zhou Jian) "I strolled through the streets and alleys of Qingtian, the bluestone slabs exuded the atmosphere of time, and the green tile white walls in the alleys were decorated with green trees and red flowers, allowing me to always walk in the painting..." On the evening of April 25, the first "Spring, Let's Read Together" - "Books Fragrant Qingtian Reading City" recitation evening was held in Qingtian County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, and Nastya, a young Russian poet who was appointed as the "Overseas Chinese Hometown Reading Ambassador", recited the original poem "Qingtian Has an Appointment" on the spot. Including Nastya, a total of 4 people were hired as "overseas Chinese reading ambassadors" that night.
As a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in China, Qingtian has 38,1 overseas Chinese distributed in 146 countries and regions around the world, and the rich "overseas Chinese" resources have added vitality to local economic and social development. At present, Qingtian has created a reading atmosphere for the whole people through a series of measures such as hiring "overseas Chinese reading ambassadors" and creating "book coffee bars", so that Qingtian culture can "go global".
The scene of the recitation party Photo by Zhou Jian
"When I first came to Qingtian in 2016, I thought it was a magical place. Here, traditional Chinese culture and Western culture blend together, and the architecture of the city makes me feel as if I have returned to my hometown. Nastya said in an interview that she was particularly impressed by the "Qingtian stone carvings", "The complex and exquisite stone carvings inspired me and wrote poems: The landscape in the stone is splendid China; The character in the stone is my dearest Chinese friend."
As a "reading ambassador of overseas Chinese", Nastya confessed that she has a great responsibility, "I will continue to dig deep into Qingtian culture, create more works, and spread them through new media platforms, so that more people can understand Qingtian and like Qingtian."
Mary Chen, who also serves as the "Overseas Chinese Reading Ambassador", is a "Qingtian daughter-in-law" from Slovakia and has won the first prize of the "Qingtian Dialect Competition for Foreign Sons-in-law and Daughters-in-law". In her opinion, Qingtian culture is inseparable from "a cup of coffee", "in Qingtian you can drink the most authentic coffee in China, and now Qingtian coffee bar has an extra 'book atmosphere', which is more attractive".
As Mary Chen said, coffee is a "golden business card" of Qingtian. Influenced by overseas Chinese culture, many Qingtian people have the habit of drinking coffee. According to statistics, Qingtian has more than 400 cafes, with an average daily drinking of more than 2,<> cups of coffee. Nowadays, in Qingtian's various styles of coffee bars, you can see the scene of "coffee + reading" everywhere, customers drink coffee and read books, and enjoy the different atmosphere of coffee aroma and book aroma.
Shuxiang Coffee Bar Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Qingtian County Party Committee
This is thanks to Qingtian's initiative to actively explore a new model of "book fragrance + coffee" based on coffee bars. In recent years, the county has mobilized coffee bars, bookstores, libraries, urban study rooms, rural book houses and other places to continuously improve reading conditions and open up public reading spaces through "micro-transformation and fine improvement", so that readers can enjoy reading in the atmosphere filled with the aroma of coffee.
It is reported that Qingtian has built the first batch of 100 "book coffee bars", and plans to build more than 2023 "book coffee bars" by the end of 200.
Qingtian also promoted the digital management of "Shuxiang Coffee Bar" by developing a digital cockpit for the reading service of "Shuxiang Coffee" and a digital map of "Shuxiang Coffee Bar"; Open up the reading points and coffee bar payment system, make books a "circulation currency", and achieve mutual benefit and win-win between coffee bar operators and readers; Widely mobilize coffee bars to carry out activities such as "coffee for books" and "reading salons", and distribute 2,<> coffee coupons for free, making "book coffee bars" an important position for promoting reading for all people. (End)