FEATURE - DISCOVERING BEAUTY BY READING THROUGH THE CITY

TEXT_Cheryl Iao/Christy Chiang

PHOTOS_Cheryl Iao/Christy Chiang

ILLUSTRATOR_Lao On On

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established the “World Book Day” in 1995 to encourage the public to cultivate reading habits and to advocate that countries create a good reading environment so that people can acquire good knowledge in books to enrich themselves. As such, the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Education and Youth Development Bureau jointly organized the “4•23 Reading in the City” activity, which was co-organized by the Library of the University of Macau and the Macau Library & Information Management Association. In addition to hosting reading activities, all parties also actively called on the people to read spontaneously, so that the reading atmosphere can permeate all parts of the city. Now let everyone feel the joy of reading through the interviewees of different roles in the activities.

The“4•23 Reading in the City” and the Guangdong-Macao “Reading Together for Half An Hour” reading activities, linking the reading spots in the whole city to promote reading.

In response to the “World Book Day”, Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), together with relevant units, organized the “4•23 Reading in the City” on April 23. In order to strengthen the linkage with the cities in the Greater Bay Area and jointly promote the reading atmosphere, The Guangdong-Macao “Reading Together for Half An Hour” reading event was also co-hosted with Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and other Bay Area cities. With the slogan “Spontaneous and independent, Reading by Oneself, Unlimited Forms, Wonderful Reading”, combined with the form of “1+N” (1 main venue + multiple sub-venues), in addition to holding the main venue activities in the Old Court Building in Nam Van, activities such as children’s story workshops and picture book readings were also held in various locations to create a reading atmosphere in the city.

This year’s event also featured three reading leaders, including IC’s Director Leong Wai Man, IC’s Cultural Ambassador Bond Vu, and the Macao Museum’s Docent for Children Peony Sa, who introduced their favorite books to the public in the form of videos. The books were published by IC, respectively Anthology of Portuguese Travellers in China indicating what the Portuguese saw and heard when they arrived in China in the Ming Dynasty hundreds of years ago; I am designing my life, written by the Macao author Un Kei, indicating how his father jumped out of his comfort zone to pursue his dream in the United States; and The Alchemist, one of the representative works of the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, telling the story of a Spanish shepherd boy who pursues his dreams and goes for a journey seeking treasure in the pyramids. Among the reading leaders, IC’s Director Leong Wai Man, together with Cultural Ambassador Bond Vu and Student Representative Ho Hio Lam, read out selected paragraphs from the Anthology of Portuguese Travellers in China at the main venue, recommended readings and shared their insights with the participants, exploring how the book describes the image of the Ming Dynasty and Eastern civilization in the eyes of Westerners at that time. Participants also actively asked questions and expressed their thoughts, creating a strong reading atmosphere.

In addition, through organizing reading spots in the city, responses from 50 units were received, including primary and secondary schools, associations and enterprises, which spontaneously organized reading activities from April 22 to 24, attracting more than 16,000 participants.

IC’s Director Leong Wai Man, the lead reader of the “4•23 Reading in the City” 2022, read out the selected paragraphs of the Anthology of Portuguese Travellers in China.

Participants actively asked questions and expressed their thoughts.

In 2022, Bond Vu, the reading leader of “4•23 Reading in the City”, feels that both music and reading have the power to heal and serve as a spice for life.

Bond Vu, a post-90s slash youth, engages in a career in news media and public relations and is also a musician in private. Earlier, he became Macao’s Cultural Ambassador, and now he appears in front of the public as the reading leader of “4•23 Reading in the City”. Through the experiences of the two activities, he learned that both music and reading possess healing power, which can bring people comfort when facing setbacks, as a spice for life.

Bond said with a smile that he only read books in the music category before serving as a reading leader, and in modern society, he spends much more time using mobile phones than reading. Therefore, he is not very interested in reading other types of books. Fortunately, after this event, he developed a greater interest in prose, spiritual, and healing books. “Becoming a reading leader made me meditate on reading and let my mind take a break. Not only did I have more inspiration in music creation, but also an outlet for pressure release.”

Under the opportunity of serving as the reading leader, Bond read I am designing my life and Moved and created like this: the musical dream of Japanese film score master Joe. A passage quoted from the latter, “I often think that music can never bring me happiness. This idea makes me feel distressed and tortured. However, even so, I will not give up on music.”, greatly encouraged and motivated Bond. For him, even if he received a positive response to his performance and creation, he was deeply frustrated due to the bottleneck and lack of inspiration behind this. Fortunately, when he broke through the bottleneck, he gained far more satisfaction than hardship. It is precisely because of this opportunity that Bond reconsiders the significance of reading. Reading can not only relieve pressure but also bring endless power to life.

Peony Sa, the lead reader of “4•23 Reading in the City” 2022, believes that the charm of reading lies in the experience of life through words.

Peony Sa, a docent for children at the Macao Museum, spends her spare time giving guided sessions at the Macao Museum. In addition, she is also one of the lead readers of the “4•23 Reading in the City”, which gave Peony a valuable growth experience, “I was originally very introverted and shy, but after serving as a docent, I became cheerful and talkative; while becoming a reading leader may allow more people to read the books I recommend.” When serving as the reading leader, Peony deeply felt that “4•23 Reading in the City” is a good platform for promotion of reading, which enables many book lovers diligently look for treasure in the sea of books. “I like reading very much, but my friends are not very interested in it. However, since they saw my promotional video, they took the initiative to ask me to recommend books for them, or start to pay attention to relevant information.”

The charm of reading is not only to seek knowledge but also a method of self-healing, growth, and opening of the mind. From reading, Peony learned how to face difficulties and adjust her mentality. As claimed by Peony, reading has become an outlet for her to relieve the pressure when facing pressure brought by assignments and exams. In the interview, Peony mentioned more than once that she loves reading. When her study workload was not too heavy, Peony could finish reading a book in two to three days. However, because of her exam preparation recently, ten minutes of reading time every day has become the time she is most looking forward to. “It's like chasing a TV series, I am looking forward to the development of the plot, which allows me to take a break and relax while being busy.”

Reading not only broadens Peony’s thinking capacity but also allows her to look at the world from different perspectives and learn about the experiences of different plots and characters in the book, thereby enriching her own experience. It is because of reading that she is inspired to think about life and appreciate the ups and downs of life from reading books.

“4•23 Reading in the City” spontaneously held different forms of reading activities from April 22 to 24 by organizing Macao units to serve as “reading spots”. The representatives of the four “reading spots” share their feelings about the activities and reading.

BOOK UPS CLUB

Rani Cheong (left) and Sara Sou, founders of the BOOK UPS CLUB, held a reading seminar outdoors.

There are various ways of reading. In addition to reading quietly in the space, you can also, with delicacies in the shade of greenery, share the infinite knowledge and fun in books with club members. The BOOK UPS CLUB, which has organized different reading seminars in the past, chose to hold this seminar where members could read books while having a picnic outdoors, integrating reading with life and entertainment, and breaking the public’s stereotypes of reading seminars. “It is often believed that reading seminars have higher entry requirements and a literary atmosphere, but we think that reading seminars can also be fun and relaxing.”

The two founders, Sara and Rani believe that through the “4•23 Reading in the City”, not only will they feel the charm of reading again, but also extend their discussion with participants to other topics such as dramas, entertainment, and current social affairs and issues, due to the different life backgounds and book preferences of the participants, sparking a variety of ideas and opening another window into the world of reading.

Show Workshop Production Co.

Soso, the founder of the Show Workshop Production Co., uses sign language to “tell” stories.

In the Workshop, the instructor’s hands danced gracefully, telling stories of the fantasy world in the book using sign language. “Sign language itself is a language, and we don’t think it should be confined as “the language of the deaf”. Soso, the founder of the Show Workshop Production Co., believes that the advantage of storytelling in sign language is that most children are used to receiving information visually. Therefore, by combining picture books and sign language, it will be easier to attract their attention and open up their imagination capacity.

Soso said that since students may not understand sign language, the biggest challenge is to find simple and easy-to-understand picture books, and sign language for numbers is the most accessible sign language in daily life. Therefore, they decided to start with picture books about numbers and use the three-dimensional characteristics of sign language to express the content of picture books, so that both the hearing and the hearing-impaired people can enjoy sign language reading and experience the diverse fun of reading through the “4•23 Reading in the City”.

Professional and Graduates Toastmasters Club

Lyfee Lai, Vice President Public Relations of  the Professional and Graduates Toastmasters Club, believes that speaking and reading are both processes of internalization of thoughts.

As the Vice President Public Relations of  the Professional and Graduates Toastmasters Club who participated in “4‧23 Reading in the City” for two years in a row, Lyfee Lai believes that the commonality between speech and reading is that there must be an internalization process. Every script of speech is the result of the speaker’s thinking, and reading can enrich our thinking. On the other hand, both aspects are processes of absorbing other people’s opinions, which also complement each other.

Although participants are interested in different books, they are also eager for new knowledge and in-depth thinking, therefore, the Club has specially established an online group for everyone to express their opinions and discuss reading at any time. “There is a quote on our event poster: A good book is like a gift that can be opened again and again. Participants feel the joy of reading through this event, and continue to gain various knowledge in subsequent readings, continually experiencing the benefits of reading.”

Cuchi-Cuchi Picture Book Education Garden

Lily Wong, the founder of the Cuchi-Cuchi Picture Book Education Garden, believes that reading habits shall be cultivated from an early age.

Whether it is for children or adults, falling in love with reading is a life-long benefit. Lily Wong, the founder of the Cuchi-Cuchi Picture Book Education Garden, believes that “reading is an important factor in shaping personal values and characters. Reading habits should be cultivated from childhood. Otherwise, one can hardly focus on reading when exposed to excessive temptations of electronic products. The promotion of reading is to allow more people to know about good books, let go of other temptations, and discover the beauty lying in books.”

The promotion of reading shall be extended to everyday life, and community reading is indispensable. Lily said that the “4•23 Reading in the City” is an important platform for promoting community reading. On the day of the event, only six groups of families were supposed to participate, however, since the story reading session attracted people from education centres nearby, they looked around and found that a story reading session was being held, so they came to participate together. She said with a smile, “This is the power of promotion of reading in the community. Members of the public in Macao live in different districts, and there are reading spots that allow them to go to the nearest place and indulge in the reading-friendly atmosphere together.”