Chronicle traces 6,000 years of Chinese history

More Chinese reading online, but fewer willing to pay

Wu herself does not mind digital books, or paying for digital content, but she prefers buying her books in a brick-and-mortar store. "I enjoy the feeling of the paper, and the smell of the print," Wu says. She usually visits bookstores once a fortnight.

Although younger readers admit to spending long hours on the Internet, they complain that reading on mobile phones and other devices exhausts the eyes. Wang Haoran, a 17-year-old middle-school student, says that reading digital books "feels like playing". Xia Qianhui, a 15-year-old, says free books available on the Internet often contain mistakes or are incomplete.

Han Weidong, director of Shanghai Translation Publishing House (STPH), a leading player in the introduction of foreign books in China, says digital reading is an extension, not the enemy, of the traditional publishing industry. Whether on a mobile device or paper, it is the mission of a publisher to provide readers with high-quality content, he says.

At present, sales revenue from digital books is no more than 4 percent of income at STPH, but Han and his colleagues are very aware of the prospects for digital publishing and are ready to present their best products on a digital platform.

STPH started its digital publishing service three years ago, and Han says that now "all our best-selling and latest publications are available in digital editions–as long as writers grant us the digital copyright".

Some writers, such as Milan Kundera, are against digital publications, refusing to accept them as proper books. Some even compare digital publishing to piracy.