To further promote reading in Hong Kong, Secretary for Culture, Sports & Tourism Kevin Yeung today announced that starting next year, Hong Kong Reading for All Day will be designated on April 23, and the Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) will collaborate with different stakeholders to organise large-scale citywide reading activities.

The activities will include reading sharing sessions or reading promotion activities with authors and celebrities, setting up special decorations and organising thematic activities and book recommendations as well as reading activities outside libraries together with schools and the publishing sector. In addition, Library-on-Wheels, which are specially designed trucks, will visit various communities to hold thematic book displays and promote e-reading.

To tie in with this year’s 4.23 World Book Day, the HKPL organised a series of activities under “'4.23 World Book Day: Fun Reading for All' & '4.23 World Book Day Creative Competition Prize Presentation Ceremony' in 2023” to share the joy of reading.

With the theme “Tasty Reading”, the 4.23 World Book Day Creative Competition attracted over 1,800 entries. Participants shared their experiences and thoughts on food and daily life in the form of paintings, book reports and essays.

Apart from the HKPL, the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Library, Shenzhen Children’s Library and Macao Public Library have also organised competitions under the same theme to enhance cultural exchanges in the Greater Bay Area.

Meanwhile, at “4.23 World Book Day Fun Reading for All” held at the Hong Kong Central Library today, a magic show, interactive story theatre, “meet-the-authors” talk and candy art storytelling were offered for citizens to discover the fun of reading.

HKPL story ambassadors also hosted storytelling sessions in six district libraries today to share the stories of Chinese historical figures for readers.