Here’s a polished English translation of the Chinese title: **”Nourish the Heart with Classics, Forge the Soul through Reading — Runze Garden Education Co-launches the ‘Bookish China, Cultural Confidence’ Special Campaign”**

BeijingApril 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On April 23, during the first National Reading Activity Week following the official implementation of the “Regulations on the Promotion of National Reading,” a grand event themed “Fragrant China, Cultural Confidence” was held in Beijing, featuring the National Reading Activity Week and a new book launch.

This event was jointly initiated by the China Academy of Press and Publication and Runzeyuan Education, organized by the New Education Classic Co-Study Project Team, aiming to implement the spirit of the Regulations and further promote the construction of a bookish society and a culturally strong nation.

The event received full media support from the Xinhuanet Government Affairs Channel and collaborated with 99 co-organizers, including the Education Bureau of Qiyang City, Yongzhou, the Culture and Tourism Bureau of Huimin County, and the Xiuwen Yangming Literature Research Center, to create a strong atmosphere for national reading.

In 2026, China’s national reading cause achieved a milestone leap. The “Regulations on the Promotion of National Reading” officially took effect, for the first time clearly designating the fourth week of April each year as “National Reading Activity Week” through administrative regulations.

This themed event adopted a “1 main venue + N national live-streaming sub-venues” model, with over 1,130 live-streaming points nationwide, and nearly 195,000 participants both online and offline. A total of 45 platforms, including Xinhuanet, simultaneously broadcast the event, with 9.051 million live-stream views and over 79.38 million total page views across the internet.

As a key project of the “Fragrant April” initiative, the organizers launched activities such as the “Hundred Million Reading Gift Pack” and “Free Grab for 10,000 Good Books,” allowing readers to claim a free book delivered to their doorstep, covering new works by renowned authors and classics like the Four Great Classical Novels, bringing the fragrance of books directly to thousands of households. Readers can participate by searching for the “Fragrant April Activity” WeChat service account.

According to incomplete statistics, during the event, 21,000 people participated in a 21-day cultural classic co-reading activity, with a cumulative reading time exceeding 2.55 million minutes.

Ni Yi, Vice President of the China Academy of Press and Publication, provided an in-depth interpretation of the Regulations. He emphasized the need to strengthen the supply of high-quality reading content, innovate and sustain reading promotion activities tailored to local conditions, and advance the construction of “bookish campuses,” “bookish government agencies,” and “bookish enterprises,” integrating reading into daily life to foster a healthy reading ecosystem.

Guo Xiaoyue, Vice Dean of the New Education Research Institute at Soochow University and Secretary-General of the New Teacher Fund at Soochow University, delivered a speech titled “Nourishing the Heart with Classics, Becoming a Spark of New Education in the Era of National Reading.” She recounted how, since Professor Zhu Yongxin initiated the New Education Experiment in 2000, the New Education community has persisted for over two decades in co-reading, co-writing, and co-living, practicing bookish campuses and bookish families, and inspiring more peers to promote reading practices for a Fragrant China, helping children find classics that resonate deeply in the AI era.

Yang Chaoming, Distinguished Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Advanced Institute for Confucian Studies, Shandong University, pointed out that the more powerful AI becomes, the more precious classics are—classics train independent thinking, nourish the heart and emotions, and construct knowledge systems, serving as the “spiritual foundation” for one’s life.

At the event, several practitioners shared stories of how reading transformed their lives. Chen Xiaoping, Principal of Yuhua Experimental Second Primary School in Yuhua District, Changsha, led the entire school in co-reading the “Analects,” turning a struggling school into a well-regarded one among parents over four years. Her story of “reading aloud with a bandaged fracture” and “shifting from demands to inspiration” was deeply moving. Wang Liying, a rural mother from Handan, Hebei, turned her life around from the despair of her child dropping out of school and family breakdown by studying classics, achieving a rebirth. Lin Xiuhui, aged 84, overcame a post-surgery slump by rekindling her inner light through Wang Yangming’s philosophy, aspiring to be a “lovely elderly person.” Zhang Jinghua, worried about “graduating into loneliness,” advocated for careful reading and transcription, making reading a warm support in old age. Lin Jinzhong, Chairman of Qingdao Fragrant Taste Catering Management Co., Ltd., shifted from subcontracting to full self-operation and established a charity kitchen, admitting that classics gave him the courage to do difficult things: “Reading helps us have the courage to do the right thing when times are tough.” Teacher Liu Yang spent 16 years practicing the belief that “education is not about screening, but about lighting up,” insisting on writing words of praise for each child on their birthday, firmly believing that “as long as children don’t lose confidence, they will eventually become useful members of society.”

During the event, Guo Hongbo, Party Branch Secretary of Runzeyuan Education and Vice Dean of the Sino-Swiss Hotel Management Institute, announced the official release of “Falling in Love with China: Cultural Confidence, National Rejuvenation,” published by Guangming Daily Press, which has been designated as a recommended reading for the “Guangming Reading Club.”

He noted that the “New Education Classic Co-Study” has served over 200,000 participants, with more than 70% reporting improved parent-child relationships and smoother home-school communication. He emphasized that a Fragrant China is the cultural confidence growing in every family, enterprise, and campus, starting with reading a book that touches the heart, allowing classics to take root and confidence to flourish.

Zhang Hanyue, Head of the Classic Classroom at Runzeyuan Education, combined with “Cultural Confidence, National Rejuvenation,” highlighted the profound wisdom of the “Four Greats of Life” contained in Chinese classics: the great secret of life is the boundless treasure within one’s heart; the great truth of life is the interplay of actions and their effects; the great strategy of life is cultivating one’s own spiritual quality; and the great value of life is helping others cultivate their spiritual quality. Returning from a world-renowned university and after 12 years of studying Chinese classics, she said: “When I look back, the best education has always been in China. It is an education where life awakens life, a hall of Chinese sage classics.”

This event was a vivid practice of the “Regulations on the Promotion of National Reading,” fully demonstrating the powerful synergy of policy support, social collaboration, and individual action. National reading is gradually integrating into families, campuses, communities, and enterprises, becoming an unconscious lifestyle and spiritual pursuit for hundreds of millions of people. By nourishing the heart with the fragrance of books and casting the soul with culture, the power of classics will take root and sprout in more corners, injecting inexhaustible cultural confidence and spiritual momentum into national rejuvenation.