Reading advocate introduces initiative at national event

By Yan Wanqin.

Chen Mulan, founder of the Island Bookstore in Yichang’s Bailizhou Town, shared her reading program at a national event on April 20. At the fifth National Conference on Reading held in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, she introduced her "Lighting the Way" program as the only representative from Hubei Province.
 

The event, themed "New Countryside, New Youth, New Reading,” brought together rural reading promoters, cultural inheritors, and grassroots librarians to share their experiences in fostering a love of reading in villages.

In 2019, Chen left her job in Shanghai and returned to her hometown. She opened the island's first free bookstore to create a cozy and welcoming reading space open daily.

In 2025, the local government helped transform a 1,000-square-meter grain warehouse into a second, larger Island Bookstore. It has since attracted more reading enthusiasts from across the country. To date, the bookstore houses over 40,000 volumes across a wide range of genres including literature, history, science, and children's books.
 

Through her "Lighting the Way" program, Chen has collaborated with various organizations to launch the "One Square Meter Reading Space" initiative, which provides children in need with desks, chairs, books, lamps, and reading guidance. The program has already benefited more than 100 rural children.

"With good books in hand and fairy tales by the pillow, every child can have a lighthouse in the heart," Chen said. For her, the vision of building a reading-friendly countryside is no longer a distant dream.

Fu Jiangshan also contributed to this story.