Zhao Li is a college teacher, she began to invest in the construction of reading space and the promotion of reading for the whole people since 2014, in the context of the construction of bookish China, mainly in the community grassroots to create different themes of the study, in the masses to promote reading for all. For more than seven years, she has used the "community study" as a model to realize the "last mile" of mass reading.
The community study founded by Zhao Li condensed multi-cultural resources, planned and organized more than 500 activities for the residents, and the number of online and offline participants reached more than 20 million, but the fee was 100% zero. The "Haitang Bookstore" and "Yide Study" founded by her have been praised by the residents as "our own shared study", and have been rated as "Beijing Xicheng District Characteristic Reading Space", "New Era Civilization Practice Base" and "Beijing Lifelong Culture Learning Platform".
The first study she founded, the "Begonia Bookstore", was originally a book club spontaneously formed by a few neighbors and friends in the community. The reading club mainly began to study the classics of traditional Chinese studies with the "Filial Piety Classic", the first of the Thirteen Confucian Classics. In this year, Teacher Zhao Li was invited to do cultural brand planning work for Wanshou Park in Xicheng District, combined with the park environment and the surrounding crowd structure, positioning the park as the only old people's theme park in Beijing with the core concept of "filial piety and culture and the world", and transforming an abandoned and idle space in the park into a "reading space for respecting the elderly and loving the elderly", which is the spiritual home of the elderly today - "Haitang Bookstore". The positioning of this space stems from the reading and understanding of the Book of Filial Piety, because "filial piety, the essence of virtue."
The "Begonia Bookstore" was officially opened on September 28, 2014, and on the morning of the same day, one of the scenes that most touched Teacher Zhao Li was that several octogenarians walked into the bookstore and applauded like cheering children, saying "Thank you for creating such a space". Another nearly 100-year-old gentleman trembled and walked majestically to the door of the study with a crutch, wrapped his thick handwritten testimonials in rice paper and handed them to Zhao Li. At that moment, Teacher Zhao seemed to feel a sense of trust and mission that he had never felt before. It was also that morning that Teacher Zhao announced at the team meeting that haitang bookstore would be positioned as a public welfare "reading space for respecting the elderly and loving the elderly", creating a book space in the garden for the surrounding elderly, and self-financing the purchase of 60,000 copies of the "Filial Piety Classic" and donating them to the surrounding residents, passing on traditional Chinese culture and creating a reading atmosphere for the society.
Located in Taoranting Street, "Yide Study" was rated as a lifelong learning culture brand project in Beijing in 2021, and a characteristic reading space in Xicheng District. This reading space not only provides readers with a fresh and elegant reading environment, but also regularly holds cultural and artistic and academic salons with diverse themes. At the same time, the five theme routes of "Shuxiang Xicheng Reading Walk" have been released, through different forms of punch card activities, exploring the central axis and the history and culture of Xicheng District in reading, perfectly combining reading and appreciation, so that the public can get the ultimate enjoyment of spirit and thought.
Zhao Li stressed that he hopes that every reading promotion worker can make the residents around us feel the beauty of reading, the happiness of spiritual life and the cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation. Let's start with the community study model and read a bookish China together.
Source: Beijing Anchor Online
Reviewer: Pan Qiwen
Editors: Liu Shen Xu Liuyan