白桦谈中国国民阅读现状(英文版)

王蒙先生日前在《人民日报》发表批评文章说：是不是现在的青少年，已不像我们当年那样热衷阅读了？他们的生活与获取信息的手段是怎样便捷、舒适与多样啊。只要有手机，已经知道哪个官员出了丑,哪样食品吃死了人。甚至越来越多的人没有认真读过书，只不过看了一点视听节目，就觉得自己懂得了，大大败坏了对经典作品的观感与品味了。

其实他说的阅读之好，读书之乐，都是对的。他说的阅读对语言系统的训练至关重要，也是对的。

但王蒙先生说“现在的青少年不像当年那么热衷阅读”、“不止一人用网上的浏览来代替专心致志的阅读，用虚拟的世界代替真实的体验与思考了”，可就没道理了。不爱阅读爱浏览，不爱实体爱数字的青少年，当然有，还挺多。可是这些现象与不热衷阅读并不构成因果关系。

我只需要举出两个例子就可以证明这一点。

一是所谓的网络文学。最具有代表性的，是诸如盛大、起点等以网络文学及衍生品为主要经营项目的公司，它们提供海量阅读，并从中赚取巨额利润，连带捧出了一众收入不菲的网络写手。如果没有庞大的付费读者群来支撑，这类公司如何盈利？也许其中部分作品的文学含金量不高，但大浪淘沙，留下的总归有其价值。

另一个例子是豆瓣网，和起点网比起来，豆瓣简直是文艺、文学、文化到了浓得化不开的地步。豆瓣这两年重点打造的电子出版项目“豆瓣阅读”，省去了传统出版的诸多繁琐流程，直接将作者、作品和读者联系在一起，而且定价相对纸书要低得多，作者收入也更明晰。我在豆瓣阅读中出版的电子书，有的登上了畅销排行榜，实打实获得了销售收入。这一点其实令我挺意外的，我没想象到愿意付费的读者，远比我估计的要多。

在探讨青少年是否热衷阅读的问题上，不应计较于阅读的媒介与方式是什么，甚至也不应过多计较于他们目前阅读的内容是什么，因为阅读本就是提供趣味与知识的方式之一，培养阅读习惯比规定阅读书目有意义得多。我没法像王蒙先生那样为青少年不热爱阅读经典而痛心疾首。我反而要说，不喜欢经典喜欢视听的人很多，但这很正常，这是传播渠道的天然优势，阅读从来就不只限于文学。

王蒙先生是文学前辈，但这次恐怕打错了板子，又对阅读形式抱有偏见，我倒是真心建议王蒙先生不妨亲身去体验下，另外一个更加广阔的“阅读”世界。

事实上，花朵般、金子般、火焰般、匕首与针刺般的言语、段落、章节与名篇巨著，一直都在被现在的青少年阅读着。我使用过各种手机阅读软件和网站，几乎全部都会提供古今中外经典著作的免费下载。没有需要，他们何必制作这类电子书呢？知识与经典是否印在纸上并不重要，在屏幕与网络上它们与人的距离更近。受益于科技，今天青年人的眼界将比之前所有世纪的人都更为开阔。

这个世界之所以进步，是因为人类获得知识信息、情感共鸣和审美愉悦的手段更加丰富了。上一代人总会为下一代人不像自己而莫名担忧，还好历史告诉我们，一般情况下，下一代人总比上一代人更加进步和开化。

Mr. Wang Meng recently in the " People's Daily " published criticism of the article said: It is not now a teenager , has been as enthusiastic as we read in those days ? Their lives and how access to information means convenient, comfortable and diverse ah. As long as there are mobile phones, already know which officials out of the ugly , Which foods to eat dead people . More and more people do not even read the book carefully , but looked a little audio-visual programs , they feel that they know , and greatly tarnished the perception of classical works and taste it.

In fact, he said, reading the good, the joy of reading , all right. He said that reading the language system training is essential, also correct.

But Mr. Wang Meng said, "Today's young people not so keen then read ," " more than one person to use the Internet browser instead of dedicated reading , with the virtual world instead of real experience and thinking ," and may ridiculous. Do not love reading love browsing, do not love love digital entities teenagers , of course , pretty much. But these phenomena are not keen to read and does not constitute causality.

I just need to cite two examples can prove it.

First, the so-called network literature . Most representative , such as a grand , the starting point to the network literature and other derivatives as the main business projects of the company, they offer massive read, and earn huge profits , is offering up a joint public -paid online writers . If you do not pay a huge audience to support, these companies how to profit ? Maybe some of the literary works of gold is not high, but the Ebb Tide, there is always left its value.

Another example is the watercress network , and the network compared to the starting point , watercress is simply art, literature, culture is thick to the point . Watercress past two years focused on creating an electronic publishing project "watercress reading " , eliminating the tedious process of many traditional publishing directly to authors, works and readers linked , but pricing is much lower relative to paper books , authors and more revenue clear. I published in the watercress reading books, some boarded the bestseller list , honest gained sales revenue. This is actually quite unexpected to me , I did not imagine that readers are willing to pay , estimated to be more than I am .

Investigate whether young people are keen to read the question , should not care to read what the media and methods , nor even much care for them should be the content of what is currently reading because reading this is to provide fun and one of the ways of knowledge cultivate reading habits much more meaningful than the prescribed reading list . I can not for young people like Mr. Wang Meng did not love to read classic and bitter. I would say , do not like the classics like audiovisual lot of