• 2019-01-04

As part of the 2018 Taiwan Reading Festival, NCL hosted a Reading Carnival on December 1 (Sat) at Da’an Park. The event began with“Forest Chapter: Start Dreaming Parade”. The National Central Library (NCL) Director-general Shu-hsien Tseng, the Ministry of Education’s Director of Lifelong Education Yue-li Huang, and many other senior officials lead a procession of more than 500 ardent readers. After the parade was the opening ceremony for the Reading Carnival, as well as the award ceremony for outstanding contributions to libraries. Thus began the annual festivities associated with the Taiwan Reading Festival.

The Minister of Education Jiunn-rong Yeh participated in the opening ceremony and presented the 2018 Outstanding Contribution to Libraries Awards at the ceremony. In his remarks, Minister Yeh stated that one of the most important things that supports human life is reading. Through reading, one can achieve inner tranquility. In addition, he also thanked and gave his blessing on public libraries in Taiwan for their outstanding success in promoting reading. These efforts have resulted in the public relying much more on libraries, as well as in the transformation of images of Taiwan libraries. After the ceremony, Minister Yeh went to the Forest Story Village where he morphed into Uncle Yeh and read stories to the children, such as Bravery Soup and Mikey’s Poofy Afro.

The activities at the primary venue for this year’s Taiwan Reading Festival included a “Golden Decade of Reading Achievement Exhibition” at the small stage in the children’s area. On display were the results of reading promotion events held by libraries throughout Taiwan. The most eye-catching of these was the Reading Moon Blocks activity, where participants cast moon blocks at the Library Earth God Temple, after which they signed an Earth God Reading Promise Card that stated within one year they would borrow from their local library and read the number of books based on the result of their throwing the moon blocks. In this way they can fulfill their promise to the Earth God. This event attracted a large number of children.

In the grassy park, children of all ages listened to stories in the Forest Story Village; played a DIY game at the station Forest. “Flying. Fun with Popular Science,” which gave children the opportunity to see how science affects their life; at “the Little Book Lovers” event, children were exposed to Chinese characters and books through activities such as singing children’s songs, looking at pictures, reading stories, recognizing Chinese characters, and create their own illustrated book. Other events included “Save the World through Reading;” “A Walk through the Forest;” “Forest Reading Room;” ” Love the Earth,” “Be Environmentally Conscious;“ “the Book Market;” “ Reading Bazaar;” “Illustrated Books: Listen-Guess-Narrate;” etc. All were popular attractions that got attendees involved and ensured they enjoyed a festive reading feast.