To tie in with the 4.23 World Book Day, the Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department organised the "'4.23 World Book Day: Fun Reading for All' cum '4.23 World Book Day Creative Competition Prize Presentation Ceremony' in 2023" at the Hong Kong Central Library today (April 23). A series of fabulous activities were held to share the joy of reading with members of the public and to commend the participants who excelled in the creative competition. Starting from next year, April 23 will be designated as the Hong Kong Reading for All Day to further promote the benefits of reading citywide.

     Addressing at the ceremony, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung, said that the HKPL had been fostering reading to become a consistent habit of members of the public through quality and diversified collections and reading activities on various platforms. To further promote reading in Hong Kong, he announced that starting from next year, the Hong Kong Reading for All Day will be designated on April 23. The HKPL will collaborate with different stakeholders to organise an array of large-scale territory-wide reading activities.

     These activities will include organising reading sharing sessions or reading promotion activities with authors and celebrities, setting up special decorations and organising thematic activities and book recommendations at public libraries to foster a reading culture, organising reading activities outside libraries together with schools and the publishing sector and more. In addition, the Library-on-Wheels, which are specially designed trucks, will visit various communities, holding thematic book displays and promoting e-reading through e-reading activities.

     The theme of this year's "4.23 World Book Day Creative Competition" is "Tasty Reading". The competition was well-received with over 1 800 entries coming from about 300 participating schools. Participants shared their experiences and thoughts on food and daily life in the form of paintings, book reports and essays. Apart from the HKPL, the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province, Shenzhen Library, Shenzhen Children's Library and Macao Public Library in the Greater Bay Area have also organised competitions under the same theme to enhance the cultural exchange in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The winning works from Hong Kong, Guangdong and Macao will be on display at the Exhibition Gallery of the Hong Kong Central Library from today to May 7, followed by a roving exhibition at 20 public libraries. The result of the winning entries has been uploaded to www.hkpl.gov.hk/wbd.

     On the "4.23 'World Book Day' Fun Reading for All" held at the Hong Kong Central Library today, a series of fascinating activities were held including magic show, interactive story theatre and "Meet-the-Authors" talk. There were also candy art storytelling as well as sharing by renowned director, scriptwriter and actress Kearen Pang on reading, inspiring the participating parents and children to discover the fun of reading. Besides, Story Ambassadors of the HKPL also hosted "Storytelling Time on 'World Book Day'" sessions in six district libraries today to share the stories of Chinese historical figures with children and their parents for them to enjoy a delightful story time.

Ends/Sunday, April 23, 2023
Issued at HKT 15:25

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