More positives to gain 

In general, there are still more positives to gain from the report. Apart from digital reading, listening to audiobooks has become a new growth point for the Chinese in terms of their reading habits, the report shows.

About 26 percent of adult Chinese and 26.2 percent of young Chinese under 18 listened to audiobooks in 2018, up 3.2 and 3.5 percentage points year on year respectively.

Among the adult respondents, 11.7 percent used applications on their mobile gadgets to access audiobooks, while 6.4 percent opted to listen to them through radios.

Moreover, about 67 percent of Chinese adults called for reading festivals or other public reading activities, according to the report.