--- SEARCH ---
WEATHER
CHINA
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS
CULTURE
GOVERNMENT
SCI-TECH
ENVIRONMENT
LIFE
PEOPLE
TRAVEL
WEEKLY REVIEW
Learning Chinese
Learn to Cook Chinese Dishes
Exchange Rates


Hot Links
China Development Gateway
Chinese Embassies


Prisoners' Zeal for Books
A two-day book fair was held recently in the Beijing No.2 Prison. To the surprise of both the bookstores and the prison authorities, a total of more than 6,500 books were purchased by the inmates. The book fair, the first of its sort ever held in China, revealed a huge market for books in China’s prisons.

Wang Jinliang, warden of the prison, said, the inmates of his prison subscribe to over 1,600 kinds of newspapers and magazines each year. Their annual spending on books and newspapers is over 200,000 yuan (US$24,000), about 100 yuan (US$12) per person, which has reached the average level of Beijing citizens.

The prisoners’ passion for knowledge indicates the big potential of the cultural market inside prisons. For many prisoners, reading has become an important part of their daily life. And in many ways, prisons have become a new type of schools.

According to information from the Ministry of Justice, Chinese prisons are working hard to help prisoners enter various reading programs, such as holding book fairs within the prison, organizing readers’ clubs and encouraging prisoners to subscribe to their own newspapers and magazines. Many prisons have established libraries and made reading an important means to help re-educate the inmates.

While holding various reading activities, prisons receive wide support from the society. Not long ago, the editing committee of the Beijing Encyclopedia gave a set of the newly–published Beijing Encyclopedia (Second Edition) to the Beijing No. 2 Prison as a gift. The book attracts the prisoners with its thought-provoking contents in science and a wide range of knowledge.

(China.org.cn by Zheng Guihong, December 14, 2002)


Prison Museum Opens to Hong Kong Public and Tourists
Beijing Prisons First to Pay Prisoners
From Prisoner to General Manager
First Supermarket in a North China Prison Opens
Chief Warden Encourages Inmates to Live Positive Lives
China Provides Legal Aid to Prisoners
Print This Page
|
Email This Page
About Us SiteMap Feedback
Copyright © China Internet Information Center. All Rights Reserved
E-mail: webmaster@china.org.cn Tel: 86-10-68326688