Actress Zhang Jingchu shares her photo of scattering books in a subway station in Beijing. (Photo/Weibo.com)
Is the Scattering Book project a marketing campaign?
Xinshixiang's post on the Scattering Book project quickly received more than 100,000 page views on WeChat and many netizens praised it and said they are willing to be involved. However, some say the project looks like a marketing campaign launched by Xinshixiang and related publishers.
According to Chinanews.com, Yang Yuancheng, one of the founders of Xinshixiang, replied that they want to encourage more people to share knowledge and beauty through sharing books and encourage more kindness between strangers. "According to our previous experience, some people will get involved and reap a harvest from the project," he said. He also acknowledged that the event was designed to bring more fame to his company.
A woman surnamed Wang, who is a typical subway commuter, said, "I did see several celebrities posting their photos of scattering books in the subway, but the books in their hands just seem like accessories and I even can't see the book names. The project looks fantastic, but still like a show, more or less."
Literary critic Bai Ye didn't regard the project as a marketing tactic, but more like propaganda. "The project can test the public's reading habits at some certain level, like which books people like to read and who is reading those books," Bai said.
Reading paper books is not convenient on crowded subways
Besides the suspicion of it being just a marketing ploy, the project is difficult to carry out in China as the subways in big cities are very crowded at peak time and there is no environment for reading at all. So some people doubt the project's outcome.
"First I thought the book was used to occupy the seat, and then I noticed that it was put there for reading", a woman who picked up one of the scattered books at Dongzhimen subway station in Beijing said. "I didn't feel like wanting to read the book, as it was too crowded in the subway and not convenient for reading a paper book."
Zhu Wei, an expert from China University of Political Science and Law, said, "The project's original intention is good while it ignores the traffic situation in big cities like Beijing."
Xinshixiang said that considering traffic conditions, the Scattering Book project was done at a non-peak time to minimize the event's disturbance on public transportation.
In addition, some people don't want to read the scattered books, as they think the books are dirty and have no idea who had touched them.
