Without giving a clear explanation for the pullback, Amazon chose to shut down the Kindle e-book store in China next year possibly squeezed out by local Chinese competitors. This means millions of Chinese Kindle users won’t be able to download e-books since June 30, 2023, and the previously purchased ones still remain available on the notebook-like device.

Would this multinational’s move influence readers in Zhejiang, home to nearly seventy million permanent residents? The answer is a definite but small yes.

According to the numbers released by the communication department of Zhejiang on June 13, 91% of residents have engaged in reading in 2021, 0.6% higher than in 2020. When it comes to valuing reading, up to 90.5% of residents regard it as important to their personal development. These are convincing data to the conclusion: Zhejiang’s momentum, to some extent, is driven up by people’s inclination to read more books—hotbeds of figuring out constructive ways to reach common prosperity.

This year, with Kindle’s closure in China, there must be some ramifications on how people read, possess, and share books. But it doesn’t matter since we still have numerous alternatives.

On June 13, a program embedded in "Zheliban", an e-government platform, launched a campaign on promoting "nationwide reading online". Based on readers’ needs, it pools abundant resources covering areas of humanities, arts and literature, and some popular science readings. Supported by smart algorithms, booklists pandering to readers' tastes are also customized. Meanwhile, a map of bookstores tells you which one is the nearest. Within hours, your packages of books will be in front of your home.

Of course, you may say the digital platform is somehow unfriendly to the Internet or mobile phone illiterate seniors. And the trivial bugs come along with the digital platform. Some other public resources come into use. For example, Zhejiang Library, having a total collection of more than 7,470,000 items, both physical and digital is a second-to-none choice, which has a low likelihood of watering down the craze for books. A better message is that with your ID or citizen card, piles of books can be kept personally for about two months without any convoluted procedures.

In the worst cases, if all these public welfares fail at fulfilling your desire, you still have no need to lament the demise of Kindle. Homegrown e-readers, such as Huawei notepad paper and Xiaomi Proll, functionally outshine their counterparts, meanwhile, lessening readers’ financial burden. Do remember: local companies understand Chinese consumers the most. Credibly, it’s a sense of wisdom for Kinder crazy fans to work out plausible ways to make full use of it without perverting rules of piracy, or without falling to be "bricks" to press on top of your instant noodle paper bowl.

Disclaimer: opinions expressed during this piece are solely those of the author himself and do not necessarily represent those of "In Zhejiang".

Author: Fan Wenwu

Editor: Ye Ke