On 23 April, on the occasion of the 26^th World Reading Day, the announcement of the 16^th Wenjin Book Award & the launching of Beijing park reading culture season was held in Ji Qing Xuan, the Summer Palace. Guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, this event was sponsored by the National Library of China (NLC) and Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks.

People from different institutions attended the activity, including Rao Quan, Director of the NLC, Ding Mei, Second-level Inspector of the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Zhang Yahong, Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks, Wang Dongbo, Deputy Director of the NLC, Ma Wenxiang, Secretary of the CPC Committee of the Beijing Summer Palace Administration Office, Yang Hua, Director of the Beijing Summer Palace, and other relevant comrades of the activity organization institutions, as well as Zhu Yongxin, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee and Deputy Secretary General of the CPPCC National Committee, Vice Chairman of China Association for Promoting Democracy and Deputy Director of Wenjin Book Award Appraisal Committee, Wang Yusheng, Zhuang Jian, Yu Jiannan, Yang Xujie, A Jia, Lai Xuemei, Wang Hairu and other judges of Wenjin Book Award, representatives of award-winning book authors, publishers and media. Rao Quan and Zhang Yahong delivered a speech on behalf of the sponsors respectively.

Rao Quan said that based on the strategic cooperation agreement between the NLC and Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks, the two sides had created this cultural event and launched Beijing park reading culture season. It was an in-depth implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's reply letter to the senior experts of the NLC, a practice of "promoting the building of a socialist cultural power", and a positive response to Opinions on Promoting Nationwide Reading by Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. The 16^th Wenjin Book Award was announced and it was the 6^th anniversary of National Library Open Course today. After years of intensive cultivation, the two projects had become well-known and recognized national reading brands. Today the two projects went out of the NLC and came to the classical royal garden, which redefined the reading space and field under the background of new technology and new media.

Rao Quan stressed that in the future, the NLC would work hand in hand with Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks to continuously explore the diversified development of reading space, strive to build Beijing park reading culture season into a characteristic cultural brand, and continue to explore and innovate in the mining and utilization of traditional cultural resources, the integration and evolution of reading space, and the planning and operation of cultural activities. We would work together to promote diversified and three-dimensional service formats and communication styles, and make contributions to strengthening the creation, production and communication of excellent cultural works, improving the public cultural service system, and promoting nationwide reading.

Zhang Yahong said that since the strategic cooperation between Beijing Municipal Administration Center of Parks and the NLC in September last year, in order to better meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people in the new era, the two sides had worked together to create a diversified business form of library-park integration and create a characteristic cultural brand. Ji Qing Xuan in the Summer Palace was another public cultural space cooperated by the municipal parks and the NLC. In the future, based on the preservation and inheritance of the world cultural heritage of the Summer Palace, the two sides would build it into a position for various cultural activities, such as classic interpretation, cultural lectures, academic salon, intangible cultural heritage experience, etc., so as to promote the three-dimensional and diversified functions of the academy and make new and greater contributions to the inheritance of Chinese excellent traditional culture and the construction of a socialist cultural power.

20 titles of award-winning books of the 16th Wenjin Book Award were announced on site, including Prehistoric Modernization: From Hunter-gatherers to the Origins of Agriculture, On the Deep Sea, Button Soldier, and so on, and 49 titles of recommended books were selected.

The selection of Wenjin Book Award was officially launched on 10 December 2020. The scope of selection included Chinese books officially published in China by publishing institutions approved the state publishing administration from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020 (subject to the time recorded on the copyright page). It didn't include reprinted books and reprinted books that had won the Wenjin Book Award. As of 15 January 2021, a total of 1,991 titles of books had been recommended by libraries, publishers, readers and judges (including 1,008 titles of books in social sciences, 388 titles of books in popular science and 595 titles of children's book), and 1,873 titles of books had been effectively evaluated, hitting a new record. Among them, 206 publishing houses participated in the recommendation process, 97 libraries participated in recommendation and preliminary evaluation, with an increase of 43% over last year. After the preliminary evaluation and final evaluation, the award-winning books and recommended books were selected.

Zhu Yongxin, Wang Yusheng and Zhuang Jian respectively reviewed the selection of Wenjin Book Award in terms of children's books, books in popular science and books in social sciences. Leaders and guests presented awards to the representatives of authors and publishers of award-winning books. Li Donghua, Shi Jun and Chen Shengqian, representatives of the award-winning authors, delivered wonderful acceptance speeches.

Rao Quan and Yu Jiannan presented awards to representatives of award-winning authors and publishers of books in social sciences.

Ding Mei and Wang Yusheng presented awards to representatives of award-winning authors and publishers of books in popular science.

Zhu Yongxin and Wang Dongbo presented awards to representatives of award-winning authors and publishers of children's books.

On 23 April 2015, the National Library Open Course was officially launched. After that, on the World Book Day every year, the National Library Open Course launched special activities of World Book Day in the form of on-site speech. Professor Shen Changyun, a famous expert on Pre-Qin history and interpreter of Guo Yu (transliteration), one of A hundred classics of Chinese traditional culture, was invited to teach "Why classics are important". He explained the value of classics in terms of the definition of classics, the importance of classics, and how to read classics, and advocated the public to read classics.

During the activity, the host recited the relevant fragments in Shen Congwen's Ji Qing Xuan Za Ji (transliteration) at different spots of Ji Qing Xuan, which showed the unique charm of the new reading culture space of the Summer Palace, and led the audience to experience the reading pleasure of the deep integration of the culture and travel. Lin Chen, a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage project, performed the classic repertoire of Guqin Flowing Water, adding the humanistic beauty of the flowing water to the quiet natural scenery.

The activity also showed the representative reading spaces of Beijing parks and 53 library reading spaces recommended by the Library Society of China and provincial library associations in the nationwide.

The activity was broadcast simultaneously on 13 platforms, including CCTV News App, People's Daily App, Xinhua News App, Xinhuanet App, Guangming Net, official website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Beijing Radio and Television Station, Douyin, and so on, which aroused strong response in the whole society.

In order to cooperate with the activity, the NLC had set up a display shelf for presenting the award-winning books and recommended books of the 16^th Wenjin Book Award in the NLC North Area. The website of the Wenjin Book Award, the official micro-blog, WeChat and TikTok account simultaneously released the results and relevant information of the 16^th Wenjin Book Award. The Library Society of China would unite with library community to mobilize all kinds of libraries at all levels and relevant institutions to hold tour exhibition of the 16^th Wenjin Book Award online or offline, set up special bookshelves, and carry out publicity and promotion activities such as lectures or salons. China Literature ltd. would also launch a special area for Wenjin Book Award on QQ reading platform to provide free access to some of the award-winning and recommended books of Wenjin Book Award over the years for a limited time.