Page 14 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.45, 2019

RAO Quan / The experience and transformation of Chinese librarianship 013

2.2 Profound changes in social structure

In the forty years from 1978 to 2018, China’s urbanization rate increased from less than 18%〇
〇a ①
to nearly 60%, and the urban population exceeded 830 million. The rapid development of
urbanization has significantly increased the mobility of population between urban and rural areas
and among regions. In 2018, the size of China’s mobile population exceeded 240 million. On
the one hand, more and more new urban residents urgently need to learn, engage in and adapt
themselves to urban life. This requires libraries to further explore innovative service models,
provide more targeted public cultural services to residents of various cultural backgrounds, and
play a more active role in promoting community-building, learning and innovation, etc. On the
other hand, the accelerated transfer of young and middle-aged laborers from rural to urban areas
and from underdeveloped areas to developed areas has also increased the proportion of elderly
people living alone and left-behind children. The number of elderly people living alone and empty
nesters nationwide has exceeded 100 million; the number of left-behind children in rural areas is
nearly 7 million (“Statistical communiqué of the People’s Republic of China on the 2018 national
economic and social development”, 2019). The elderly people and left-behind children need not
only targeted assistance in reading and learning, but also more library services in improving their
cultural life.
The continuous improvement of social material living conditions has generally improved the
education level of urban and rural residents, and the average life expectancy has been continuously
extended. On the one hand, the population aging trend is on the rise. By the end of 2018, the
country’s population aged 60 and above has reached nearly 250 million, accounting for 17.9%
of the total population. On the other hand, the education level of the population has continued to
increase. The gross enrollment rate of higher education reached 48.1% in 2018. This indicator
of nearly 50% means that China is about to enter the stage of higher education popularization
(“Statistical communiqué of the People ’ s Republic of China on the 2018 national economic
and social development”, 2019). The elderly and highly educated people have more diversified
and multi-level needs in terms of knowledge and information, as well as cultural, leisure and
entertainment services. Also, as the state, society, and the family attach greater importance to
children’s learning and education, it also requires libraries to provide better services in parent-child
reading and extracurricular learning.
Currently, imbalanced and inadequate economic and social development still prevails in China.
In particular, in the era of digital networks, the “digital divide” between urban and rural areas and
among regions has become increasingly prominent. In 2018, the penetration rates of urban and
rural Internet in China were 74.6% and 38.4% respectively, which means a gap of nearly 2 times
and has the tendency of expanding year by year (China Internet Network Information Center,
2019). Libraries must take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility and mission of bridging the
① National Bureau of Statistics annual data for 1978, see http://data.stats.gov.cn/easyquery.htm?cn=C01.