| Abstract: | Literary reading reached its peak in China in the 1980s. From the 1990s on, however, it underwent a slow decline which has gained speed in the new century. The new media have played an important role in the process of its decline. Their influence is mainly seen in the reshaping of the receiver＇s perceptual structure because of the change from text to image and in the lack of stimulus to reflection and thought because of the change from page to screen. At the same time, the new media have broken down the ＂solitary＂ state of reading and lessened the depth of the reception model. From the perspective of media culture, the decline of literary reading is a result of the serious damage inflicted upon print culture by visual culture. The new generation is already living in an environment of visual culture; they will inevitably drift away from literary reading. This will have an impact on both production and research in literature. The private memory, perceptual structure and even bodily habits of those who preserve literary reading and resist the new media are precisely those established by print culture. Therefore, behind the clash between preserving and forsaking literary reading lies a clash between different media cultures. |
