Due to the increasing severity of the novel coronavirus outbreak, both libraries and brick-and-mortar bookstores have suspended operation. Even express companies have temporarily stopped delivering books. This is when digital books and audiobooks become incredibly handy.

I have never really been a fan of audiobooks. From my perspective, audiobooks are for people like children who cannot read, old people with bad eyesight and people who are ill in hospital beds and need to do something to kill time. I also think audiobooks are for lazy people who don’t want to use their brain to read. For me, the voice acting also sounds weird and lacks an adequate portrayal of what is written in a book. I believe this will kill the imagination you can get from reading an actual book. I didn’t get much exposure to things like bedtime stories or historical myths under a big banyan tree when I was a kid. But I did get exposed to the form of audiobook from my audiotapes of 300 Poems from Tang Dynasty. Then after I grew older, I also had to listen to English audiotapes for school work. The English voice actors were very professional and they articulated each word perfectly. When I was listening to Sherlock Holmes’ audiobook version read by Benedict Cumberbatch, I felt like there was a handsome English butler reading old stories in England to me. My friends in the publishing sector became fond of Chinese audiobooks for quite a long time. They even listened to the audiobook version of The Records of the Grand Historian of China, a series of historical records of ancient China that bring you back to the past. Audiobooks allow our eyes to take a break from intensive reading. They also enable us to keep reading in fragmented time such as when jogging, commuting to work, relaxing in our bed and cooking in the kitchen.

According to the 2019 China Digital Book Market Report, consumers in mainland China read 7.99 books on average last year, 4.67 of which were hardcopy books while 3.32 of which were digital books. There are also statistics showing that the audiobook market in China is enjoying rapid growth as the market scale grew by one-fold in two years. In 2019, the market scale of the audiobook sector hit over six billion RMB with 478 million users. The Chinese audiobook market is witnessing the rise of a diverse pool of competitors. Besides the industry leader Ximalaya, we are also seeing the rise of Read for the Lazy (Lanrentingshu), Qingting FM, Migu Reading, Yuewen Reading, WeChat Reading, etc. We also have Audible from Amazon who enjoys the biggest market share around the globe. There is also Apple Books which mainly features foreign books and is eager to enter the Chinese market by rolling out more Chinese audiobooks.

You might think audiobooks’ main audiences are old people who have bad eyesight. But as a matter of fact, the majority of audiobook readers are millennials of the Z generation, who tend to listen to audiobooks when getting ready for bed, commuting and doing housework. In contrast to the business model that believes people tend to consume cultural and creative products on weekends, audiobooks reflect the great potential that the industry has in fragmented time. The two-child policy in mainland China is also nurturing a greater prospect for audiobooks for children.

The rise of the audiobook sector is closely connected with influencers and celebrities. For example, The Poem For You, an audio poem brand in mainland China with over ten million users, had invited influential figures such as the Queen of Denmark, President of Ireland, Hollywood star Natalie Portman, Master Hsing Yun, famous director Jia Zhangke, popular actors, show hosts, athletes and Baidu’s CEO, to read quality poems from both home and abroad for the audience. The Poem For You also invited You Zhangjing, a rising singer in mainland China to read my poem Afternoon at Ninna-Ji Temple. The audio poem attracted over a hundred thousand plays overnight. Then I was invited by Hangzhou Canal Poetry Club to read one of my poems Japanese Rock Garden. The audio poem can be found on Chinese podcast platform Ximalaya.

Besides traditional channels such as editor’s picks, audiobook leaderboards, special columns in cooperation with publishers and audiobook festivals, artificial intelligence technology can also drive audiobooks forward. Let’s take Xunfei Read as an example. The app utilises AI technology to provide customised book lists for users and supports audiobook versions in six different voices (there are deep male voice, cute voice, etc.). The app even allows users to switch the audiobook version from mandarin to other Chinese dialects. The user can enjoy customised voiceover service through voice-collecting function. In cases where left-behind children want to listen to their mother reading Journey to the West, you longing to listen to your ex reading you a love poem from Shakespeare, or you yourself reading Time Raiders, Xunfei Read can provide you with the needed service.

The increasing popularity of audiobooks also drives the development of new e-book readers, smart speakers, smart earphones, etc., making the immersive reading experience more possible. Migu Reading, for instance, is powered by features such as surround sound, 24-bit high sound quality, genre-based sound effect (for example epic sound effect for history books), VR reading experience, etc. These are the reading experiences that traditional books cannot provide.

I finished reading Call Me by Your Name’s English version two years ago and I still long for more. Unfortunately, the audiobook version that I could find is first-person narration read by Armie Hammer. I listened to it for some time and still felt it sounded weird. Then I just stopped. Luckily, since the audiobook market is receiving more and more attention, I believe the same story will be told by different voice actors and with a variety of background music in the future. This will mean that it will no longer be a dream for you to listen to your idols telling you stories for getting ready for bed.