The highest growth was recorded among audiobook listeners, with 38.5 percent of Chinese people listening to these through apps, WeChat accounts and smart speakers, up 2.2 percent year-on-year.

Despite the increasing integration of digital reading methods, 45.7 percent of Chinese adults still prefer physical books, the survey showed.

Sci-fi writer Liu Cixin said that at a time when artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, it is easy for people to be confined to information bubbles, as AI algorithms keep generating and feeding them information based on their individual preferences.

"We must actively explore the classics that have built the foundation of progress for human civilization. In a virtual world with endless possibilities, we must never forget that the essence of reading is the dialogue between humans and the self, the world, and eternity," Liu said at the conference.

The guests called for a nationwide focus on reading Chinese classics. People should be guided to read more Marxist works, especially those with Chinese characteristics, such as the works of President Xi Jinping, they said.

People should also read Chinese and foreign literary classics and academic masterpieces from ancient and modern times, they said. It is necessary to comprehensively promote the construction of a culture of reading in schools, families and society, fostering a habit of reading in young people from an early age, they added.

Tie Ning, president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said, "Only through continuous reading can wisdom be enhanced, souls be nurtured, and the spirit of the Chinese nation be passed down endlessly, shaping the self-confidence and self-improvement of character of the Chinese people and jointly realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."