The 2025 Shanghai Book Fair, on right night and running through to Aug 19, is a great ongoing cultural feast in the city's Jiading district.
It's offering celebrity lectures, traditional operas, parent-child readings and exhibitions that showcase the district's literary heritage and vibrant reading atmosphere.
The Jiangnan Book Bureau · Eye of Jiading is serving as an opera stage for a four-day series.
Programs include a Peking Opera recital concert, the Shaoxing Opera interactive picture book A Lin Sister Fell from the Sky, a summer storytelling special by the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe and a Shanghai Opera appreciation session.
Jiading Library's Yuanxiang Reading Circle brand is featuring an event called A Wonderful Night at Jiading Library, new book launches and lectures.
Guests include Yao Qiming, chief designer of China's auto race tracks; authors from the Mixknow comic-based educational content group; children's writer Pan Liang and creators of the Little Classic of Mountains and Seas.
Subdistricts and towns are hosting activities such as youth reading contests in Malu town, Nanxiang town's parent-child reading competitions and themed exhibitions in Anting town, Jiangqiao town, and in Huating town. That's along with poetry carnivals, book fairs and cultural events in local communities.
Highlighting traditional culture, local flavor, innovative formats and youth participation, Jiading's events aim to make reading part of daily life — ensuring its joy and benefits reach every corner of the district.