The Kaohsiung Reading Festival and Century Asia Cinema are bringing a series of new reading activities.

【Kaohsiung】The “2024 Kaohsiung Reading Festival: Now Loading” officially begins on November 9. The three-week event includes many activities, including harbor book exhibitions, outdoor markets, speeches and presentations, mini salons, and international talks, all of which will be held on the weekends in November. The Kaohsiung Reading Festival is not your ordinary book exhibition, because it features innovative activities that have garnered a lot of attention from the public.

This year, the Kaohsiung Public Library (KPL) has joined hands with the Second Culture and Innovation Hall to create unique spaces for sensory reading. The event’s activities will be interweaved with Phalanity’s immersive theatres, T3 Bistro, and Century Asia Cinema to present new and unique reading experiences. KPL welcomes citizens to register for these activities. 

According to KPL Director Chin-Yang Lee, 2024 marks the third year of the Kaohsiung Reading Festival. In the last three years, KPL has collaborated with the Joint Culture and Innovative Hall to launch increasingly diverse events, starting with speeches and presentations that eventually grew to interactive activities using sensory technologies. Their efforts have successfully upended people’s general understanding of reading, changing books from a collection of bound paper into digital collectibles while remolding reading from a static activity to a virtual and interactive one.

The Kaohsiung Reading Festival is still finding ways to carve out new dimensions for reading through events like speeches, stage performances, cinematic experiences, and photographic sessions, turning them from platforms for knowledge acquisition to a bridge between citizens and classical works while transforming reading into an activity that engages the five senses. KPL encourages all citizens to visit and fall in love with reading at the Kaohsiung Reading Festival in November.

To grant citizens a taste of Taiwanese sci-fi feature, the Taiwanese-dubbed and subbed version of Pigsy, an animated movie released in Taiwan earlier this May, will be shown at the Century Asia Cinema during the Kaohsiung Reading Festival’s opening week on November 9. Pigsy won the Best Animated Feature at the 60^th Golden Horse Awards and the Best Animation at the 26^th Taipei Film Awards. Families attending the show will be invited to join a sing-a-long activity before the movie is played.

Another movie featured at the Century Asia Cinema is See You, which will be played on November 23. A coming-of-age story told through dark humor, See You is one of the selected films in the Kaohsiung Scriptwriting City Project. The film’s director, Han-Ting You, will also hold a sharing session before the movie.

Located on the 6^th floor of the Tai Urban Resort, the T3 Bistro is Kaohsiung’s newly opened technological bistro, which opened at the end of 2023. The name T3 Bistro is derived from Tech, Taste, and Trend. The bistro utilizes 5G technology to provide immersive projections, combining technology, reading, art, and cuisine. On November 9, Takaocomedybay, the only Kaohsiung-based comedy club, will present a series of performances at T3 Bistro. Moreover, a speech from Roger Kuo, the Kaohsiung-based culinary author of Good Food in Kaohsiung and Taste of Kaohsiung, has been scheduled for November 23. Roger Kuo will discuss Kaohsiung’s 100-year-old local cuisines and uncover everyday culinary delights.

In addition, KPL has collaborated with Phalanity to launch ten storytelling activities. Phalanity’s immersive theatres synthesize various hardware, including projectors, LED wall screens, interactive equipment, and sensory technology, to ensure their audience can enjoy immersive visual, audio, and tactile experiences. Families can switch between and immerse themselves in stories, including Penguin Hotel, Turtle and Sea, and The Angel’s Blue Tears. The immersive theatres are one of the Kaohsiung Reading Festival’s innovative breakthroughs this year.

The “2024 Kaohsiung Reading Festival” begins on November 9. Citizens can browse the activities on the Kaohsiung Reading Festival’s official website. The Kaohsiung Reading Festival will feature speeches from famous directors and great speakers such as Kurt Lu, Ming-Hsia Wang, Jawlee, Ekang Woman, and Kai-Lun Lin. The speeches will be held at City Wind Books, located on the 7^th floor of the Tai Urban Resort.  

The Kaohsiung Reading Festival also includes speeches by international speakers, which have been one of the most well-received activities during the past years. This year, Japanese author Ito Ogawa and Korean illustrator Gyung-Ho Kang will be on site to meet and engage with citizens in Kaohsiung. Another activity that one can expect during the Kaohsiung Reading Festival is the Youth Anchor Experience Camp, which will be held at the Second Culture and Innovation Hall for a limited time.

For more information on the “2024 Kaohsiung Reading Festival,” please visit the event’s official website at https://2024libkrf.ksml.edu.tw/.