On October 24, the award ceremony of the “Reading Festival - Asia Symbol Trophy” to promote reading among primary and middle school students under the theme of “upholding the Chinese literary culture and fulfilling the Chinese dream together” was held in Rizhao, China.

The event was organized by Rizhao Economic-Technological Development Area’s Education Department. Asia Symbol (Shandong) Pulp Co., Ltd participated in this event as part of its corporate social responsibility program. The event sought to generate interest in reading among the students so as to create a reading-friendly campus and to uphold the traditional Chinese literary culture.

At the ceremony, awards were given to recognize youths, families and role-models who exemplify the results from the efforts made by teachers in the region to promote reading.

A teacher from Yinchuan Road Primary School said,” Through the Reading Festival, students are exposed to many activities related to reading, which generated in them an interest in reading books. As a result, reading becomes a popular activity among the students. In the past, they regarded reading classical poems as tedious tasks, but now they feel proud to be able to recite more classical poems and to discuss the books they are reading.”

Asia Symbol, as a responsible corporate citizen, has become a company that others in the pulp and paper industry benchmark themselves. It seeks to promote socio-economic prosperity in the local community for the good of the people, by actively participating in various educational and cultural programs. The chairman of Asia Symbol shares his global work experiences and views on “vision•responsibilities•innovation” through various talks conducted in school campuses; volunteers of the company organize the Paper Making Workshop in over ten primary schools; Asia Symbol’s “Realize Your Dreams” campaign has helped over 200 rural students of poor families go to college and find jobs; and more than 300 teachers and students have benefited from the Education Quality Award set up by the company. The mill in Shandong has played host to thousands of students from primary and middle schools and universities of the city. To-date, the company has contributed RMB 90 million to public welfare and charity activities.

Translated from an article published on paper.com.cn