Ask a Teacher

Why the printed industry boomed in China in the 17th century ?

By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information. Print was no longer used just by scholar officials .Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays. Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives. The developement of this new reading culture led to the booming of printing industry in China.