Empirical Analysis Of Reading Habits Of The Elderly In Shanghai

China had experience an accelerated aging process in population structure in the past decade. And the old pension mode based on material and physical cannot meet the requirements of aging society, the elderly are producing an increasing demand for more spiritual support. Reading is regarded as an important activity by human. For centuries, human choose reading as primary means of access to information and transmission of knowledge. What is more, reading has playing an important role in helping human get spiritual satisfaction.Shanghai is China's most economically developed regions, and it also is the highest degree of population aging city. Studying the reading environment and reading habits of the elderly in Shanghai can not only helps to understand the spiritual needs of contemporary older persons, but also provides reference service experience in spiritual support for other parts of China.This paper will define the concept of reading and give a brief description of domestic and foreign research results on reading in recent years firstly, and then it will give a discovery and summary about the data obtained through the questionnaire and interview, which can describe reading situation of some Shanghai elderly readers over the past decade. And after finding out the natural, social and cultural factors which caused this situation, this paper will finally choose the government, public reading institutions, publishing houses and family as main actors, propose specific measures to enhance the sense of elderly readers' spiritual satisfaction.The conclusion is that the reading environment of Shanghai elderly had been affected from the social changes and scientific and technological progress and other factors over the past decade. What's more, the elderly readers' previous idea of reading also has been changed. Overall, the reading habits of Shanghai elderly readers hasn't experience too much changes. The elderly readers still regard reading as an important leisure activity in life and keep a strong desire to the paper reading. Along with the rapid development of economy and technology in Shanghai, the new model of family structure and pension challenge the traditional filial culture which characters with old-based ideas, and the idea of utilitarianism reading also eroding the public understanding of meaning for reading. Anyway, in the transition of their own social status and family roles, the elderly suffer more stress under such an environment, and they generate increasing emphasis on reading activities, in the hope of getting more spirit comfort from reading activities. Unfortunately, poor health, poor education, inadequate social support for the elderly and the spirit of good reading habits and other issues restrict such a desire. And the contradiction between the increased demand for reading and the supply is increasing.In response to these conflicts, the government should take the initiative to assume the important task of providing spirit support for old-ages.In order to enhance the supports of reading activities in a rich spiritual life of the elderly, the government can use the mass media spread the idea of spirit support pension model, develop digital TV reading mode and support the development of volunteers groups which can provide social services for elderly. Public reading institutions should carry out special age-helping reading service such as setting up older readers area, and sending books home and giving suggestions for family library of readers and other services. Traditional publishers should continue to develop the traditional varieties of the old books and concern about new reading demands of the elderly. Meanwhile, increasing the sound elements and image elements in publication to enhance the usability of paper books and keeping a low price while maintaining quality can get more competitive advantage. For each family, carrying out family interactive reading activities especially parent-child reading, child-parent-elderly reading activities can help elderly strengthen the sense of spiritual satisfaction.