Are Burmese Losing their Love of Books?

For generations, Burmese turned to books as a way to expand the limits of their intellectual freedom. These days, however, young people seem more interested in finding other ways to escape from the stresses of their everyday lives.

Books have not lost their appeal entirely, but increasingly, light fiction has taken the place of more serious writing as the preferred reading material. Young readers contacted by The Irrawaddy said that they enjoyed comedy, horror and romance novels, but had little interest in “heavier” subject matter.

A bookshop at the downtown of Rangoon. (Photo: Nick Dunlop)

This means that the middle-aged, and not students or young professionals, are now the main audience for the work of writers like Kyaw Win, who is best known for his translations of Fareed Zakaria’s “The Post-American World” and Thomas Friedman’s “The World Is Flat.”

“Kyaw Win? I’ve heard of him. His readers are mostly older people in their 40s,” said Ma May, 23, an information officer who works with a nongovernmental organization in Rangoon.

“Most of the readers of the weekly news journals, such as The Weekly Eleven and The Voice Weekly, are also over 30,” she added.

“Absolutely,” said Emo, a 21-year-old biochemistry student, when asked if he agreed that news journals are targeted at older readers. “My friends and I don’t read this kind of publication. They’re too heavy.”

Asked what he liked to read, he mentioned Akyi Daw, the author of numerous comic novels, some of which have been made into movies. According to booksellers in Rangoon and Mandalay, Akyi Daw is the bestselling author in Burma today.

“Apart from Akyi Daw, I don’t read anything,” said Emo.

As in other countries, many older people in Burma complain about the poor taste of the younger generation and express concern that it bodes ill for the future.

“It is quite disappointing that teenagers are reading this kind of book,” said Ma Aye, a Rangoon-based journalist. “These books sometimes contain obscenities, and after finishing them, the reader has learned nothing. I think it is a problem for young people.”

But not everyone agreed that the popularity of escapist fiction reflected a general cultural decline. They said that many young people are still eager to learn more about the world, but lack the opportunity to read books of value.

“There are not many, but some people still read serious books. But it depends on their economic situation,” said a 27-year-old Burmese man with a postgraduate degree from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

“Young people from the lower middle class still read a lot, and upper-middle-class youth either go into business or study abroad,” he said, adding that a number of embassies in Rangoon have libraries that are well used by young people interested in international relations, global politics, economics, globalization and development.

The popularity of the Internet is another reason for the decline of reading as a pastime in Burma’s cities, where 36 percent of the country’s population lives. Although the Internet contains a wealth of information, most Burmese young people use it for entertainment or chatting with friends, rather than as resource for learning.

According to the owner of an Internet café, his customers spend most of their time online chatting or visiting sports and entertainment Web sites. In part, he said, this was because of restrictions on the use of the Internet. “Young Internet users don’t visit news Web sites so much because the government discourages it.”

Twenty or thirty years ago, libraries were even more popular in Burma than Internet cafes are today. Every town had a public or private library, and there were cheap book-rental shops everywhere. Despite efforts by the then-ruling Burmese Social Programme Party to restrict access to political books, readers eagerly exchanged copies of books on politics and world affairs.

In those days, non-fiction books sold well at used-book markets in Rangoon, and young readers were often prepared to pay substantial prices for books that interested them.

“At the time, most young people wanted to read fiction and non-fiction books by leftist and pro-leftist writers to increase their knowledge and satisfy their intellectual curiosity,” said an employee of an international nongovernmental organization in Rangoon in his 40s. 

Libraries and bookshops were often the bases of dissident groups.