Representatives from various cities receive awards and certificates for making it to the list of "2015 Top100 Digital Reading Cities". [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province ranked 21st on the list of "2015 Top 100 Digital Reading Cities" released on Jan 1, 9 places up from 2014.

Digital reading is a new way of reading through a broad range of digital devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop PCs. The top 100 list was first launched by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication in 2014.

In the Internet era, governments and research institutes can figure out the time, place, content and duration of mass digital reading through big data to target actions to improve public cultural facilities.

The list indicates that the science of education, business management and finance, science popularization, current affairs and the literary arts are the five most popular reading topics in the country.

Wuxi ranked eighth among the prefecture-level cities on the list. The city will increase financing in the future to promote public reading, said a local government official.