2001March, A New Chinese Reader edited by Qian Liqun, Wang Shangwen and Cao Wenxuan was published by Guangxi Education Press. As soon as the new language reader was published, it attracted widespread attention in the reading circle and quickly covered 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country. Up to now, the total sales volume has exceeded 654.38 billion yards and has been reported by more than 50 domestic media (including newspapers, magazines, TV stations and websites). CCTV also produced and broadcast three special programs. Media attention has further promoted the sales of books, and this set of readers has gradually become a well-known brand in students' extracurricular reading materials, and is known as the "first language reader". In 2007, this set of Readers launched a brand-new revised edition.

The position, interest, purpose, style and arrangement of New Chinese Reader all show that it is a brand-new Chinese reader different from the past. Experts believe that there are two kinds of the best humanistic enlightenment books since the May 4th Movement: 1949 is the best enlightening new language document, and 1949 is the best new language document. (Rao Tengjie, China education expert, professor of Capital Normal University)

The New Chinese Reader contains a group of conscientious scholars' reflections on Chinese education in China in this era, which reflects their thoughts on the development direction of Chinese in China. (Cao Wenxuan, writer, Professor Peking University)