The Beijing International Book Fair is as big as it gets. The
event opened yesterday featuring 639 international publishers from
50 countries all trying to sell their books in the world's biggest
publishing nation.
There are about 1,200 stands to inspect and the expo's size is
testament to China's booming book market and the legacy of a
3,000-year book-reading culture.
Sitting along side the foreign publishers are their Chinese
counterparts, who are going all-out to promote their new titles to
the outside world, following their success last year at the same
event.
The Chinese publishers' efforts are part of a national project
to popularize books about China around the world.
To bolster the national project, a working party, headed by the
State Council Information Office and the General Administration of
Press and Publication and set up in January this year, has drawn
leading publishing houses from around the country.
The committee recognizes that books are the most traditional and
widespread carrier of culture and an essential tool for
communication. They hope the national project will encourage more
joint-publishing of Chinese books between Chinese presses and their
overseas partiners.
To cater for international publishers, Chinese presses have
recommended novels, memoirs as well as photos and drawings, which
share individual and group experiences over the centuries against
the backdrop of China's long history and rich culture.
Some of the books are being printed in many different languages
and publishers also hope to reverse the China's book trade deficit
while trying to provide a wide range of stories and information
about China.
Booming market
China is the largest publisher of books, magazines and
newspapers in the world.
In book publishing alone, some 128,000 new titles of books were
published last year, according to the General Administration of
Press and Publication.
Sales of books on biology, social sciences and literature have
all increased, as well as textbooks and study aids.
However, last year, China imported some 14 million titles of
books, newspapers, magazines and other publications worth US$150
million.
Its media and publishing houses only exported 8 million titles
with a combined revenue of US$20 million, Yu Yongzhan,
vice-minister of the General Administration of Press and
Publication, told a forum on book publishing this week.
The Project to Popularize Books of China was launched in 2004 as
part of effort to make Chinese books better known to the world.
The project started when 70 kinds of Chinese books were
translated into French and published by French publishers, as
initiated by the State Council Information Office.
The books have been selling well in France.
The success in the co-operation between Chinese and French
publishing houses has set a good model for similar Sino-overseas
partnerships in book publishing.
Up till now, more than 10 publishers in Britain, France, Japan,
the United States, Australia and Singapore have joined with Chinese
counterparts to publish 170 kinds of books, with the financial
backing of 3 million yuan (US$380,000).
China also publishes the annual "Catalogue of Recommended books
for the Project to Popularize Books of China." Over the past two
years, some 1,000 titles published by 20-odd Chinese publishers are
listed in the catalogue.
These books are divided into 16 categories, covering the
classics, philosophy, religion, and social sciences, economy,
military affairs, politics and law, culture and education, arts,
language, literature, history, biography, geography and
tourism.
Science and technology, from natural science, engineering and
technology to health and medicine, are also on the list.
There are also picture albums, children's books and
encyclopedias.
The work committee has also opened a website,
www.chinabookinternational.cn, to help interested publishers know
more about the project.
(China Daily August 31, 2006)
