Beijing International Book Fair: a resounding success!

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Held from August 26-30, 2015, Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) was a meeting ground for publishers from China and 82 different countries and regions around the world. The show was abuzz with activities on all five days. Here, Varsha Verma, associate editor, All About Book Publishing (ABP) brings a report.The 22nd Beijing International Book Fair was successfully held from August 26-30, 2015 at the China International Exhibition Centre (New Venue).

The statistics…

Spread over an exhibition area of 66,000 sq m, with 2,400 stands, featuring 2,302 publishing houses from not only the mainland China, but also from 82 different countriesand regions.Approximately 3,00,000 titles were on display.Over 1,000 cultural events and seminars were held,which attracted more than 2,60,000 visitors to the fair.The rights deals signed at the fair numbered to 4,721, an 8.6 percent increase from last year.

Guest of honour country…

The United Arab Emirates was the country of honour this year, with an exhibition area of 1,000 sq m. The UAE invited its cultural institutions, publishers, and writers to attend the Fair, and held activities to enhance communication amongst publishing industry and writers. These included UAE culture, art and heritage photo gallery, film screening, henna hand art, Arabic calligraphy, crafts, etc.

9th Special Book Awards of China

The 9th Special Book Awards of China was held at the Great Hall of People, Beijing. Established in 2005, it is a national-level award for foreign books that make great contributions introducing China and promoting Chinese culture and publications – it is awarded to foreign nationals, and Chinese nationals of foreign descent, working as authors, translators and publishers. Twenty people were awarded this year - Colin Patrick Mackerras, John Makeham, Carducci Lisa, François Cheng, Bellassen Joël, Schmidt-Glintzer Helwig, WL Idema, Sykhoun Bounvilay, Chimedtseye Menerel, Adam Marszalek, Perelomov Leonard sergeyevich, Mária Ferancová, Angel Fernandez Fermoselle, Robert E Baensch, Alitto Guy Salvatore, Ahmed Mohamed Elsaid Soliman, Kaung Min, Salaczne Zombori Klára ágnes, Samer Khair Ahmad Khrino and Eric Abrahamsen.

Major highlights…

This year BIBF, for the first time, facilitated the Hall of International Children’s Publications (over 14,000 sq m) for children’s publishers from home and abroad. Besides, the Rights Trade Zone, the 1,500 sq m BIBF Picture Book Exhibition and the Illustration Exhibition were set in this hall. The new hall attracted over 40,000 children and parents during public days.

This year, BIBF continued to organise brand activities such as 2015 Beijing International Publishing Forum, BIBF Advanced Seminar on International Rights Trade, CLT-ELT Seminar, BIBF 10+10 Roundtable Meetings, and IDPF@ BIBF International Digital Publishing Forum. Moreover, BIBF launched the first International Children’s Publishing Forum, Rights Managers’ Salon and the International Translation Grant Presentation. These activities contributed to enhancing communications between publishers from home and abroad.

BIBF literature activities…

The show brought together a galaxy of writers, translators and artists from various countries and offered a reading retreat for literature fans. Over 50 renowned authors from China, Britain, Spain, Russia, Mexico, Sweden, etc participated in a series of activities like 2015 BIBF Literature Night, Introduction to New Books and Close to Reading. The activities were held in Writers Zone and offsite venues like One Way Space, Kubrick and Courtyard Institute and TrainspottingCulture Salon.

Print on Demand

At the show, there were a few companies showcasing their POD facilities. One such exhibitor was Xerox. According to Arie Levi, general manager, Xerox Impika Inkjet Solutions, Asia Pacific, Xerox started their operations in China in late 2014. “Many big publishers, with encouragement of Chinese government, have now begun to save cost (waste) and the market is now on a stage of looking at saving cost on printed material. We are in the process of getting an order for Xerox Impika soon,” he said.