At the 58th Frankfurt Book Fair held October 4-8 in
Germany this year, more than 7,000 publishers from across 111
countries showcased their latest wares. The Chinese legion, made up
of 12 major publishers including the China International Publishing
Group (CIPG), China Publishing Group, China Sciences Publishing
Group, teamed up as a unified force for the first time and took up
an area of 546 square meters. CIPG alone took up 90 square meters,
and attracted wide attention from readers as well as domestic and
overseas organizations at the book fair with its multilingual
choices, eye-catching design of exhibition booths and rich
selection of activities.
926 titles were exhibited by CIPG, representing an increase of
200 on last year. The books, intended to showcase China in multiple
dimensions, fall into nine major categories including basic
information on China, Chinese language teaching and learning,
traditional Chinese medical science, Chinese literature, arts and
culture. The books were published in about a dozen languages
including Chinese, English, French, Spanish, German, Korean,
Russian, Italian, Portuguese and Indonesian, with those published
in foreign languages accounting for over 76 percent of the total.
Of all the titles exhibited, about 300 were newly published in
2006.
One of CIPG's highlights at this year's book fair was a seminar
on publishing cooperation jointly held with Yale University Press.
This seminar served as a mirror for the publishing industry
worldwide, setting up a platform where both partners' experiences
in their joint "Chinese Culture and Civilization" program could be
shared.
CIPG also took advantage of the unique opportunity to give a
demonstration class for the Chinese language. The thirty-minute
demonstration class held on October 4 showed its audience that
instead of being a painstaking experience, learning the Chinese
language and culture could be quite entertaining and
easy-going.
The design of CIPG's exhibition booth provided an ideal workshop
integrating typical Chinese elements with the surroundings of the
book fair. Decorations and furnishings were specially arranged to
achieve intriguing displays of Chinese idiosyncrasies. A case in
point was the usage of actual boccaro teapots alongside an English
book on the Chinese boccaro teapots The Yixing Effect.
Knick-knack shelves were also used to hold a miniature
exhibition of Chinese porcelain and ceramics. Free gifts such as
Peking opera masks, silk sacks, and ornaments bearing the 12
Chinese zodiac signs were also handed out to visitors to CIPG's
exhibit.
Pay great attention to international cooperation
mode
If China's books want to meet with international acclaim, an
international cooperation mode must be adopted. CIPG started
cooperation with world famous Yale University Press at the end of
the 1980s, presenting five titles: Chinese Sculpture,
The Formation of Chinese Civilization --?An Archaeological
Perspective, 3000 Years of Chinese Painting,
Chinese Architecture, Key Concepts in Chinese
Philosophy while Chinese Calligraphy,
Chinaware, Chinese Silk are upcoming. The book
series under the title of Chinese Culture and Civilization
summoned the most brilliant experts of archaeology, architecture,
arts, literature and linguistics from both sides to work together,
"internationalizing" the wonderful Chinese culture as well as
reflecting global research on ancient Chinese civilization.
Making friends through Books
On October 4, the opening day of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the
Foreign Language Press under CIPG signed the publishing right
transfer contract with Poland's Wydawnictwo Lekarskie for
re-publishing the book, China's Traditional Way of Health
Preservation, in Poland. Meanwhile, Masterpieces by Modern
Chinese Fiction Writers met with appreciation among Spanish
readers. The Editorial Popular has selected 8 stories to translate
and publish in Spanish.
On October 5, two publishing houses under CIPG signed agreements
with Indonesia's biggest publisher KARISMA, exporting publishing
rights of 16 books and 2 video/audio products to Indonesia, the
first time in history that China has collaborated in such a deal
with Indonesia.
On the same day, the Foreign Language Press signed agreements
with Russia's Phoenix Press, while Sinolingua and Morning Glory
Publishers signed with Russia's KARO, granting Russian publishers
publishing rights of 13 titles. This is the 3rd batch of publishing
rights that Russian publishers have bought.
Until October 5, CIPG exhibitors had transferred the publishing
rights for 59 titles, as well as the transferring intentions for
166 titles.
Reading China and world
According to CIPG CEO Zhou Mingwei, as a Chinese
foreign-language publishing group with 50 years of experience,
CIPG's primary task at the book fair is to exhibit China's image;
its secondary task is to make exchanges of books and ideas with
other countries; thirdly, it should find out more information about
which subjects interest foreign readers while the big expansion and
promotion of Chinese publications are under way. At the same time,
CIPG would also use this opportunity to learn more about
cutting-edge publishing technologies in the fields of printing,
book-making, designing and the newest developing trends.
It is also reported that China will be the Guest of Honor in
2009 Frankfurt Book Fair.
(China.org.cn October 9, 2006)
