Main venue for China and exhibit hall for translated books in English and Chinese. Provided to China Daily

After being guest of honor in france and germany, china is center stage in london book fair

China's publishing industry will pass a milestone as publishers from more than 100 countries gather at the London Book Fair from April 16 to learn of its richness, vitality and growing opportunities. This year China has been chosen to be the fair's "country of market focus".

Alistair Burtenshaw

Alistair Burtenshaw, director of the fair, says the market focus program will be the most significant the event has hosted.

"I think that perfectly fits China as the world's largest publishing economy by volume," Burtenshaw says.

The fair, to take place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre over three days, will welcome 600 Chinese participants, including 181 publishing houses and 52 well-known writers.

"We have never welcomed so many publishers from one nation," Burtenshaw says. "There is a real desire to bring the Chinese publishers to engage with international publishers, and lots of hard work, lots of investment (have gone into) creating a good program."

Organizing the program has been a joint effort between Burtenshaw's team and China's General Administration of Press and Publication. The decision to have China as the market focus country was agreed on in 2008, to celebrate China's hosting of the Olympics.

Although the London Book Fair started 41 years ago, and has since become one of the world's top three book fairs, it was only in 2004 that Burtenshaw's team launched its market focus initiative, an opportunity for the chosen country to promote itself.

The China Market Focus 2012 Program, titled China: New Perspectives, New Concept, also includes four professional publishing forums, 10 high-level dialogues and 11 cultural and art exhibitions.

Zhang Fuhai, director of the international exchange and cooperation department of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said last month: "We hope our participation will promote closer cooperation between the Chinese- and English-language book markets, and raise the profile of China's published works and cultural products in the global cultural market."

China was guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009 and the Paris Book Fair in 2004. This year's London fair is particularly significant as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Britain.

The Chinese organizer selected 600 British titles (translated and published in China) and about 200 Chinese titles (translated and published in Britain) as illustrations of the best in translated works between the two languages in literature, art, education and philosophy.

Chinese publishers will exhibit their works in a specifically designed Chinese pavilion, which occupies a floor area of more than 2,000 square meters.

Burtenshaw praised the China Pavilion as "visually stunning", saying it incorporates the five elements that embody the Chinese understanding of the world: metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

He recalls that when he first became director of the London Book Fair about 11 years ago, Chinese publishers already had a significant presence at the fair, which has "grown and developed over the years".

Past exhibitors at the London Book Fair include the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, and Hanban, otherwise known as the Confucius Institute, which specializes in teaching Chinese abroad.

Because of growing interest in doing business in China's publishing market, the London Book Fair started hosting a half-day China forum every year from about five years ago. The discussions later became a foundation for this year's professional program, Burtenshaw says.

The four seminars making up the professional program focus on China-EU publishing cooperation, digital publishing, Chinese-language teaching and English-language teaching publishing, and professional publishing.

Each session will have two chairs, one from China and another internationally.

"It's a real parity in terms of the voices and info being shared," Burtenshaw says. "When combined with more practical sessions it presents a well-rounded opportunity for anyone from the global publishing world."

The professional program includes a further 35 seminars, covering all aspects of the Chinese publishing industry.

Cooperation between China and Britain's publishing industries has grown greatly over the years. Copyright trade between China and Britain between 2004 and 2008 alone totaled 8,672 items, making Britain the second-largest destination for China's publishing copyright exports, after the US.

"The UK has had a very significant publishing presence at the Beijing International Book Fair," Burtenshaw says, adding that he started attending the fair in Beijing nine years ago and has since noticed many changes in China's publishing industry.

"I have seen both technological change - interest to read books on mobile phones, online, impact of technology - and more and more publishers coming to engage at the book fair. When I was in China last year a number of new genres emerged, like the office based novels."

Burtenshaw says one challenge that makes it difficult for China to export more books' English copyright is the lack of awareness of Chinese works by Western audiences, and he says he is glad the London Book Fair will have a cultural program to help solve this problem.

This year the fair's cultural program will gather 52 Chinese authors to take part in events at some of London's most popular cultural institutions, including the Southbank Centre, The British Library, the London Review Bookshop, the School of Oriental and African Studies and Asia House.

The cultural program is curated by the British Council, which has previously curated the London Book Fair's cultural programs when the Arab world, India, South Africa and Russia were market focus countries.

Burtenshaw says the "two-fold approach" of having a professional program to facilitate the supply of books from China and a cultural program that drives demand is very important.

"In order for works of Chinese authors to reach the UK in greater quantity, there needs to be more translations of those Chinese works and opportunities for the public to be able to interact with Chinese authors.

"Ultimately, the book trade works by a member of the public buying a book. There has to be that demand, and that great quality book easily available."

Cultural events also provide "a great opportunity for foreign publishers to spot authors that they would like to publish, for translation rights to be transacted on the basis of seeing and hearing the author".

Chinese authors to be featured at the fair include: Mo Yan, the veteran writer; Han Dong (see story on Page 30) and Li Er, both of whom missed 10 years' schooling during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76); Annie Baobei, who became an Internet sensation at the age of 24, and Sheng Keyi, who writes about new migration and the metropolis.

Other countries have already published and hosted many of these writers. For example, Bi Feiyu, winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, has had six books published in France. Many of them also visited Germany for the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2009 and Greece for the book fair at Thessaloniki in 2010.

Of the 52 Chinese authors attending the book fair, 41 have had works published in English, and some of their works no doubt will have been widely read in Britain.

However, in recent weeks the cultural program has been criticized over its line-up.

But Susie Nicklin, director of Literature at the British Council, justified the selection, saying the authors taking part in the program are "internationally recognized as the leading voices writing from China today".

"We look forward to hearing from myriad voices during the week of the London Book Fair."

Contact the writers at cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn