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)