Droves of wide-eyed children queued up outside the Hong Kong Convention Center on the eve of the July 21st opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair in the hopes of having first dibs in the fair’s famed comic book section. The grown-ups weren’t far behind, as this year’s fair drew a record crowd of 503,396 people — 70,000 more than the previous record set in 2002. The Trade Development Council, which organizes the six-day book event, attributes the boost in attendance to the improving economy, the introduction of a discount for mainland visitors, and an extension of evening sessions.
A new exhibit called the “International Cultural Village” featured books from far and wide, notably Poland, Egypt, Canada, Malaysia, and Singapore. Though France was the only country in the village to bring out authors (including Jean-Michel Sourd), they drew little attention from the local population. The convention organizers said the performance of the Village exhibit would be reviewed, and there is a strong possibility it will be back again next year.
Some topics cross East-West cultural boundaries: Attendees couldn’t get enough of the latest celebrity autobiographies and books detailing diet secrets. Parenting books also flew off the tables, as did books printed on the mainland with simplified Chinese characters. Low prices, an improvement in print quality, and a wider selection of titles all contributed to the rise in sales at this year’s fair.
Over the past four years, the festival has expanded to include seminars by writers and intellectuals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese mainland — many of whom see the fair as an opportunity to discuss Chinese culture and issues that can’t be aired as openly in other regions. Local poets were invited to recite their work at the fair for the first time. The readings included performances in Arabic, Cantonese, English, French, Mandarin and Portuguese, with the US represented by Madeleine Marie Slavick and Stephen Richards. “The fair can create a platform for creative Chinese people to share their vision and share their views about the publishing industry, cultural issues and Greater China,” said Lorna Lai, webmaster of Hong Kong-based Joint Publishing.
Another massive noteworthy change this year was the establishment of a web-based copyright exchange, which allows publishers who want to buy the copyright for a book to translate it into English or Chinese to send their contact information to another publisher anytime or anywhere. The online copyright exchange can be found at http://bds.hkbookfair.com/ chi/book_enquiry/copyright/book_search.asp.
Though the festival draws quite a local crowd, representatives of the Shanghai-based Big Apple Tuttle-Mori agency haven’t attended for a number of years. As executive director Luc Kwanten points out, “By and large, it’s a fair during which publishers, especially the Taiwanese, liquidate their warehouses. It is also a sales fair and attendance is massive.”
But, for most of those who were present, it was worth the wait in line, and you better expect there will be droves next year.
PT thanks Lorna Lai for contributing to this report.
