Far beyond printed words

A participant at the exhibition, The Colorful Dream on Silk Road, held by the guest country of Iran during the fair. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Cooperation and exchanges

Forums on various themes saw closer exchanges among publishing professionals.

For instance, there were forums on children's books and on digital publishing.

Princeton University Press, the publisher for the late Albert Einstein, co-organized a forum with Zhejiang University Press on academic publishing.

Al Bertrand, editor-in-chief and associate publishing director of Princeton, says that it will open an office in the country as China is "strategically important over the long term, editorially and as a market for our books, and we want to engage more with Chinese scholars".

Lu Dongming, president of Zhejiang University Press, says the press is known for its works on cross-disciplinary science and on pressing issues facing the global community.

Literature and children's books were in the spotlight as usual. "China printed more than 100 million copies of children's books in 2016," Fan says.

At the fair, Cao Wenxuan, winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016, shared his experience of creating Chinese picture books, and Xu Zechen released a new book on a fairytale about men and animals jointly protecting "paradise".

In other developments, established writers like Tie Ning, Mo Yan and Jia Pingwa met their readers, publishers and translators at the fair.

Also, A Yi, the policeman-turned writer, who has sold 15 of his works to publishers to be produced in seven languages, met with some of his foreign translators and publishers.

And, the fair's reading-promotion ambassador, Liu Zhenyun, says: "I write about those who are often neglected. And I'm glad to find that their voices are heard by the world through the foreign versions of my books."