Culture, art on display at book fair

The 31st edition of the Beijing International Book Fair, one of the most influential book fairs in the world, opened on Wednesday at the China National Convention Center.

Under the theme "Promoting the Inheritance and Development of Civilizations and Fostering Exchange, Mutual Learning, and Win-Win Cooperation", the five-day fair features more than 220,000 publications and 1,700 exhibitors from over 80 countries and regions. Malaysia is this year's guest of honor.

At the Malaysian pavilion, Lim Pei Yen, studio director at Wizard Within — one of Malaysia's prominent publishers — handed out posters introducing the publisher alongside Malaysian dishes, plants, animals and traditions.

"This is the second time for me to be here," Lim said. "It's quite different this year because we are the guest of honor. It's also because, as the publishing sector in Malaysia is experiencing steady growth, we find more opportunities here in Beijing."

She said the pavilion was designed to bring together people from different countries and regions to interact.

"I myself have been learning from our Chinese peers about the art of making books," she added.

Over the next four days, renowned Malaysian authors, including Li Zishu, will present their works, while a series of events including activities for children, for illustrators and sessions about bookmaking will be held.

At the Hong Kong pavilion, a long queue formed in front of a milk tea stand offering the region's signature drink. The pavilion also features an exhibition on Hong Kong's cultural heritages, including bamboo steamers, Canton enamel, paper crafting techniques, Cantonese opera headdress making, fire dragon dances and Chinese flower button crafting.

"These cultural heritages serve not only as vessels for Hong Kong's historical memories, but also as vibrant embodiments of Chinese cultural heritage, carrying the wisdom and craftsmanship of our ancestors and resiliently enduring through the tides of time," said Yuen Wai-yin, deputy director of the Beijing Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, during the pavilion's opening ceremony.

The Hong Kong pavilion will also host lectures and workshops on cultural heritage, bookmaking and painting throughout the fair.

Elsewhere at the fair, China Publishing Group Co is showcasing an extensive array of translated works. A centerpiece is the Chinese Translations of World Academic Masterpieces series by the Commercial Press, which reached 1,000 titles in 2024. Among the earliest and most influential is Yan Fu's translation of Thomas Henry Huxley's Evolution and Ethics.

Another highlight is the art book fair The Art of Seeing, featuring From Lo Archive to Visualizing Dunhuang: Discovering Princeton's Treasured Photographic Records in Eighty Years.

"We very much wanted people to get a sense of the magnitude of this work. Now the archives are not reproducible or replicable in this era of AI. We really need to hold on to that human artistry," said Christie Henry, director of Princeton University Press.

"Books are not ephemeral but very much enduring," she said. "So this nine-volume work gives us a chance to showcase that. We felt there isn't a better group to do that with than a group of publishers and people who are coming to the fair to celebrate publishing in all of its glory."

Fang Aiqing contributed to this story.