The ongoing 31st Beijing International Book Fair is witnessing robust copyright trading activity, with science fiction and cultural works emerging as particularly sought-after commodities among international publishers.
A total of 90,000 titles are available for copyright transactions at this year's event running from June 18 to 22.
The fair has already facilitated several significant deals, including Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House's recently published "Poetic Zhejiang" series securing a copyright export agreement with Malaysia's Han Culture Center just months after its release.
"The excellence of our poetry needs no explanation. The works speak for themselves. The copyright exports to Malaysia and other regions represent a mutual cultural exchange process that demonstrates the power of cultural dissemination and influence," said Tao Ran, professor at Zhejiang University's College of Liberal Arts in east China's Zhejiang Province.
The Hunan Juvenile and Children's Publishing House in central China's Hunan Province reported strong international interest in its "China's Intangible Cultural Heritage" picture book series, with copyrights sold to over 10 countries and regions including Brazil.
The series has been published in multiple language editions including Sinhalese, Nepali, Portuguese and Chinese-Italian bilingual versions.
"Children's hearts know no borders. Through vibrant and vivid illustrations, we introduce intangible cultural heritage to young readers. Books rooted in Chinese traditional culture have gained remarkable popularity worldwide. Countries like Brazil and Italy have actively sought to acquire the copyrights to these books," said Hu Juanmi, editor-in-chief of the publisher.
Federico Roberto Antonelli, Cultural Counselor of the Italian Embassy in China, noted, "Chinese authors are gaining increasing global recognition, including in Italy. The exhibition of books for younger readers, I think, represents a particularly successful example. Cooperation between Italy and China continues to strengthen."
The fair also saw the launch of the first achievements from the China-Singapore Classics Translation Project, with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press presenting three translated works.
So far, China has signed book translation and publishing agreements with 23 other Asian countries.
Elena Pasoli, director of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, commented, "It's very lively, full of content. And this continuous exchange that we have been exploring over the years has broad, wonderful results in the collaboration. This is a clear picture of the friendship, of the mutual interest in working together."
31st Beijing International Book Fair sees booming copyright exports
Eighteen sets of precious archival materials related to David Nelson Sutton, a U.S. assistant prosecutor at the Tokyo Trials and one of the earliest international prosecutors to investigate the Nanjing Massacre, were officially donated on Wednesday to the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.
Sunday marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE, also known as the Tokyo Trials). To commemorate the milestone, six diaries written by Sutton between 1946 and 1948, when he was conducting investigations for the tribunal, were donated together with a series of reports titled Reports from China.
"It is necessary to let more Chinese, even people all over the world, to see these archival materials. Let all the world know why the Tokyo Trials 80 years ago were described as a trial of justice, and how the Nanjing Massacre nearly 90 years ago was unprecedentedly brutal and tragic beyond compare," said Zou Dehuai, the donor.
From May 3, 1946 to Nov 12, 1948, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was held in Tokyo by 11 countries, including the United States, China, Britain and the Soviet Union, to try Japan's Class-A war criminals after World War II.
"Why do we say the Tokyo Trials were a trial of justice? It was a trial witnessed by the world, with judges from 11 countries. Major war criminals, such as Iwane Matsui, a crime culprit for the Nanjing Massacre, and Hideki Tojo, all ultimately received the punishment they deserved. That is why the Tokyo Trials are called a trial of justice. These archives are of immense importance," Zou said.
Sutton came to China with the International Prosecution Section in 1946 and was tasked with investigating Japanese war crimes in China, with a particular focus on collecting evidence related to the Nanjing Massacre.
The six diaries recorded many details of Sutton's work during the Tokyo Trials. In one entry, dated March 9, he wrote that he had received formal orders to go to Shanghai, Nanking (Nanjing), Peiping (Beijing) and other sites in the China theater to investigate war crimes and gather evidence. Another entry recorded his arrival in Nanjing at 11:20 on April 2. On May 3, the day the trial opened, he described the defendants as looking like "insignificant beaten men."
The donated materials also include Sutton's "Reports from China," which further exposed Japanese wartime atrocities in China, including mass killings, violence against civilians, germ warfare and the coercion of Chinese people into opium cultivation.
Zou is a collector born in the 1990s who has long searched for wartime historical evidence. He first found the Sutton materials in November 2025 on a U.S.-based auction website specialized in military artifacts. After confirming Sutton's identity and reviewing preview images that indicated the items were original archival materials, Zou placed a bid for the collection and later, ultimately paying a price nearly 100,000 U.S. dollars, far more than his original budget. And he arranged for its return to China, with assistance from others.
At the donation ceremony, Zou received a donation certificate. He said the Sutton archives were the most expensive items he had acquired in a decade of collecting. "These archives, these ironclad evidences, expose the crimes committed by the invading Japanese army in China and serve as a warning to all humanity. When you look at these documents, you cannot imagine that a human army could commit such massive and horrible atrocities. I believe that any Japanese person with conscience, after reading the Sutton archives, would firmly recognize what kind of a massacre took place in Nanjing. For the young people of future China, Japan and the United States, we must tell them the truth of history, and why we must cherish the hard-won peace, and how heavy the cost of peace truly was," Zou said.
Tokyo Trials prosecutor's diaries donated to Nanjing Massacre memorial hall
