2026 Beijing Book Fair highlights cultural, creative integration in publishing

A significant highlight of the just concluded 2026 Beijing Book Fair was the expanded cross-industry cultural product exhibition zone, which has seen a one-third increase in booth space compared to the previous edition, signaling a new trend of integration between the cultural and creative industries and the publishing sector.

The fair featured an array of cultural and creative exhibits, with many products blending traditional and modern elements.

The "Southern Song Study", a bookstore in Hangzhou City, east China's Zhejiang Province, presents an innovative open exhibition format, featuring a series of seals designed and produced with Song Dynasty (960-1279) movable type printing as inspiration. Additionally, practical cultural and creative products, which cleverly incorporate elements extracted from Song Dynasty clothing patterns into daily life, make the aesthetic charm of traditional patterns tangible.

"Over the years, we have published many books on the Song Dynasty culture, such as 'The History of the Two Song Dynasties Hidden in Cultural Relics.' This series extracts some patterns from Song Dynasty clothing and creates secondary designs. We have peonies and our dragon and phoenix motifs, which are all auspicious symbols with particular meanings. We hope that cultural and creative products serve as a small entry point, which in turn promotes reading," said Zhao Qunwei, the manager of Southern Song Study.

For the first time, the "Telling China's Stories Well" exhibition, located within the cross-industry cultural product zone, brought together over 100 exhibits from more than 50 publishing houses nationwide.

These included character figurines and postcards from "Water Margin" (one of the four major Chinese classics), folding lamps depicting scenes from "Dream of the Red Chamber" (another of the four major Chinese classics), "The Twelve Beauties of Jinling" paintings, and Dunhuang flying apsara dolls. These exhibits draw creative inspiration from rich publishing resources, demonstrating the trend towards high-quality development in future publishing and cultural creative work.

"The fine traditional Chinese culture possesses a cultural charm that transcends time and space, across China and foreign countries. Therefore, the concentrated display of publishing cultural and creative products at the book fair today is an attempt, or rather, a starting point. We will also take some of these exhibits overseas to the London Book Fair in March, hoping that through cultural and creative products, we can narrow the distance between our publications and foreign audiences, thereby telling China's stories well and spreading our Chinese culture effectively," said Jia Qiuya, vice president of Foreign Languages Press.

The 2026 Beijing Book Fair was held from Thursday to Saturday, with over 400,000 titles on display. This year's book fair featured more than 10 themed zones as well as an exhibition area for various cultural products.

2026 Beijing Book Fair highlights cultural, creative integration in publishing

Hungarians voted in parliamentary elections on Sunday, with about 8.1 million people eligible to cast ballots, according to the National Election Office.

Polls opened at 06:00 local time and closed at 19:00, with initial results expected late on Sunday evening.

Of the total, about 7.6 million voters were eligible to cast ballots in person at more than 10,000 polling stations nationwide, while some 500,000 were eligible to vote by mail.

Five parties or alliances are competing in the election. The latest opinion polls showed strong support for both Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz-Christian Democratic People's Party alliance and the opposition Tisza party led by Peter Magyar.

Among smaller parties, the far-right Our Homeland Movement is seen as having a chance to enter parliament, while others, including the Democratic Coalition and the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party, are widely viewed as unlikely to cross the threshold.

This election marks Orban's fourth parliamentary race since returning to power in 2010, with the outcome set to determine whether he can secure a fifth consecutive term.

Under Hungary's electoral law, parliamentary elections are held every four years. The Hungarian parliament has 199 seats, including 106 filled through direct elections in single-member constituencies and 93 allocated to parties that enter parliament. The party or alliance that secures a majority of seats has the right to form a government.

Hungarians vote in parliamentary elections