Overseas publishers and sinologists flocked to the 32nd Beijing International Book Fair to pursue partnerships with China's publishing industry through copyright and literary exchanges, while helping to promote Chinese literature and language globally.
The five-day event opened Wednesday at the China National Convention Center, drawing more than 1,700 exhibitors from 82 countries and regions and showing around 220,000 book titles. This year's fair attracted 10 more participating countries than the previous edition, featuring 27 joint pavilions for countries and regions, along with 26 international publishers making their debut.
"I saw many, many interesting books, historical books, I mean, which would be most interesting to the Hungarian readers as well. So, on the other hand, I'm looking for partnership between the two countries -- China and Hungary -- regarding the translation and getting copyrights of published Chinese books in Hungary," said Gabor Barta, a Hungarian historian and publisher. "(I'm) here to know more about Chinese new books, to buy foreign rights and maybe to sell Russian rights to the Chinese publishers," said Alexei Brov, a Russian publisher.
Alongside the main fair, the Beijing International Literature Week gathered sinologists and translators from 17 countries and regions, as well as nearly 100 Chinese writers. The event aimed to build a comprehensive chain spanning creation, translation, publishing, and promotion to expand the global reach of Chinese literary works. "I started preparing and translating Chinese literary works back in 2003, and up to now I've translated almost 20 books. We can also say that in Italy, on the one hand, more and more people are reading Chinese literature, and on the other, more and more people are studying Chinese," said Patrizia Liberati, an Italian sinologist and translator.
"This event has brought together sinologists from all over the world. It helped us gain a deeper understanding of Chinese literature and how it's going global, and it also provided us with a lot of great opportunities for our future development," said Yahya Mokhtar, an Egyptian sinologist and translator.
Global publishers, sinologists seek partnerships at Beijing Int'l Book Fair
