Exhibitors aim to take Chinese literature to rest of the world

A customer shows interest in Chinese publications on display. [Photo/Agencies]

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By the book

Thanks to a rapidly growing middle class spending heavily on its children's education, publishers in China have developed a broad range of learning materials they now feel ready to sell to the world.

In Frankfurt, the book trade's biggest annual gathering, about 40 publishers displayed their wares on the stand of the China Publishing Group, including bilingual picture books retelling classic Chinese tales with colorful illustrations and designed for children learning either Mandarin or English.

The rapidly growing e-book market, the advance of digital audiobooks and digital libraries are helping China's publishers to become less dependent on their rather loose network of foreign branches and agents.

These new technologies reduce their need to build a traditional distribution chain to deliver books around the world and allow them to concentrate on electronic platforms instead.

The China International Publishing Group promotes a multilingual database of Chinese books, a photo database and the digital e-book and audio book library operated by singdoo.com.

"Most Chinese exhibitors are carrying out their mission of 'going out', and the Frankfurt Book Fair provides the best platform to get access to international publishers," says Liu Zhong, CPG's director of international cooperation. The group has teamed up with China Mobile to develop digital content such as comics, magazines and educational material for mobile Internet devices.

CPG, which also publishes art collections, met German art and design publishing house Taschen, Britain's Phaidon and Italian and US publishers, Liu Zhong says.

The trip of nearly 8,000 km from Beijing to Frankfurt to make new contacts was worth it, according to CPG. Overall, Chinese publishers rented 16 percent more floor space at the trade fair this year than last, the Frankfurt Book Fair says.

Industry experts say cross-border publishing can give businesses and authors advantages in promotion and pricing and help them overcome stagnation in mature markets.