Pop culture is dominating this year's Hong Kong Book Fair - where corporate tie-ins and toys are very popular - leaving most traditional literature at used bookstore prices.

The seven-day annual book fair is organized by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. It opened on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Some 580 publishers from 33 countries or areas are taking part - the biggest participation levels in its history.

Metro Books' pavilion has a virtual monopoly on Marvel and Disney products. Its booth was filled with children on Wednesday anxious to buy their books.

Many children are delighted when their favorite heroes and villains move from the cinema to video games and books. One mother visiting the fair, Angel Yeung, said she wanted to buy a few paperback adventures for her 7-year-old.

Yeung said her son is obsessed with Disney character, Minion. She added that when the boy reads the books "he can rest his eyes from the screen".

The fair, supposedly all about books, includes an exhibit of Cantopop song manuscripts, as well as a toy fair with an electronics fair. But there was no shortage of booths selling just books.

One Lego booth sold only schoolbags, with no Lego blocks. But some of the more popular booths sold stuffed animals and Hello Kitty earphones.

Booksellers, such as Commercial Press, continued to do much of their business in study guides. But readers are increasingly demanding quality pictures, binding and paper among other things.

The age of e-books and online ordering has made reading material cheaper and more accessible. But no amount of digitization can replace the feel of pursuing and purchasing a good coffee-table book, Commercial Press deputy manager Teresa Leung said.

Stacks of HK$700 silk-embroidered bound versions of The Exploitation of the Works of Nature by Song Yingxing were selling quickly at the China Publishing Group booth. The MI Asia booth had sold 100 copies of its limited-edition HK$4,600 set of National Geographic photo books.

Singapore-based bookseller Page One is seeking higher volume sales by selling classic English literature books at HK$20 a piece. This is after Page One had to close two stores.

Content featuring pseudo-models was banned in 2010 after criticism that it was not educational, cultural or child-friendly. But glossy pictures of the models were still on sale at the fair. They are some of the most expensive "books", selling at more than HK$150, on average, for around 100 pages with no discounts offered.

Giant plastic bags full of cheap knickknacks were also available in nearly every small vendor booth as gifts to tempt customers.

While major book publishers offer gifts to generate higher sales or sell glossy, eye-catching magazines, magazine subscription sellers seem to have almost given up on book fairs.

ELLE.com digital marketing executive Gigi Tang attributed their presence there more to tradition than to business acumen.

"We get most of our subscriptions from online campaigns and the people we see at the fair every year are the same. They're here for the free gifts for renewing their subscriptions," Tang said.

The fair runs from 10 am to 10 pm. On Friday and Saturday, it will be open until midnight.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 07/16/2015 page7)