The 10th Taipei International Book Exhibition

The New Year vacation recently over, the flourishing Taiwan publishing industry rolled up its sleeves in eager anticipation and prepared to put its best foot forward for the tenth annual Taipei International Book Exhibit (TIBE) scheduled for February 19-24. Many book lovers were hoping to take advantage of the exhibit as the various publishing houses came together in one place and promoted special discount sales for books to be sold during the last four days of the six-day event.

TIBE began in 1987 and 2002 marks 15 years since its inception. Owing to the active market in books in recent years, this previously bi-annual event became an annual one in 1998, and exhibit space has steadily grown. At the outset it occupied Hall 1 then added Hall 2 of the Taipei World Trade Center but there were still many publishers left out in the cold. As a result, this year the Government Information Office (GIO) and the ROC Publishing Foundation, organizers of the exhibit, decided to join forces with local authorities and jointly promote a "TIBE Non-Venue Book Exhibition."

It is estimated that, as a result of a vigorous Taiwan publishing scene, at least four thousand booths are needed to meet demand, yet current Taiwan exhibit space falls short of this figure. There are now plans for the future to incorporate the exhibit space of the Taipei International Convention Center to create a third exhibition hall that alone will handle more than two thousand booths, but even this will not be enough.

Referring to the scope of this year's TIBE, which again is setting new records, GIO Director-General Arthur Iap remarked at a press conference just before the opening that he was happy to see that the exhibit was unaffected by the economic situation and that TIBE had grown from an initial eleven participating countries and 295 booths to what it has become today. It was, he said, the fruit of the continuing efforts of the publishing industry and a symbol of the growing interconnectedness of Taiwan with the international community. He further pointed out that in addition to building on the solid foundation and carrying on the fine traditions of the past, the book exhibition boasted noteworthy innovations, including: (1) non-venue TIBE book exhibitions at local libraries and chain bookstores, (2) a "restricted publication center" and a "best manga pavilion," (3) an exhibit of original etchings from the Louvre and a live demonstration of actual copper plate making, as well as (4) an exhibition of highly-regarded Russian illustrations.

Japan was the special theme country of this year's exhibit. It was the first time since 1998, when the practice of featuring countries began, that an East Asian country had been selected. The vigor of the Japanese publishing industry, its variety and its fine quality have always attracted the close attention of Taiwan publishers. This gathering pulled together over two hundred heavyweight Japanese publishers, including Bungei Shunshu, Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan, who are exhibiting all variety of new books that are attracting notice among industry professionals.

Takao Watanabe, the Japanese publishing industry's elder statesman and chairman of the Japanese Book Publishers' Association who was in charge of this "Japan year," said that several factors have led to an extremely active publishing industry in Japan. These include: (1) a literacy rate of 100%; (2) a constitution that guarantees the right of free speech; and (3) a delivery system that can put new books into the hands of readers within two days of publication. The industry thus grew constantly throughout the post-war period, hitting a peak in 1996.

Nevertheless, he continued, in recent years, because of the attraction of the "new media," the fact that young people do not like to read and, on top of this, the development of the "bubble economy," there was what has been called a "collapse of the publishing industry." After 1997 the publishing industry went into a steady decline. But there had been ample warning, and already some seven or eight years previously cultural and educational circles were both making great efforts to promote "early reading." They popularized the idea of starting "parent-child reading," to give children familiarity with and a positive impression of books right from the start, so that in the future they would become loyal members of the book-reading public. Basic education in kindergarten, primary and middle school promoted reading at different levels, and the program began from the "roots" up. It would appear that Japan's becoming a major publishing country was no accident. Even in a sluggish economy like last year, the Japanese publishing industry had a yearly output value of 2.5 trillion Yen, something Taiwan could well learn from.

It seems the Japanese publishing world, familiar with Taiwan, needed no prompting to participate in the exhibit, and authors included Noboru Tsujihara (winner of the Akutagawa Prize), Kaori Kawabata, (son of Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata), and best-selling authors of the younger generation such as Ryoko Katsuteno and Utsukuri Yanagi. In addition, the panel discussion with Alice King, Tokyo-based national policy advisor to the president, and former president Lee Teng-hui was organized by the Japanese side.

Of course the biggest hit of the Japanese participation was the manga or comic book pavilion. Manga master Ikegami Ryoichi, author Ken Akamatsu, and veteran female cartoonist Emiko Sugi were all blown away by the enthusiasm of their fans and signed autographs until their fingers ached.

This exhibit also set a new record: the current and past presidents of the Republic of China both attended and participated. On the first day of TIBE President Chen Shui-bian delivered remarks at the opening ceremonies. In addition to welcoming the publishing professionals from the various countries, he emphasized that a global knowledge-based economy was now in full swing, that the creation and utilization of knowledge would be the key to competitive failure or success for countries and industries. He said the government would incorporate the "knowledge industry" into the national guiding objectives and that the publishing industry was the foundation of the knowledge industry.

As in the past, the first two days of the 10th TIBE were devoted to the buying and selling of publishing rights and it was closed to the general public. Aside from children's books, art books, and books published in series, trade in publishing rights this year did not appear brisk. But according to experienced industry businessman Johann Hasreiter, who handled the very first theme country exhibit-Germany-the main purpose of a book fair is to meet people and make contacts. Very few decisions are finalized on publishing rights at the exhibition itself. For the most part, this is done after the exhibition is over.

But as a loyal friend of TIBE, he points out something that exhibition organizers should think about: although having many participating countries and official delegates is a good thing, the main players in international book exhibitions are publishing professionals. Many heavyweight international publishing professionals have yet to appear at TIBE. Knowing full well that people in the publishing world are "idealistic" and value creativity, he suggests that in the future organizers increase the activities aimed at them, that they make a serious effort to have the most important Asian publishing companies participate in this great event and that they also attract international publishing world heavyweights to come. Only by doing this will TIBE truly become Asia's No. 1 book exhibit.

The talk on the street among booksellers pointed to the huge attraction of the mainland Chinese market. The annual May Beijing Book Fair and the actively developing Shanghai Book Fair will be tough competitors for TIBE. The pressing question is how to create a special niche for TIBE so it can hold its own against the competition. It would appear that now, as TIBE closes its doors on a successful exhibit, it is just the time for organizers and publishers to begin meeting the future challenge as we all look forward next year to an even more brilliant TIBE.

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The annual Taipei International Book Exhibition is a time when the Taiwan publishing industry takes center stage. The picture shows President Chen Shui-bian and the chairwoman of the Council for Cultural Affairs, Tchen Yu-chiou, watching a copper etching being made by artists from the Louvre museum in France.