The seventh Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) was held at the World Trade Center from February 7 to 12. Guests included Peter Weidhaas, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, and Francesca Ferrari, project manager of the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy. Besides direct sales, trade in copyrights was another outstanding feature of the exhibition.

Following on the very successful sixth TIBE and the decision to hold the exhibition annually instead of every other year as previously, this year's TIBE attracted numerous booksellers, buyers, and ordinary consumers. There were a total of 787 publishers from 42 different countries-including Germany, France, the US, Canada, and South Africa- exhibiting in 1447 booths.

Of the five main theme areas in the exhibition, the largest was the Children's Books area. It was opened to kids as young as 6 (the rest of the exhibit was closed to children under 12). Many teachers brought their students on field trips.

Of particular interest was the focal theme hall-The World of Children's Books. Among the exhibits were award-winning books and book illustrations, including recipients of the Bologna international children's book prize, Hans Christian Anderson Medals, and the ROC's own "Little Sun Prize." Works by more than 20 artists, including the renowned Quint Buchholz and well-known Taiwan illustrators such as Liu Tsung-hui and Yang Tsui-yu, were exhibited.

Buchholz and Francesca Ferrari, who was also a consultant to this year's TIBE, served as prize presenters for the third annual Little Sun ceremony. Chen Chien-jen, director-general of the Government Information Office, said that they decided to award these prizes at the TIBE in order to give the specially invited foreign visitors, as well as local readers, a chance to see how far children's literature has developed in Taiwan.

Another major theme at this year's TIBE was Internet information and electronic books. Exhibitors including the Academia Sinica and the National Central Library displayed powerful and convenient websites at the Electronic Publishing Plaza, showing the practical application of technology to publishing. A number of booksellers exhibited multi-functional electronic books and related software. One example was a digital book of the treasures in the National Palace Museum, easy to carry and including 3-D pictures.

Many young people were attracted to the Comic Books area. This busy section was made even livelier by the presence of giant puppets and book signings by famous cartoonists.

Other areas were also enlivened by the presence of famous authors. The painter Max Liu, the poet Yu Kuang-chung, and the novelist Chang Ta-chun had book signings, while other well-known writers chose the TIBE to launch new books. The offerings by Po Yang and Peter Weidhaas added considerable interest to the exhibition.

Begun by the Government Information Office in 1987, the TIBE has been growing continually. Starting next year it will be privately run. Following on the model of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which established a daughter company to manage the Frankfurt Book Fair, members of the Taipei book publishers professional association have jointly invested to establish the Taipei Exhibition Company. They hope to develop the TIBE into an "Asia-Pacific copyright trading center" and to facilitate the exchange of information between Taiwan and elsewhere on publishing and book exhibitions.

The organizing authorities estimate that the volume of copyright trading was 10-20% higher than last year's 1600 agreements, and was worth up to NT$100 million. Direct sales, on the other hand, were off by about 10-20% from last year's NT$100 million because there were fewer visitors than last year .

Peter Weidhaas says that although books published in Taiwan are generally of interest only to the domestic market, the TIBE is already functioning as a copyright trading center. Francesca Ferrari, comparing the TIBE to the annual exhibitions in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Beijing, remarked that she was deeply impressed by the enthusiasm for reading in Taiwan and by the international outlook of the TIBE. Evelyn Lee, the representative of Amer-Asia Books (A-AB), a well-known book agency in the US-which has been at the Beijing book fair on several occasions, attended TIBE last year, and decided to have a booth at TIBE this year-found it especially interesting that the Taiwan market is significantly different from the mainland market. A-AB has decided to establish a branch in Taiwan.

There were more foreign exhibitors this year than last. Booksellers from Hong Kong and Germany formed groups to participate. The Hong Kong Trade Development Office even set up a booth to invite publishers to the Hong Kong Book Fair, creating a synergy with the TIBE. There was a special area for international copyright trading at the fair, showing the determination of the TIBE to become a copyright trading center. Taiwan book dealers had great success in seeking customers for international copyrights. For example, the well-known Taiwan publishing house Pingino, which began publishing its series of illustrated children's tales from around the world only last year, sold copyrights for Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the US, and Spain on the first day alone, and there is strong interest from Japan.

Besides the TIBE, other major Asian book fairs include those in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Beijing. The market is lively, and competition is intense, especially that for Chinese language books. Ngai Hing-leung, deputy general manager of the Economic Information Agency in Hong Kong, points out that the Beijing Book Fair is exhibiting an increasingly large variety of products, while the Hong Kong fair is very large and has hundreds of thousands of visitors. Despite such competition, many foreign observers think that the future looks good for the TIBE. To take one example, Chris Ramage, who came to Taiwan to seek the rights to act as agent for Chinese language books, says that the demand is high in Australia for books printed with the complex Chinese characters used in Taiwan (as opposed to the simplified forms used in the PRC).

There were fears that this year sales would be off at the TIBE. For one thing the days on which the fair was opened to the public did not fall on the weekend. Also, many booksellers were worried about the superstition that people don't like to buy books-the Chinese word for which is homophonous with "to lose"-right before the Chinese New Year. In the bustling Children's Books section, competition was especially intense. Many publishers put 30 or 40 salespeople to work, offered discounts, and put out book-related toys, puppets and videotapes to attract attention. While business was brisk for local children's and comics book dealers, some of the foreign publishers, whose main aim was not in any case direct sales at the fair itself, closed their booths early and went sightseeing.

The TIBE was a success. As Premier Vincent Siew said in his opening remarks, the TIBE was a New Year's shot in the arm for people reeling from the financial crisis, and marks progress toward Taiwan's goals of becoming an Asian copyrights trading center and an axis for the Chinese language book market.

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Attendance at the Taipei International Book Exhibition was not as good as last year because it was open to the public only on the hectic working days before Chinese New Year. Still, there were a record number of exhibition booths. (photo by Diago Chiu)

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This year's Taipei International Book Exhibition featured a special copyright trading area, demonstrating the TIBE's determination to become an Asian copyright trading center. (photo by Diago Chiu)

This year's Taipei International Book Exhibition featured a special copyright trading area, demonstrating the TIBE's determination to become an Asian copyright trading center. （photo by Diago Chiu）