This year's featured country was the Czech Republic, also known as "the pearl of Europe." Czech writer Kveta Pacovska, winner of the international Hans Christian Andersen Award, made a special appearance for book-signing events hosted by the TIBE. For this year's exhibition, a third hall was added to display spiritual, new age, and "green" books, and browsing published works on religion and spiritual development was a highlight for many attendees.

Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, the 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, caused a stir at the show. He is only the second Nobel Prize winner to attend a TIBE.

The 69-year-old Soyinka's arrival in Taipei sparked a series of events, including the seminar "Soyinka Meets Taiwan Authors," hosted by literary scholar Summe Cheng and authors Huang Chun-ming and Chen Ying-chen. As Summe Cheng introduced Soyinka's writings, he emphasized how Europe and the United States continue to ignore Soyinka's pointed criticism of Western culture.

Author Chia Fu-hsiang, who has translated Soyinka's poetry, and African literature specialist Stephen Arnold from Canada, hosted a Soyinka poetry recital. Taking the stage to read poems were poets Hsiang Yang, Hsi Mu-rung, and the new Taipei City Bureau of Cultural Affairs director Sebastian Hsien-hao Liao. A folksinger popular in the 1970's, Hu Der-fu, sang and played interpretations of songs from his Taiwan home. Soyinka, who was born in Nigeria, sang Ijala songs from his native Yoruba culture. The deep and intricate melodies showed a close relation to jazz and soul music and left a lasting impression on the listening audience.

Soyinka said that even though two different languages were spoken at the recital, the readings gave him the feeling that an extraordinary communication had occurred. Regarding the international emphasis on "global" culture, Soyinka pointed out that the TIBE was featuring ancient Chinese culture, Czech culture, his own traditional Yoruba culture, as well as authors of Caribbean and American backgrounds, all exhibiting at the same time. This reveals that Taiwan is not a country that is culturally weak. In contrast to the strong centralizing trend of globalization, the TIBE assumed the appearance of an "anti-globalization" book exhibition, which felt marvelous.

When President Chen Shui-bian hosted Soyinka at the Presidential Office, he emphasized that there are many people around the world who are unfamiliar with Taiwan and who assume the country is always on the brink of war. The president believed this visit would allow Soyinka to gain a deep feeling for the warmth of Taiwan's people, and provide an opportunity to understand the country Taiwan has become. This is similar to another Nobel winner, Gao Xingjian, the author of Snow in August, who said that Taiwan offered unlimited artistic space, allowing him to create an unparalleled stage presentation.

Soyinka expressed to President Chen that the world is full of wonder and that you learn new things wherever you go. Nigeria and Taiwan have similar backgrounds and have traveled the same path; both opposed authoritarianism, fought for freedom, and now enjoy political liberty. Soyinka said that Nigeria's dictators are now dead, while he is still alive, and that life is amazing and wonderful.

To discuss the globalization of enterprises and the wave of consolidations, the TIBE hosted an "International Publishing Seminar" inviting foreign publishing houses with relevant experience to share how they have faced this trend and positioned their companies for growth. The participants were managers of publishing companies from Europe, the United States, and Japan. Speaking from direct experience, they emphasized that company size was not relevant to survival. Small companies have much greater room to publish creative publications. The operating principles that will always hold true for publishing houses are selecting the right works for publication and producing high quality books.

Daisy Maryles, executive editor of the American magazine Publishers Weekly, has observed changes in the industry over the years. She held that in this wave of mergers, the only way for small companies to survive is to establish a specialty and refuse to follow the pack. Her remarks elicited general agreement from the audience. Many in the industry realize that problems in publishing are the same throughout the world, no matter if it's the East or the West. As transnational media organizations merge and consolidate, medium and small independent publishers cannot compete in terms of resources. The only way to survive is to maintain a unique specialty.

p.68

The 2003 TIBE combined global culture with non-mainstream elements. Books from the European and American area (right) reflect the worldwide craze for learning English. Meanwhile, there were new age books, a Czech pavilion (opposite page), and an appearance by Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka of Nigeria.