Some of the major Chinese publishing houses’ stands glow on the exhibition floor of the 2024 China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair. In the foreground is the Shanghai Century Publishing House stand, for example. Image: CCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
See also:
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More than US$2.8 Million in Book Sales
On Sunday (November 17), the same day the Sharjah International Book Fair was closing in the United Arab Emirates, the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair was concluding its run in China.
At 25,000 square meters (269,000 square feet), the Shanghai fair surpassed some of its own predictions in terms of exhibitor numbers, coming in at the end with 497 exhibitors from 32 international markets, and a representation of some 20,000 new book titles on display.
The Shanghai show is primarily a public-facing event, and organizers tell us that on-site book sales this year came to more than 20 million RMB (US$2.8 million).
In terms of one-on-one professional activity, there were at least 1,200 rights-trading meetings.
The fair’s overall figure of 41,263 attendees includes a reported 17,081 publishing professionals. The programming featured 353 professional activities as well as new-book launches and reading-promotion events.
France in China: Nicolas Roche on BIEF at Shanghai
The BIEF collective stand at the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair 2024. Image: CCBF
Involvement at the institutional level is very important for this developing international show, and, as Publishing Perspectives readers know, this was the sixth year of a kind of book-fair-mentoring relationship, a 10-year contract under the corporate banner of Ronbo BolognaFiere and featuring a strong, engaged participation by Elena Pasoli‘s Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF, March 31 to April 3) and Jacks Thomas‘ Bologna Book Plus.
This clearly is paying off for the Shanghai fair that Donna Chai and her team are directing with Bologna’s support. Many publishing professionals in the international children’s market may not yet know the China program well, but they know Pasoli, Thomas, and Orna O’Brien, and they certainly know the 61-year-old Bologna, the world’s leader in children’s book trade shows. Warm, familiar faces, deftly handled introductions and connections between new acquaintances go a long way toward making this part of the Asian markets’ landscape more approachable to the publishing rights players who work to internationalize world publishing.
Nicolas Roche
Among the most sophisticated and experienced of collective-stand programs, Nicolas Roche‘s French group, the Bureau International de l’Édition Française (BIEF), made a strong showing at the heart of the international area—not that far from the Emirates Publishers Association‘s stand, led by Rashid Al Kous,
Publishing Perspectives checked in with BIEF managing director Nicolas Roche on his French team’s experience.
“The French stand operated by the BIEF was 90 square meters [969 square feet] and hosted around 20 French professionals in partnership with the French Institute in China,” he tells us, “nearly double the number compared to 2023. By unanimous opinion, the meetings were of very high quality,” he says, “although they were more concentrated over two days rather than three” this year.
“Even though Chinese publishers’ interest in foreign children’s books is not as strong as it used to be,” he says, “largely because of the huge decline in birth rates and significant overproduction (nearly a thousand Chinese publishing houses now focus on children’s books)—we continue to feel a keen interest from the Chinese for the originality of French creations.
“This event also gave some of us the opportunity to visit generalist and specialized bookstores (children and comics) in town,” Roche says, “and to meet with publishers in their offices, which always allows for meaningful exchanges.”
And another highlight for his BIEF delegation, Roche says, was “a Friday evening event at the French Consulate, which provided a highly engaging networking opportunity for professionals from both countries.”
Facilitating the International Market’s Interest
A ‘master class’ session on the stage in the Illustrators Survival Corner, a venue transferred from Bologna Children’s Book Fair to support the Shanghai fair in its service to illustrators. Image: CCBF
Logistical support is generously and thoughtfully handled at many points by the Shanghai show’s administration led by Chai, and that has been reflected in the fact that this year’s Shanghai show saw 180 international publishing and cultural organizations from five continents —including London’s Publishers Association; BIEF, as mentioned; the Polish Book Institute; the Consulate General of Canada in Shanghai; and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (KPIPA).
These outfits were onboard to showcase their respective industries in ways that their own publishers could recognize as valuable and impactful in their own offices.
In addition to Shanghai’s own Golden Pinwheel award program, there was, predictably, a strong contingent of awards activity from Italy involved, thanks to the Bologna connection, and this included the Bologna Award for Best Children’s Book Publisher of the Year and the Premio Strega for kids’ literature. Highlighted international participants included Fukuinkan Shoten of Japan; Corraini Edizioni (Italy), Edizioni EL, and Terre di Mezzo of Italy; and Libros Silvestres of Argentina.
Publishing Perspectives will have a look at some of the Golden Pinwheel action in a later article.
Simon de Jocas
The Publishers Without Borders group had a collective stand on two aisles, the group making its first appearance in that format, led by Les 400 coups’ Simon De Jocas. And also on hand here Gos Education from the States, Nuinui from Italy, Pie Books from Japan, Australia’s Five Mile Press, and Malaysia’s Wizard Within. The “Avenue of Illustrators showed the work of 89 illustrators and art organizations from 27 cities, while one competition, the “New Dream” program, featured more than 100 illustrations created by young artists.
More coverage will be forthcoming here as we work through additional material from the 2024 China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair. The Shanghai show is endorsed by the Shanghai Press & Publication Administration, and organized by Shanghai Xinhua Distribution Group, China Education Publishing & Media Group, and China Universal Press & Publication, co-organized by Ronbo BolognaFiere Shanghai and promoted by BolognaFiere Group.
In addition to the Marco Polo exhibition for the 700th anniversary of the explorer’s death, the Shanghai fair featured a show called ‘A Fabulous Wardrobe,’ examining the place of costuming and clothing in children’s literature. Image: CCBF
More from Publishing Perspectives on the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair is here. More from us on China’s market is here, our closely followed China Bestsellers series produced in association with Beijing OpenBook is here, and more on children’s books is here.
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