China is the guest of honor at the 2015 BookExpo America’s Global Market Forum for the first time in history. This is the third time the country has enjoyed such an honor at an influential international book fair after the 2009 Frankfurt Book Fair and the 2012 London Book Fair.

As the guest of honor, China will launch a series of cultural and trade events that will be a boon to book and copyright trades between China and the United States and will help more books from either country enter each other’s market and the markets of other foreign countries. China’s special status at the fair will also boost bilateral cultural exchange, facilitate sound economic and social development of the two countries and exert a profound and lasting influence on the mutual understanding between the peoples of China and the U.S.

Against this backdrop, China International Publishing Group (CIPG) is going all out to cut a figure at the BEA with its multilingual books, copyright trades, cultural events and booth design.

Rich exhibition of multilingual books to be presented

CIPG plans to display 865 book titles at the BEA, in an effort to seize the special opportunity provided by the expo. Many of these books, including several notable works on modern China such as “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” are oriented toward the events China will be launching as BEA’s guest of honor. These books are published in 11 languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese. More than 475 of these book titles are newly published, and 817 of them, or 94 percent of the total, are written in foreign languages. Covering a wide range of topics such as modern China, Chinese culture, Chinese literature, Chinese language learning, traditional Chinese medicine and stories for kids, the books will give the world a full picture of China and demonstrate CIPG’s core competences of foreign language publishing.

Various cultural events to be launched

During the book fair, CIPG will launch a range of events to expand the influence of its publications. A promotion seminar for “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” and a launch ceremony and photo exhibition for “Shared Memories of the US and China: The Pacific War Against Japanese Aggression” will be held at BEA’s China Pavilion. The two events will be jointly hosted by the State Council Information Office, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, CIPG and China’s Consulate General in New York, and will be organized by Foreign Languages Press. A readers’ forum and launch ceremony for the English edition of “I Am from Xinjiang on the Silk Road” in the China Books section on Amazon.com will be hosted by China International Book Trading Corporation and New World Press in the digital publishing exhibition zone at the China Pavilion. China International Book Trading Corporation will also hold a promotional event for China Books in the digital publishing exhibition zone. CIPG will launch the “Decoding the CPC” series at its booth.

About BookExpo America and its guest of honor

BookExpo America (BEA) was first held as the American Booksellers Association and Convention and Trade Exhibit by the Association of American Publishers in 1947. Over the years, it has developed from a book purchasing platform targeting American booksellers and publishers to a large-scale book fair featuring copyright trading and book ordering attended by companies from nearly all English-speaking countries.

BEA is known as the world’s largest event for English book showcasing, and it is the leading book fair in the United States. The annual event had been held in major cities like New York, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles, and it is typically held over the course of three days in May or June. In addition to book promotion, other events held during the expo include symposiums, exhibitions, forums, literary salons and award ceremonies. Copyright trade is also an important part of BEA. Every year, publishers, brokers, talent hunting companies and copyright professionals gather at the copyright trading center to negotiate deals concerning the copyrights for literary works and other publications.

The US publishing market is one of the largest around the world. The annual BEA attracts numerous book industry professionals from hundreds of publishing agencies in more than 80 countries and regions across the world.

The Global Market Forum, a major program created by the BEA organization committee in 2009, names a specific country or region as its guest of honor each year. The Arab world, Spain, Italy, Russia, and Mexico have previously been named the expo’s guests of honor.