The recently concluded 30th Beijing
Book Fair examined not only the recent past but also the near
future.
The January fair is viewed as a
compass of the domestic market in the coming year.
A highlight was the BBF Top Forum of
China Press and Publishers, co-hosted by the fair's organizing committee and
China Publishing & Media Journal.
Hot spots in Chinese publishing will
include literature - both translated and in original Chinese, the journal's
president Wu Xusheng says.
Also popular will be "chicken-noodle
soup" books on psychology and life outlook. Books about science, and
particularly artificial intelligence, will be big. So, too, will be kids books,
especially titles dealing with art education.
More books will be integrated with
augmented and virtual reality, Wu adds.
He expects last year's strong
performance of calligraphy titles to extend into 2017. This reveals a potent
demand for traditional-culture themes, Wu points out.
Industry monitor Openbook also
released its annual report on China's 2016 market, based on data from over 3,000
bookstores and major online-retail websites.
It says the market exceeded 70
billion yuan ($10 billion), an increase of 12.3 percent
year-on-year.
Online book sales contributed 36.5
billion yuan to the market, marking the first time online sales surpassed
offline sales.
Openbook's report says Japanese
author Keigo Higashino is the most popular fiction writer among Chinese. Three
of his titles were among the 10 best-selling fiction works in the country. His
book Miracles of the Namiya General Store grabbed first place.
Essayist Lung Ying-tai's book See Off
topped the nonfiction best-seller list.
Major online booksellers Tmall and
Dangdang also released annual reports during the BBF.
Their consensus is that children's
books, literature and reference books led the pack in 2016, followed by books
about science, economics and management.
Kids' books are the fastest-growing
genre and account for the largest market segment. It has enjoyed a nearly 29
percent growth rate and occupies nearly a quarter of the market, Openbook
reports.
Some publishers are entering the
audio-book sector, which promises huge market potential but is underdeveloped
compared to the United States and Britain.
"Amazon's audio books are popular
among English-language readers," Cheers Publishing's vice-president, Chen Yi,
says.
"They offer vast opportunities in
China, given the proliferation of smartphones and fragmentation of time in urban
lifestyles," Chen says.
His company has produced audio
versions of five of its popular titles, including Nike founder Phil Knight's
autobiography, Shoe Dog, which is recorded by five amateur runners from
different professions.
Guangxi Normal University Press brand
Imaginist dedicated a special section of its exhibition area to audio
books.
Penguin Random House partnered with
mobile-radio app Himalaya FM last month and will soon bring over 6,000
English-language audio books to China.
The BBF featured over 730 exhibitors
that were presented in nearly 2,400 booths and at 200 events.
Purchases totaled 114 million yuan
during the fair and follow-up sales are expected to reach 350 million yuan in
February, organizing committee deputy director Liu Lixia says.
Indeed, several titles released at
the event are expected to sell well.
Ethnic Mongolian Gerileqimuge Heihe
appeared in traditional Mongolian attire at his latest book series' launch,
where he released three novels, five novellas and short-story collections, and
five young readers' books - all part of his Heihe's Son of Nature series
published by China Children's Press and Publishing Group.
Heihe raises large dogs on China's
Hulunbuir's grasslands. He writes about animals and the prairies of the Inner
Mongolia autonomous region. His latest novel is about a rare dog breed, hunting
and growing up.
A foreign title expected to make
waves is the kids picture book If I Were A Book published in China by Zhejiang
Juvenile and Children's Publishing House.
The book written by Jose Jorge Letria
and illustrated by Andre Letria tells a story about being a book and books' role
in society.
Another international release
expected to do well is a translation of Serbian author Milorad Pavic's Last Love
in Constantinople, which mixes Byzantine tarot cards with 22 chapters about two
Serbian families from 1797-1813. Shanghai Translation Publishing House did the
Chinese version.
Cao Yuanyong translated the book from English
with cross-references to French, German and the original Serbian.
"This is a book that basically can't
be finished. You can read it from beginning to end or obey the tarot - that is,
to follow your 'fate', to read whichever chapter that's determined by the cards
you pick - and you'll get new stories," Cao says.
Pavic is a sensation in China for his
Dictionary of the Khazars, a novel written in the form of about 100,000
encylopedia words.
Its popularity perhaps - like the BBF
itself - suggests that Chinese readers increasingly appreciate novel takes on
novels - and
other genres.
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