The entrance to China National Convention Center on Tianchen East Road, home of the Beijing International Book Fair when the show is in session, this year June 18 to 22. Image: BIBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Market Tracking: 1.92 Million Publications in 2024
The 31st edition of the Beijing International Book Fair (June 18 to 22) has announced that it will include a new academic conference and “hub” in its programming. This, as OpenBook research reports a gain of 10.77 percent in the Chinese market in the first quarter of this year over Q1 2024.
Organizers of the fair—the China National Publications Import and Export Group—anticipate having record international participation with 1,700 exhibitors. Markets expected to be there for the first time include Bangladesh, Chile, Croatia, Belarus, Oman, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Jamaica.
We reported last year that this public-facing show drew 1,600 exhibitors and some 300,000 attendees, a gain of 100,000 over the turnout in 2023.
During the course of the fair, a PubTech conference is again on the agenda, for June 16, titled Publishing’s Future Powered by Technology.
And on June 17, the academic publishing conference is to be presented in association with the STM Association, titled Open Driven by Innovation. Yang Wei, an academic from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and STM CEO Caroline Sutton are to be among the speakers. The “Academic Digital Publishing Hub” element of the plan is an area for one-on-one meetings and presentations in the field.
Jianhua: ‘To Foster International Discussion’
The Beijing fair, previously under the direction of Lin Liying (now succeeded as director by Lei Jianhua), has made the development of international trade a key goal, and while the public visits the show to enjoy the books and programming, the rights-trading and other business meetings are a key part of the event.
Lei Jianhua
Needless to say, it’s an interesting time for the Beijing fair, which has spent many years developing its professional program and rights center for international trade facilities and activities. Many Western news analysts see both Washington and Beijing looking for means to ease the roiling trade war.
At The New York Times, David Pierson and Joy Dong write, “China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday it was ‘evaluating’ requests by senior US officials to start negotiations—though it insisted that Beijing would agree to talks only if the United States showed ‘sincerity.’”
In making a statement for today’s (May 4) news about the fair—and with so little known yet about how the trade stand-off might affect China and other world markets—the show’s Jianhua, vice-president of China National Publications Import and Export Group, is quoted forging gamely ahead, saying, “Last year we saw a huge growth in international attendance and exhibitors and that is set to continue.
“We’re expanding the PubTech conference and launching the inaugural academic conference in partnership with the STM Association, launching a new focus area on academic and digital publishing with international global libraries and research institutions represented.
“We hope to foster international discussion and cooperation around academic digital content.”
A New Year’s Upturn in the Chinese Market
As our Publishing Perspectives readers know, Jiang Yanping‘s Beijing OpenBook assists us with our monthly China Bestsellers series, and its first-quarter assessment shows driving sectors of the market to be education; well-being; and AI and the large language model developer Hangzhou DeepSeek.
The most robust element of marketing in the retail market, OpenBook says, was again social media, especially those platforms based in short videos. These include Douyin—like TikTok, owned by ByteDance. Another strong social medium in the field is reported to be RedNote, which is said to be particularly popular among women.
The Chinese mainland market in 2024 published 1.92 million new titles, in OpenBook’s tracking. ISBNs indicated that 2.41 million books were active, an increase of 1.68 over the previous year. Sales revenue at list price is reported to have come in at 112.9 billion yuan (US$15.6 billion).
Additional Focal Points of the Beijing Fair
In addition to the new addition of its academic conference and hub, the show’s organizers say the show this year will include:
- An art book fair themed The Art of Seeing: Visions Across Books, with a showcase of Thames & Hudson publications in an exhibition of David Hockney books;
- The BIBF illustration exhibition of award-winning works, juried by Anet van de Vorst (Netherlands); Ao De (China); Cen Jun (China); Hanne Bartholin (Denmark); Roderick Mills (United Kingdom); Samuel Bennet (UK); and Yu Rong (UK);
- A picture book fair, this area expanding to 1,700 square meters (18,300 square feet), featuring original editions in 14 languages; and
- Guest of Honor Maylasia, represented by a delegation of more than 50 publishers including PTS Media Group; Pelangi Publishing Group; Buku FIXI; Odonata Publishing; Patriots Publishing; Sunway University Press; Penerbit UPSI; the Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA); and Perbadanan Perpustakaan Selangor.
More from Publishing Perspectives about the Beijing International Book Fair is here, more on the Chinese book and publishing market is here, our popular China Bestsellers research is here, more on the international rights business is here, and more from us on Asia is here.