This year’s 25th Beijing International Book Fair, which ran from August 22 to 26, threw the spotlight on China’s booming—and massive—children’s book market, with a 14,000-square meter exhibition hall dedicated to anything and everything to do with children’s content. The inaugural Beijing International Children’s Book Fair hosted local and overseas publishers and technology partners looking to integrate publishing, multimedia, licensing, and film/television for the country’s estimated 370 million children under the age of 18. We’ve gathered a selection of photo highlights from the fair. All photos by Ryk Hsieh unless otherwise stated.
Blue skies and a bright sun greeted exhibitors and visitors at the 25th Beijing International Book Fair.
Penguin Fairy Tale is one of the emerging Chinese companies that are focused on publishing digital content for children and creating IPs across different platforms. Incubated by Tencent Holdings, it recently received a $6.3 million investment to further ramp up its content creation efforts.
Subsidiary rights specialist Kimberly Williams and marketing director Jason Wells of the American Psychological Association signed a deal with Chemical Industry Press at the fair. The Chinese publisher bought 20 new titles from Magination Press (APA’s children’s imprint), bringing the total bought so far to around 50. Recent years have seen very few deals inked during the fair itself. Photo: Janet Fritsch.
Visitors checking out selected artworks from 66 illustrators from around the world at the BIBF Ananas Illustration Exhibition. This year's Ananas Grand Prix went to Chinese illustrator Liao Ziying, while Grand Jury prizes were awarded to Liao Zongyi (from China), Ekaterina Mikhalina (Russia), and Liva Ozola (Latvia).
A storytelling/origami session based on Katharine Holabird’s Angelina Ballerina series, hosted by China’s biggest online book retailer, Dangdang.
Peppa Pig has become one of China's biggest brands since the cartoon's 2015 launch in that country. This series, which is aired by national broadcaster China Central Television, has also received more than 34 billion views on online video websites, and this success has prompted the planning of two theme parks (in Beijing and Shanghai) for 2019.
Baby Cube, which started as a reading/online book club, is one of the many publishing companies that owe much of their existence to the rise (and success) of social media platforms—powered by messaging app WeChat and microblogging site Weibo—in marketing and selling children’s books in China.
Colorful aisle banners in the children’s zone highlighted the importance of reading and picture books. This one, for instance, says: “Open a picture book. Find a new world.”
The booth counter for Ellabook, a digital reading platform for kids three to 10 years old, featured the company’s mascot of a smiling owl with a book.
Anhui Children’s Publishing House’s complex pop-up book on the Chinese classic Journey to the West had this boy’s full attention.
Book and app publisher Nosy Crow’s booth was a hive of activity during the fair.
Nothing attracts children (and adults) like dinosaurs, and at the PNSO World of Dinosaurs booth, visitors traveled back to prehistoric times through a scientific art exhibition created by artist Zhao Chuang and writer Yang Yang.
