Foreigners a footnote for the book fair
- Source: Global Times
- [09:07 August 18 2010]
- Comments
The Global Times spoke with Mike Tyndall, a book lover and one of the small number of expat visitors to the fair: "I am thoroughly impressed with the size of the book fair and it is a real achievement to have collected this many books together in one place. For me, however, there is very little to choose from. I have read a good many of the English-language books on offer, and was looking for something a little more exotic," he explained.
One highlight of the fair was the assortment of inexpensive music books, including such treats as a collection of 35 Beethoven sonatas for just 140 yuan. Many of these books are, however, available all-year round at the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore on Fuzhou Road. English-language texts on aspects of Chinese law might have been useful to some expat visitors.
Other possible points of interest for foreigners might have included cheaper priced language learning aides, such as electronic dictionaries, though the Global Times could not find any stalls willing to offer special prices on these items.
Overwhelming selection
For the many Chinese visitors who attended, the fair provided an overwhelming selection of texts, though certain predictable areas were more replete than others. The range of business books, self-help guides and study materials available was quite staggering, including such titles as Money is My Friend: How I Made My First Million, and How to Become the Most Attractive Woman.
The Hong Kong-based Joint Publishing Company seemed to offer the most interesting selection of Western authors translated into Chinese, with books by Umberto Eco and Milan Kundera.
While the Shanghai Book Fair is certainly an interesting spectacle, it will have to do more in future editions if it wants to attract the attention of the city's expats. Given that this group form a relatively small percent of the city's population, however, it is likely that buying books via the Internet (with the attendant high delivery costs) will have to remain the way forward for the city's more intrepid expat readers.
Officials from the Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, the organizer of the Shanghai Book Fair, told the Global Times that "the fair not only aims to attract local visitors, but also foreigners, especially during the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The fair boasts about 10,000 books in foreign languages, a number which is growing year-on-year. We are trying harder to study the reading habits of foreigners so we can cater to their needs in the future editions of the fair."
