Commentary: BEA showcases achievements of Chinese publishing industry

The just concluded BookExpo America (BEA) 2015, the largest annual book trade fair in the United States, not only strengthened China-U.S. cultural exchanges, but also showcased the achievements of China's publishing industry.

China, invited for the first time as the guest of honor for BEA 2015's Global Market Forum (GMF) program, sent some 500 professionals from about 150 publishing companies and groups to the expo.

Official data showed Chinese publishers have inked a record high of 1,328 copyright deals with international counterparts in this year's BEA, a convincing proof that the country's publishing industry, as well as books from China and about China, has attracted increasing attention across the world.

It's agreed among publishers attending the expo that with the impressive economic and social development in the past decades, China has emerged as a great power globally, about whom Western readers are more eager to learn than ever before.

This growing fever of "reading" China offers tremendous opportunities for the country's publishing industry.

Thousands of titles have been exported to the rest of the world by China's publishing companies through book expos every year. Topics of books have gone beyond traditional Chinese medicine and Shaolin martial arts to children's books, science fiction, and stories of successful Chinese entrepreneurs.

Digital publishing was another hotly discussed topic during BEA 2015 about China's publishing industry. Publishers from China brought their latest achievements in digital age, including e-books, online learning platforms and new distribution models with the use of databases.

Digital publishing has grown rapidly in China, with an annual pace of 30 percent in revenue for the last five years, official report showed. In 2014 alone, the total revenue of Chinese digital publishing reached 316.8 billion yuan (55.1 billion U.S. dollars), which account for nearly 10 percent of the total revenue of the Chinese publishing industry.

As the country that invented paper, China has embraced the challenges and opportunities raised by the era of digital publishing.

Of nearly 130 special events China held as the GMF guest of honor, the highlights included 25 renowned Chinese authors having dialogue and interactions with their foreign peers and readers during the expo.

The presence of Chinese authors in BEA 2015 mirrored the growing recognition of Chinese writers by global readers.

After Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in literature, an increasing number of Chinese literature works have been translated into English, French and many other languages in the past few years, which have helped the Western world to understand China better.

Stephen A. Orlins, president of National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, said, "43 years ago, a Chinese Ping Pong team was the beginning of Americans understanding China, when I look at BEA today, it reminds me of how far we have come." Endi