The Information Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government held a press conference today (July 25), during which Director of the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Bureau Xu Jiong introduced the preparations for the 2018 Shanghai Book Fair. Vice Director of the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Bureau Peng Weiguo was also present, and they together answered questions by reporters.

The 2018 Shanghai Book Fair will be held from August 15 to 21 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, with 100 sub-venues across the city. It is supported and guided by the General Administration of Press and Publication, and is organized by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, the publicity department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Shanghai Committee, and the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Bureau.

It is the 15th Shanghai Book Fair. Based on Shanghai’s requirement of “improving the city’s scale of capacity and core competitiveness in accordance with the global standards and the demand of the future” and “making full efforts on the construction of Shanghai’s culture brand,” the organizers have borne in mind the new requirements, new changes and new trends with higher standards, deeper vision and broader mindsets during the preparation to have a better understanding of how the fair can serve the city’s overall development and encourage people to read more; at the same time, the organizers try to improve the brand awareness of the fair, learning from other first-rate fairs at both home and abroad , with optimizations in many details. The organizers also make the target clear, that is, to lift the scale of the Shanghai Book Fair, improving its position and impact in the country, and to improve its international brand awareness, attracting more people to gather in Shanghai in August because of books. The highlights of this year’s book fair include the following parts:

I. Promote mainstream social value and broadcast advanced culture

This year marks the starting year to implement the spirits of 19th National Congress of the CPC, which is also the year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up. The Shanghai Book Fair, as an important platform to promote mainstream social value and broadcast advanced culture, bears the responsibility of creating a positive and stimulating environment. The 2018 Shanghai Book Fair will take it priority to present mainstream and positive books and reading events during the fair based on President Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new age.

The Preface Hall at the entrance of the main venue is a highlight. This year, the hall is themed with “New Age, New Contribution and New Chapter” to exhibit the key books on President Xi Jinping’s thoughts on socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new age: it will also showcase the new achievements in the past two years on award-winning works about China’s history and culture; it will also present good books published in the Yangtze River Delta region.

As an extension of the preface hall, the Shanghai Book Fair will host theme exhibition of China’s 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the Red Culture, Shanghai Culture, Jiangnan Culture theme exhibition and the 15th anniversary exhibition of the Shanghai Book Fair.

China International Publishing Group’s exhibition area will hold Xi Jinping's important publications and its translations exhibition. At the entrance of East 1 Hall, there is a special exhibition hall named New Era, New Action, New Chapter, which brings together more than 1,000 excellent publications.

Key reading activities of this year's Shanghai Book Fair include:

The Shanghai Book Fair Organizing Committee, Jiefang Daily and People’s Government of Jing’an District jointly hosted the main forum and the Shuxiang China reading forum. With the theme of reform and opening up, the guests and the audiences will review the glory and dream in the era of opening up.

Excellent books such as knowing about China series, Great Country and Thick Soil: Inheritance and Rejuvenation of Chinese Traditional Culture, LiangJiahe and other new books will be released during the Shanghai Book Fair. The committee is also going to host readers' gathering and other activities.

Shanghai Bookstore and Guangming Daily will host the forum with the theme of One Belt, One Road.

In the sub-site of Shanghai Library, more than 10 lectures with the theme of School of Shanghai and Summer in Shanghai will be held.

The Shanghai Book Fair is also an important annual gathering of peers in the national publishing industry. This year's Shanghai Book Fair will continue to launch the China Bookstore Innovation Development Annual Conference hosted by the Organizing Committee and Shanghai XinHua Media Co Ltd.

There is still a period of time before the opening of the Shanghai Book Fair, and a number of high-quality events are still under confirmation and relevant information will be released in time.

II. Push the first launch of national good books in Shanghai

A truly attractive and influential Book Fair will not only focus on the participation of readers, but also the collection of national good books and high-quality activities, so that readers can come and participate in the Shanghai Book Fair in order to achieve sustainable development.

In 2008, the Shanghai Book Fair first proposed Shanghai's first launch of books and sell in China which has a great impact in the national publishing industry. After 10 years, more and more publishing companies in China have launched their new books in August and release at the Shanghai Book Fair as a starting point to sell in the national market. The first launch mechanism has become an important force for the Shanghai Book Fair to serve readers and industry. This year, in order to further improve the image of the Shanghai Book Fair, the organizing committee will take more efforts to promote first launch of books. It is expected that during the 7 days of the Shanghai Book Fair, there will be 500 new books issued by Shanghai and across the country and 200 launch events will be held.

Also in 2008, the annual Shanghai Book Fair designated its first-ever “guest of honor” province in a hope to bring more great books from around the country. Former guest of honor provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan all became an annual participant of the event from then on. This year, we will see Guizhou Province as our guest of honor.

In addition to great books, great arrangement of exhibits is also very important to offer convenience for readers to purchase. We will continue to optimize the arrangement at the pavilion designated for social sciences by bringing around 10,000 highly praised and most sought-after books selected through big data technologies and professional judging panels. A new pavilion designated for Sinology will be set up this year for the first time, where ancient and classic books depicting the Chinese traditional culture selected by the country’s top ancient book publishing houses and experts will be on display for sale.

III. Promote higher quality cooperation among publishing houses across the Yangtze River Delta region

Under the leadership of the local publicity department, Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau have formed partnerships with its counterparts in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. A framework contract aimed at deepening cooperation will be signed during the book fair. The four parties will promote efficient cooperation in administrative services and encourage resource complementarity and sharing to create a fair and orderly market environment under a national initiative for integrated development across the Yangtze River Delta region. Intensive discussions on a conference under the theme of regional development of publishing industries, to be held during the event, are also being conducted between Shanghai Century Publishing Group and its counterparts in the three provinces. As a project marking the first ever cooperation among the four parties, the People’s Publishing House in Shanghai and the three provinces will jointly launch the editing and publishing works on a series of books focusing on the research of cultures along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

This year’s book fair will also set up specific zones for the sale of new and classic books published in the Yangtze River Delta region.

IV. To continuously raise the fair’s global popularity

Shanghai’s prosperity arises from its opening to the outside world as well as its inclusive, East meets West culture that has benefitted from various outstanding cultural achievements from around the world. In order to continuously raise its global popularity, the annual book fair has been striving to make the event a cultural exchange platform for publishing houses from both home and abroad, with a key aim to introduce the Chinese culture to the outside world.

A sub brand of the Shanghai Book Fair, Shanghai International Literary Week, jointly hosted by the organization committee of the book fair and the Shanghai Writers’ Association, will be held in its eighth year. Under this year’s theme of “The Meaning of Travel,” more than 30 renowned writers from both China and overseas will share their understanding from a literary perspective about the “Belt and Road” initiative through nearly 40 events.

At this year’s book fair, a greater variety of books will be exhibited at zones targeting international readers. China International Publishing Group, which has leased around 300 square meters’ space at this year’s event, will bring a considerable number of international editions of Xi Jinping’s books as well as translated versions of Chinese classic books depicting Chinese cultures. Shanghai Book Traders and the Shanghai branch of the China National Publications Import and Export Corp will bring to the fair around 10,000 types of books from around the world in their original languages.

Ⅴ.100 branch venues to create a city of books

The Shanghai Book Fair is the most important representative and demonstration platform to “promote the public’s reading and build a city of books”. This year the book fair will still deliver reading resources together with all parties to people within Shanghai. During August, we will follow the mode that has the same theme, regular venues and the integration of exhibition and sales, to offer high-quality books and reading activities for more citizens.

Firstly, we will cooperate with the 16 districts of Shanghai to promote the distinctive branding of each district. From the opening to the end of the book fair, Releasing Shanghai, Jiefang Daily and Eastday will interview the propaganda chiefs of every district focusing on the book fair. Each district has elaborately planned a series of reading activities to advocate all people to read.

Secondly, we will cooperate with the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Education Bureaus of the 16 districts to promote the branding of happy reading and to hold the “masters enter schools” activity.

Thirdly, we will make full use of public reading space such as libraries, bookstores, community culture centers and rural libraries to expand the branch venue system. This year we will set up 100 branch venues all over the city, among which 78 venues are bookstores, showcasing the new trend that bookstores are getting more and more popular now.

Ⅵ. Keep improving service to offer readers the best reading experience

The book fair will maintain the 7-day evening show (open at 9 am. and close at 21 pm.); set up the general information desk, resting areas, offer shopping guide, express delivery, catering, emergency medical care, legal advice, complaints reception, the Lost and Found, complete Wi-Fi coverage and other convenience services.

To cater to the consumption habit in the network age, we begin to sell the online ticket, optimize the official website, Microblog and Wechat, and at the same time offer timely service information.

To improve audiences’ comfort, we will set up spraying cooling system and pergolas in the queue areas. We will balance the attendances of special guests in night show and day show. This book fair will continue prohibiting books activities on investing, financing or health care to avoid the situation where crows swarm or linger.

To better show the window image of the publishing industry of Shanghai during the 2018 China International Import Exposition, the campaign of “window high-quality service” launched by Shanghai Xinhua Media Co Ltd and Shanghai Publishing Industry Association will begin rehearsals in this year’s book fair.

Besides, the 2018 Shanghai Book Fair will formulate strict emergency plan as always, enhance precision management and control, go all out for the prevention of fire, epidemic, traffic congestion, typhoon, flood, high temperature and other situations, to ensure the public’s safety.