Hong Kong’s annual book fair has a long and entertaining story of its own. The festival has come a long way in the 35 years since its launch. The first event, in 1990, featured 149 exhibitors and an attendance of 200,000. Now, the fair goes beyond its literary roots to offer a much bigger and broader celebration of art, culture and lifestyle. This can be seen in this year’s theme, which promotes a healthy appetite for food as well as for books.This year, there are hopes the seven-day festival, one of the region’s biggest, will attract more than a million visitors, beating last year’s record of 990,000. There are 770 exhibitors from 30 countries and 620 events. The book fair is complemented by a Sports and Leisure Expo and World of Snacks fair. There is a World of Arts and Culture exhibition and a Cultural and Creative Products Zone. It offers much for local people and tourists to enjoy.But a love of literature rightly remains at the heart of the festival, which also offers a series of seminars featuring authors. Last year, each visitor spent an average of HK$912 (US$116), accounting for an impressive 74 per cent of their annual print book expenditure, according to a survey conducted by the organiser, the Trade Development Council.
The fair has an important role to play in promoting the joy of reading, especially among the young, in this age of social media.
It is always encouraging to see book lovers queuing up for the event even before the doors open. Some are devoted to science fiction, others to comics. Last year, it was good to see that novels topped the list of visitor favourites.
This time, three books featuring the thoughts of Chinese President Xi Jinping made their debut at the fair. They cover education, his engagement with members of the public and, appropriately, his thoughts on the value and significance of Chinese culture. The books were launched on the mainland last year, but have been published in traditional Chinese in Hong Kong, providing the city’s residents with an opportunity to better understand the leader’s thinking and vision.