The Polish Book Institute

The international book fair in Beijing ended on Sunday, 25^th August. The Beijing International Book Fair is Asia's largest book fair, with more than two and a half thousand publishers from 90 countries exhibiting their books every year, visited by more than 300,000 readers and book professionals.

The Book Institute once again organised an information stand in Beijing. Throughout the duration of the fair, one could visit us in the International Zone. At the stand, we showcased over 200 Polish books for children, which are very popular in China, as well as titles presented in the New Books from Poland catalogue.

During the fair, like other institutions promoting national cultures abroad - Alliance Française or Goethe Institut - we informed about our books published recently in China. On Saturday and Sunday, together with the Polish Institute, we organised meetings devoted to Chinese translations of Polish books. At 11 a.m. in Author's Hall, there was a presentation of books available in China as e-books; at the moment, there are more than 20 titles, among which, apart from classics, readers can find Podróże z Herodotem (“Travels with Herodotus”) and Imperium by Ryszard Kapuściński, as well as Wiedźmin (“The Witcher”) by Andrzej Sapkowski. The meeting was attended by the translator of Kapuściński's books, Professor Wu Lan, as well as a group of actors who read selected fragments of The Witcher live. On Sunday, the Illustrators' Pavilion hosted short meetings around Legendy polskie (“Polish Legends”) and Pionierzy (“Polish Pioneers”). Both books have been published in China over the last year. Sunday was crowned by an evening dedicated to the poems by Czesław Miłosz. It was attended by the translators of Miłosz's work as well as Chinese poets fascinated by the Nobel Prize winner.

The accompanying programme was developed in cooperation between the Book Institute, the Polish Institute, and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing.