Photos of the Beijing International Book Fair 2024

The Beijing International Book Fair, which ended on June 23, was held for the 30th time this year. The event attracted 1,600 exhibitors from 71 countries and regions. A total of 1,050 overseas exhibitors were represented, an increase of 150 (or 17%) from last year. We have compiled a selection of photo highlights from the fair. All photos by Teri Tan, unless otherwise stated.

For the second year in a row, BIBF was held at the modern and centrally located China National Convention Center in Beijing’s Olympic Park. The venue, which is attached to two major hotels and a short walk from the subway station, offers six levels of exhibition areas and conference facilities, an underground car park and several side entrances. This meant that the main entrance to the fair, which is strikingly decorated, was lightly traffic-free and only a few short queues formed. Photo courtesy of BIBF.

Trade visitors were able to move from one exhibition hall to the next and attend major events such as the PubTech Conference, the BIBF World Children’s Book Forum and the Beijing International Publishing Forum, which took place during the first three days of the fair.

Artificial intelligence was the focus of the second edition of the PubTech conference. The talks by speakers from Elsevier, Peking University and Shanghai Data Exchange, for example, were positive and pragmatic – not fearful – and stressed that AI is there to help the publishing industry edit, generate and plan content, not to replace humans.

Short-video e-commerce via TikTok, Xiaohongshu and WeChat apps and others has become China’s most important channel for online book marketing and sales, contributing 26% of total sales, so the presence of vloggers and live-streaming sessions to directly promote and sell books was natural at BIBF.

Harry Potter has remained popular in China since the first three titles in the series were released in 2000. Here you can see the exhibition dedicated to the sorcerer’s apprentice at the Imported Books Pavilion.

In front of the Imported Books Pavilion there was a colorful mural of Julia Donaldson’s The GruffaloInterestingly, Donaldson’s bestselling picture book was inspired by a Chinese folk tale known as “The Fox Who Borrowed the Terror of a Tiger.”

The ninth BIBF Picture Book Fair was a dedicated area with an activity stage, book exhibitions, a gaming zone (based on the mobile game Eggy Party), a reading area and even a coffee stand. In the center was a large installation of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, testifying to the popularity of this character in the Chinese book market.

A special exhibition at the BIBF Picture Book Fair celebrated DK’s 50th anniversary. The theme was the universe, which has become a trending topic in China due to the country’s ongoing lunar research program. Books about astronomy for children and adults were in great demand in this market.

Cartoon series such as those featuring Peppa Pig and Disney characters are very popular with Chinese children. Peppa Pig, which was banned in China in 2017, is set to get the world’s largest standalone theme park in Shanghai.

The BIBF Illustrators Exhibition featured 120 outstanding works selected from around 12,000 entries from 46 countries/regions. Winners of the BIBF International Illustration Awards included Amanda Itzel Mijangos Quiles (from Mexico), Margaux Romano (Italy), Jean Mallard (France), Anne Crausaz (Switzerland), Gaby Bazin (France) and Mattia Riami (Italy).

Themed exhibitions such as the BIBF Cookbooks Show, which featured beer and wine lectures and wine tastings, aimed to bring content creators and publishers together with the reading public while facilitating intercultural communication and exchange.

Parents flocked to CITIC Press’ booth to view the children’s books. The company ranked second among the top five children’s book publishers in China in 2023. First place went to 21st Century Publishing House, and third place went to Changjiang Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House.

In China, parents devote a lot of attention (and money) to early childhood education and books for their children. This has resulted in the children’s books segment, although declining in recent years, continuing to hold the largest share – 26.98% in 2023 – of the Chinese retail book market.

The Online Publishing Pavilion was a key exhibition area at this year’s BIBF, showcasing new publishing formats such as online literature and games/animations from major companies such as Tencent, NetEase and Douyin Group (or TikTok as it is known outside China). Here you can see visitors trying out virtual reality headgear.

The Gifts from Around the World section offered visitors the opportunity (and the occasion) to purchase items other than books and souvenirs, including handicrafts, leather goods, paintings, tea sets and toys.

Scholastic is a popular brand in China and its BIBF booth was often packed with visitors.

Online learning platforms like this one, which offers sing-along tracks and augmented reality-based products, are seeing higher traffic and demand, especially after the Chinese government’s July 2021 crackdown on after-school tutoring services, an industry once worth well over $100 billion. More and more parents are turning to such platforms to supplement their children’s Chinese and English learning efforts.