Losing its physical fair within days of opening because of a new COVID-19 outbreak, Taiwan’s biggest book fair extends its online run by four months. (Sponsored)
Taipei International Book Exhibition chair Robert Lin speaks in the show’s grand opening video. Image: TIBE
Robert Lin: ‘The Fortifying Power of Books’
With its online evocation offered in English as well as Chinese, the Taipei International Book Exhibition is off to an energetic start, seemingly no loss of spirit because of the COVID-19 virus outbreak that has scuttled its physical elements.
Originally planned for both digital and physical presentation, the show is annually the kickoff to world publishing’s new year of public-facing fair events and Frankfurter Buchmesse’s professional programming for the book trade. But on January 20, when Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center swiftly revised its crowd guidance as several cases were confirmed, the administration of the moved quickly to quell a series of
Rights and licensing are part of the Taipei Book Fair’s Publishers Training Program, produced digitally with Frankfurter Buchmesse.
The collective stand ‘German Stories’ is a regular feature at the Taipei International Book Exhibition, as is Frankfurter Buchmesse’s professional program in publishing. Image: Porter Anderson
Rights, Licensing, and Maximizing Your IP
So successful had Taiwan been in handling the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic that just a week ago, Ralph Jennings was writing at Forbes of how the health minister, Chen Shih-chung, was talking about the possibility of a limited reopening of its borders. This island of just under 24 million had carefully controlled outside access, closing to flights from China and then other parts of world early on in the contagion’s spread in the spring of 2020.