The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) and the Macao Foundation cooperate for the sixth consecutive year in setting up the “Macao Pavilion” at the “2016 Hong Kong Book Fair”, holding a joint exhibition with the Macao Polytechnic Institute and the bookshop Plaza Cultural Macau, Lda.
The Hong Kong Book Fair is one of the biggest book fairs in Asia, and is running its 27th edition this year. Annually, it attracts over 600 participating exhibitors from 30 countries and regions around the world. This year, the Fair is held between 20 and 26 July, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The “Macao Pavilion” is located in section IE-A20, showcasing nearly a thousand local publications. It aims to introduce Macao’s unique culture to Hong Kong and foreign readers as well as to promote the achievements of each type of publication .
On 21 July, IC held the lecture “Macao’s Entry into World History: Missionaries, Publishing Industry and Printing Techniques”, at the Grand Foyer on the 3rd floor of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, hosted by the Assistant Professor of the Department of Communication and Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Macau, Dr. Agnes Lam. Agnes Lam is the author of the book “The Beginnings of the Modern Chinese Press History – Macao Press History 1557-1840”, a joint publication of IC and the Beijing Social Sciences Academic Press. This book covers Macao’s publishing industry prior to the first Opium War, spanning through a period of nearly 300 years, starting from the settlement of the Portuguese in Macao in 1557 and up to 1840, referring the religious publishing activities of Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci and Michele Ruggieri, the religious and news publications of protestant missionary Robert Morrison as well as the joint efforts in translation by Li Zexu and Robert Morrison, etc. The lecture focused on the missionary work of these clerics in Macao, who brought western printing to Macao, published the first Chinese newspaper in the city, the first Chinese book in modern China, and other stories related to the publishing industry and printing techniques, introducing the readers the process that made Macao go down in world history. The lecture was rich in content and attracted a large number of people. The Vice-President of IC, Chan Peng Fai and the Head of the Division of Research and Publications of IC, Wong Man Fai, among others, attended the Fair and the lecture.
IC actively promotes Macao’s publications. Aside from participating in the Hong Kong Book Fair, IC has also cooperated with the Macao Foundation in the participation at the Taipei Book Fair for several years. Besides, IC will collaborate with the Macao Foundation for the first time to participate in the 26th National Book Expo, to be held on 28 July in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, allowing readers from Mainland China to have an in-depth understanding of Macao’s culture through its publications as well as presenting the achievements of the development of Macao’s publishing industry. In order to expand the marketing channels by distributing the publications out of town, IC appointed the company Sup Publishing Logistics (HK) Limited as a distributor since last year, and has been selling Macao’s publications in Hong Kong and abroad through the company’s network, allowing world readers to access IC’s publications, which sales achieved satisfactory results.