The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) and the Macao Foundation jointly presented the ‘Macao Pavilion’ once again at the 28th National Book Expo, which started on 19 July in Shenzhen. In this energetic city, the Macao Pavilion attracted a ceaseless flow of readers and exhibitors from other cities and provinces, introducing Macao’s cultural achievements through fine books and painting albums.
The 28th National Book Expo, jointly hosted by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, People’s Government of Guangdong Province and People’s Government of Shenzhen Municipality, was held from 19 July to 22 July at Hall 1, Hall 2 and Hall 5 of the Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Centre.
The Macao Pavilion, located in the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan exhibition area of the expo, stood out for its design demonstrating the beauty and vitality of World Heritage buildings from multiple perspectives through photographs of the Historic Centre of Macao, some of which taken recurring to aerial photography technology, unveiling the city’s urban landscape and its weaving streets from a fresh angle. The success of Sino-Western cultural exchange in Macao was shown in the Macao Pavilion, through books and painting albums.
Since its inception in 1980, the National Book Expo holds its twenty-eighth edition this year. It is one of the three largest book fairs in China, together with the Beijing Book Fair and the Beijing International Book Fair. The National Book Expo is held in different locations every year, showcasing the accomplishments of the publishing industry and presenting the highlighted annual publications. The Expo offers book subscription services and updates the readers about the latest publications, thereby enriching the public’s cultural and reading habits. It is the second time that Shenzhen has hosted the National Book Trading Expo since its 7th edition in 1996.
IC has collaborated with the Macao Foundation in other occasions, under the name “Macao Publications”, at the Hong Kong Book Fair and the Taipei Book Fair, with very satisfactory results. In order to allow 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, this is the third time that IC has collaborated with the Macao Foundation to participate in the National Book Expo, setting up the “Macao Pavilion”, undertaken by the China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation. IC and the Macao Foundation specially selected local publications in Chinese, Portuguese and English in different genres issued in the last ten years for the occasion.
In order to promote Macao’s diverse publishing culture, IC and the Macao Foundation also presented nearly 300 types of fine books published by other agents of Macao’s publishing sector at the Expo, including the Associação de Publicações de Macau, Macao Daily News Publishing House, Macau Economic Association, Association of Stories in Macao, Union of Macau Scholars, University of Macau, Macao Polytechnic Institute and the University of East Asia Open College Students’ Association, adding a total of nearly 1000 publications to the Expo, demonstrating Macao’s publishing power close by readers in Mainland China, and promoting the cultural image of Macao.