After
providing a five-day cultural feast, the 2024 South China Festival
closed on a high note on August 20, now reporting over 200 publishing
brands with 300,000 publications and visitors reaching a new record
high.
With France as its guest of honor, the 2024 South China Book Festival promotes cultural outreach and diversity. During the festival, the France Pavilion has offered a kaleidoscope of French culture, showcasing French literature, education, cuisine, and fashion. The story-sharing event GDToday Salon "Bonjour! GBA", along with a wide variety of cultural events, was held at the pavilion to celebrate Sino-French friendship.
The France Pavilion (Photo: Qin Shaolong)
The book festival also served as a platform for other provinces and regions in China to display their own cultures. The Xinjiang Pavilion represented the ancient civilization in the Southwest with traditional dances, cultural crafts, and publications in Uygur language. The Hong Kong Pavilion, themed "Our Hong Kong Story," featured performers, writers, and artists, offering insights into Hong Kong's unique history and culture.
Liu Cixin, author of the 2015 Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem at the South China Book Festival, August 17, Guangzhou (Photo provided by South China Book Festival)
The five-day public-facing book festival has witnessed over 200 events where book fans met their favorite writers face-to-face. Liu Cixin, author of the Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem showed up in the launching ceremony of a new edition of The Wandering Earth and shared his insights on scientific fiction, highlighting how humans can reach the world beyond our physical reach through imagination.
Bai Cha, author of the 2023 Benjamin Franklin Award Gold graphic novel My Cat Hates Me, met with his readersat the South China Book Festival, August 17, Guangzhou (Photo: Qin Shaolong)
The
cultural feast also celebrated the diversity of literature. Writers
of highbrow literature, represented by winners of China's highest
literary prize, the Mao Dun Literature Prize, as well as writers of
pop fiction and comic books, were all greeted at the book
festival.
For the first time, games and animations were
also included as new forms of literature popular among Gen-Z.
Reporter | Chen Siyuan
Photo | Qin Shaolong, South China Book Festival
Editor | Nan, James
