The annual culture feast in Guangzhou, the South China Book Festival, will open on Aug 17 and lasted till Aug 23 at the Canton Fair Pazhou Complex with most books sold at discount prices and many famous writers from home and abroad giving lectures to cater for book lovers.
The book fair covers 40,000 sq. m of space and includes over 800 exhibitors. This year the fair will witness many first-timers. The first two volumes of French comic L'ours Barnabé, known to the English-speaking countries as Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking, will release its Chinese full-color version for the first time. This year, there will also be two themed pavilions - one of Taiwan’s culture and books and the other of martial arts. Xiangxiang, a blue doll, will debut as the festival's first mascot, to attract more readers.
Occupying an area of 1,400 sq. m, the Taiwan Pavilion will be divided into three sections respectively exhibiting general Taiwan books, Taiwan comic books and Taiwan culture. The volunteers from Taiwan Tzu Chi Foundation, a famous Buddhist charity, will arrange various activities such as lectures, musical drama and environmental-protection promotion, which will cover topics including education, environment, vegetarianism and morals. In the Martial Arts Pavilion, visitors will find the works of influential writers like Louis Cha, Liang Yusheng and Ku Lung. Martial arts movies, costumes and related products are also to be shown. Visitors can even experience some classical martial games there.