China awarded at London book event

China wins Market Focus Achievement Award at 2016 London Book Fair award ceremony on Tuesday. Lin Liying, vice president of China National Publication Import and Export Corp (second from left) accepts the award at the ceremony. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

China has won two awards at this week's London Book Fair award ceremony, highlighting the country's growing influence on the global publishing scene.

The Market Focus Achievement Award recognized China's efforts to showcase its publishing industry in 2012, the year China was the annual fair's focus country.

The Jieli Publishing House Co. Ltd also won the Children's and Young Adult Trade Publisher Award, in recognition of a broad and inclusive approach to creating a catalogue that reflected high caliber domestic and international authors and titles.

Lin Liying, vice-president of China National Publication Import and Export Corp. (CPIEC) said China had taken the opportunity of the 2012 event to adopt an innovative approach to exchanges with the global publishing industry. It marked a milestone in the internationalization of China's publishing industry.

Lin said the vast variety of publishers and books that China brought to the London Book Fair in 2012, the large collection of literary events it organized and the number of famous Chinese authors who attended, were all key to making China's role as market focus country a success.

Lin said the powerful impact China made at the 2012 event boosted awareness and understanding among Western publishers and readers of China's publishing landscape.

Wang Yanchao, rights manager of Jieli Publishing, said it was an honor for her team to receive the Children's and Young Adult Trade Publisher Award. She said her team placed a high emphasis on the quality of new titles that were added to the catalogue.

The company's annual catalogue has about 400-500 titles, over half of which are from a wide range of international markets, and the rest by Chinese authors.

Jacks Thomas, director of the London Book Fair, said it is wonderful to see China winning the two awards. She said she believed China's publishing industry had growing global influence.

Thomas said she looked forward to seeing more Chinese books being translated, as they would provide a window for the world to understand China better.

The London Book Fair awards celebrate success in 14 categories. China was shortlisted for five, just ahead of the USA and Australia with four each.

China was also shortlisted for Paper Republic for the Publishers Weekly Literary Translation Initiative Award, Higher Education Press Limited Company for the SSP Scholarly Kitchen Academic and Professional Publisher Award, and Sanlian Bookhouse for The Bookstore of the Year Award.