China, Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, was already present at this year's Book Fair - with events on the book market and on China's literature, but also with a press conference on its plans for the really big appearance next year. "International publishing is showing interest in the Chinese publishing industry as never before", noted the highest ranking representative in the Chinese delegation, Li Dongdong. The Deputy Minister from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) also commented that the Guest of Honour appearance in Frankfurt would be the "Olympics of books". By going public, the state-run publishing sector was intended to be privatised, a further step in the policy of "going out", in other words, of cultural openness.

For international rights and licence trade, China is also backing cultural openness by economic means. Around 91,000 new titles are published each year in China, 10,255 international rights and licences were purchased in 2007, with China selling 2,572 licences. To promote the export of Chinese literature into English and German, GAPP has set up a translation fund for fiction and non-fiction. The first port of call for those who are interested is the Frankfurt Book Fair's office in China, the Book Information Centre (BIZ) Beijing. We asked the Director of the BIZ Beijing, Dr. Jing Bartz, to give us her views on the Chinese initiatives.

Frankfurt Book Fair: What sort of titles from China meet with particular interest among German publishing companies?

Dr. Jing Bartz: The minister from the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) approved the first list of translation funding shortly before the Frankfurt Book Fair. The amounts range from 2,000 to 7,000 euros per title. Just to give a few examples: Berlin Verlag has bought a short novel by a young Chinese author, "Im Laufschritt durch Peking", which it plans to make one of its key titles in 2009. This is about a migrant worker who comes to Beijing in search of wealth and love. S. Fischer Verlage are at the moment preparing Yu Hua's lengthy family novel "Die Brüder", a panoramic picture of Chinese society from the fifties through to the present day. At Suhrkamp, Mo Yan's novel "Sandelholzfolter" is already being translated: a historical novel that takes readers back to the days of Germany's colonial presence in China.

Ambitious literature that conveys life and what it feels like to live in China and does so interestingly and with understanding, goes down well with German-language publishing companies. As well as contemporary literature, some classical works will probably also receive funding. The entire list of translation funding projects will be announced by the end of the year. For this reason, publishing companies planning a Chinese title for their 2009 list should apply for translation funding soon.

The application process is simple, needing no more than completion of a one-page form and presentation of the licence agreement. Apart from a rejection, there's nothing to lose. I would advise all German and English-language publishing companies to take advantage of this funding opportunity.

At the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Chinese organisation committee announced that publishing companies from Macau, Hongkong and Taiwan will also be taking part in the Guest of Honour appearance. What role do publishing companies in these regions play in the book trade in mainland China?

The Chinese minister for publishing has just led a 500-strong delegation of publishers from mainland China to Taiwan. This was to mark the twentieth anniversary of exchange between the Chinese and Taiwanese book markets.

When Chinese, Taiwanese, Hongkong and Macau publishers are together, they talk about the development of "a Chinese-language book market", with the target of the entire world as a sales network.

Books in simplified Chinese, printed on the mainland, are already legally exported to Taiwan. Every year, Taiwan imports six million books from the mainland, making up an approx. two per cent share of the Taiwan market. In the other direction, the book market in mainland China is not yet open to Taiwan. But there is intensive cooperation on both sides in rights and licence business. The statistics show that between 1998 and 2006, Taiwan sold 10,287 licences to the mainland and bought 5,057 from the mainland.

Hongkong enjoys a duty-free privilege when books are exported from Hongkong to China. With a weak book market, Macau plays a very small role for the mainland, but is always mentioned because of the political constellation. When it comes to China's Guest of Honour appearance, Linden Lin, the president of the Taipei book fair, has told me that he considers it entirely possible that authors from the mainland and from Taiwan may appear side by side as part of the literary programme. But Taiwan does not want to give up on having a stand of its own.

It was also announced at the Book Fair that China's state-run publishing sector is being increasingly privatised - entire publishing groups have already gone public. Bertelsmann boss Hartmut Ostrowski recently said: "We were always glad not to be listed on the stock market. But in such times, it is of course better not to be depending on market and private equity structures." How can one view the process of publishing groups in China going public? What effects does this have on the Chinese publishing scene?

Chinese publishing groups going public was more than anything a political decision taken at the top. The politicians in China thought that going public was the quickest way to become international. They were wrong. Talking to Ou Hong, editor-in-chief of Publishing Today, and just back from the Frankfurt Book Fair, I found out that most plans for the big Chinese publishing groups to go public have been slowed down or even stopped. The financial crisis has frightened Chinese publishers too.

The Beijing BIZ is moving to new premises and can be reached at a new address as from 17 November:
Sunflower Tower, 1870
Maizidian St. 37, Chaoyang District
100026 Beijing, People's Republic of China
The new fax and phone numbers will be given out shortly on the BIZ website.