Skip to main content

Focus: Transmedia and Cross Cultural Storytelling

Beijing, China, 30 May 2017 ─ Tomorrow is the start of this year’s StoryDrive at the China National Convention Centre in Beijing. In its fifth year, this two-day event, from May 31 - June 1, will focus on transmedia and cross-cultural storytelling and highlight speakers and companies who are making incredible innovation in this region and around the world.

“This year’s programme will bring together some of the leading artists, writers, publishers, and tech visionaries to share their experience of storytelling in different mediums on a local and global level”, said Thomas Minkus, VP Emerging Media & English Language Markets of Frankfurter Buchmesse and Managing Director of IPR License.

Speakers include:

Visual Storytelling

Stefen Chow, Photographer and co-founder of “The Poverty Line”, a global visual project that contextualises poverty. The project was exhibited as a large scale installation at the Les Nuits Photographiques in Paris, PMQ in Hong Kong, the CAFA museum in Beijing, and is currently in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.

Zhu Yingchun, Book Designer, Director of Nanjing Normal University Research Center of Book Culture, and Director of the Jiangsu Province Publishers Association Design and Binding Arts Committee. Yingchun has won the “Chinese Government Award for Publishing”, Outstanding Editor Award, and is also the recipient of the international award “The Most Beautiful Books in the World”.

Future of Children’s Publishing

Yang Wenxuan, Member of The Publishers Association of China, is the founder of “One Way Street” bookstores, and an investor of Baby Cube Children Brand Management Co., Ltd.

Michael Neugebauer, Founder and Publisher of minedition, specialised in high-quality children’s books.

New Business Models and AI

Yao Wentan, Chief Executive Producer of Douban Time and Vice President of Douban, a Chinese social networking system that allows users to create content related to film, books, and music.

Jiang Feng, Vice President of Himalaya FM, General Manager of Himalaya FM Beijing Division. Prior to this role, Jiang was the first employee of Kindle in China. As the Kindle eBook content director for Amazon China, Jiang introduced more than 200 top Chinese publishing houses, and 24,000 quality eBooks, successfully establishing Kindle’s eBookstore in China.

Tian Feng, Director of Alibaba Cloud Research Center, specialised in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, internet of things and other cutting edge technology research.

Storytelling Across Cultures

Stephan Orth, German travel writer and author of "Couchsurfing in Iran".

Perspectives from Canada, the Guest of Honour country at the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2020

Robert Sawyer, Member of the Order of Canada, author of 23 books, and winner of the Hugo, the Nebula, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, China’s Yinhe Award for Most Popular Foreign Author, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award.

Kathleen Winter, English-Canadian short-story writer and novelist. Author of the award-winning books "boYs", "Annabel", and the forthcoming book "Lost in September".

The programme will be moderated by Minkus and Katharina Ewald, Director of International Business Development at the Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Speakers and programme: www.storydriveasia.com/en2017/

About the Frankfurter Buchmesse
The Frankfurter Buchmesse is the international publishing industry’s biggest trade fair – with over 7,150 exhibitors from more than 100 countries, around 278,000 visitors, over 4,000 events and approximately 10,000 accredited journalists and bloggers - in attendance. It also gathers key players from other media, including the film and games industries. Since 1976, the Frankfurter Buchmesse has featured an annual Guest of Honour country, which showcases its book market, literature and culture to attendees in a variety of ways. The Frankfurter Buchmesse organises the participation of German publishers at around 20 international book fairs and hosts trade events throughout the year in major international markets. With its Business Club, the Frankfurter Buchmesse offers essential services and an ideal setting for the activities of publishers, entrepreneurs, pioneers, experts and visionaries. The Frankfurter Buchmesse is a subsidiary of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association. www.book-fair.com

Contact for the media:
Press & Corporate Communications, Frankfurter Buchmesse
Katja Böhne, Vice President Marketing & Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-138, press@book-fair.com
Kathrin Grün, Head of PR and Communications, tel.: +49 (0) 69 2102-170, gruen@book-fair.com
> Press information online >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-releases
> Photos in print quality >www.buchmesse.de/en/press/press-material

StoryDrive 2017