Life and Leisure

A new chapter in literary exchange

By Chitralekha Basu (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-06 08:09

Within minutes of the inauguration of the Indian stand - designed to resemble a typical rural Indian courtyard, with images etched in relief on the faux mud walls - at the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), those manning its neat stalls began receiving questions.

Kumar Vikram, press and programs officer of the National Book Trust (NBT), India - the nodal agency for publishing and distributing Indian books worldwide - and his colleagues had difficulty fielding queries about how visitors might take home some of the eye-catching offerings on display. Most of them did not speak any of the 18 languages in which these books were written.

Unfortunately, the titles were not on sale, although a few select ones, translated into Chinese, were being handed out.

"Our main agenda is to arouse curiosity about Indian books among writers, readers, publishers and distributors on a larger scale (rather) than being able to sell 50-odd copies at the fair," Vikram says.

"India and China have tremendous publishing resources and we are here to explore the possibilities of market penetration on either side. This could be done on a massive and panoramic scale."

NBT has brought 27 publishers from across India and is showcasing 3,500 titles released by more than 100. For the first time, more than 60 publishers from China and India are meeting to discuss co-publishing, translation, copyright exchange and book trade between the two countries.

The Indian stand was inaugurated by NBT chairman Bipan Chandra, who teaches Chinese history at Delhi University and counts the philosopher and essayist Hu Shi among his favorites.

"We have been coming to China for a few years now, but this year marks 60 years of diplomatic ties between India and China," he says.

"We have brought books on three iconic figures in the India-China relationship: the Buddha, India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the poet Rabindranath Tagore."

Roli Books director Kiran Kapoor is looking forward to co-publishing with Chinese partners, some of whom have already shown interest in the gorgeous, lavishly mounted pictorial books on yoga, ayurveda (traditional Indian herbal medicine), Bhutan and Mongolia that she has produced.

"Having published in 18 European languages, I would love to do the same in Chinese," Kapoor says.

Subir Mitra, managing director, Ananda Publishers - easily the largest publisher of quality books in Bengali - says the slick, winsome packaging of Chinese children's literary works contributes to the appeal of these "highly informative and attractive" writings. He is in talks with publishers over acquiring translation rights.

Whether a deal is struck or not, Mitra, who has been a regular at the Frankfurt World Book Fair for 12 years now, says he is eager "to learn something from this rapidly developing culture and its fast-track technological progress", before he heads home.