The world-renowned Bologna Children's Book Fair will be held from March 19 to 22 this year. Already into its forty-ninth year, the Bologna Children's Book Fair attracts more than 50,000 copyright representatives from 1,200 publishers in 66 countries. The Taiwan Pavilion this year focuses on the effective combination of demonstration and copyright promotion in order to highlight Taiwan's innovative and original works and LOHAS tendency.
Page Tsou, who won the 2011 Bologna Children’s Book Fair - Fundación SM International Award for Illustration, will hold a solo exhibition at the Taiwan Pavilion and debut his latest book The Tin Soldier. The Taiwan Pavilion will simultaneously exhibit new as well as signature works by such celebrated artists, such as Jimmy Liao, Chen Chih Yuan and Sean Chuang, with the aim of promoting international copyright transactions and introducing Taiwan's highly innovative and original style to the world.
Eight Features of the Taiwan Pavilion
The Little Beauty from Taiwan
The Taiwan Pavilion at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, sponsored by the Government Information Office (GIO) of the Executive Yuan and organized by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation (TBFF), features a total of eight booths in an area of 128 square meters. The image "The Little Beauty from Taiwan" continues the main visual theme of the pavilion created by world-renowned illustrator Jimmy Liao. It is expected to attract a large crowd of visitors while demonstrating Taiwan's unique style.
This year the features of the pavilion under the theme “Fun Adventure” are projected to manifest the diversity, creativity and strength of Taiwan's publishing culture, including: "Recommended Illustrators", "New Titles", "Page Tsou's Solo Exhibition", "Exhibitors", "Digital Publishing", and "Titles with Foreign Languages Sales", as well as calling for exhibitors to the 2013 Taipei International Book Exhibition. This year the Taiwan Pavilion sees the participation of 45 publishers, exhibiting a total of 255 books, including: 156 from the participating exhibitors, 51 from "New Titles", 34 from "Titles with Foreign Languages Sales", and 16 from "Digital Publishing". In addition, the booth "Titles with Foreign Languages Sales" will demonstrate Taiwan's creative strength in picture books and robust development in copyright transactions.
The 2012 Bologna Children's Book Fair Taiwan Pavilion features 12 professional publishers, including Brilliant International Group, Commonwealth Publishing Group, Heryin Publishing Corp., Hsin Yi Publications, Little Newton Science Education Limited Company, Locus Publishing Company, Moker Information Technology Co., Ltd., Ophaya Technology Corporation, Sharp Point Press, Tianbu Culture and Art Foundation, Tong Li Publishing Co., Ltd., Topuser International Co., Ltd., and the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), Executive Yuan, who have appointed professional representatives for this event, demonstrating their confidence in promoting international copyright transactions for children's books.
The Taiwan Pavilion has also planned a couple of exciting events during the course of the book fair. The opening party will be held on March 19 at 2:30 p.m., with various distinguished guests, including Taiwan's representative in Italy, renowned publishing professionals, book fair organizers and international media. Moreover, Page Tsou will launch the international edition of his new book The Tin Soldier the next day. The launch party will be held by prestigious Spanish publisher Fundación SM inside the Taiwan Pavilion, with the attendance of representatives from the Taiwanese government's overseas offices, as well as from the international publishing associations, press and media.
Page Tsou, Selected for the Bologna Children's Book Fair Twice in Three Years, Won the 2011 International Award for Illustration
Taiwanese illustrator Page Tsou won the 2011 Bologna Children's Book Fair - Fundación SM International Award for Illustration, with a prize of US$30,000. This award, given to illustrators under the age of 35, is one of the most prestigious awarded at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and this is the first time for a Taiwanese artist to win this honor.
Page Tsou's latest book The Tin Soldier continues the artist's focus on war and peace, as shown in his previous work at last year's book fair, but this time he casts a one-foot-tall paramedic as the protagonist. The background is London during World War II, and the storyline follows the development of Andersen's classic tale of the same name. The ending, however, has changed: the tin soldier is not tragically burned to death, but escapes from the battlefield along with the heroine. The focus is no longer on the attachment between the two protagonists, but on the different angles from which a story can be viewed, including spatial and temporal. The many metaphors about war and peace in this book serve to illustrate the contradictions of human nature.
Page Tsou first drew attention at Bologna in 2008 with Chip & Fishes and was invited to exhibit his works in Japan and Chicago. Later he was approached by the Walt Disney Company for the creation of a Snow White with distinct Taiwanese characteristics. Italian Orecchio Acerbo and British Phaidon also sought his cooperation, and Spain's OQO invited him to create children's books for them. This time he will return to Bologna as a celebrated prizewinner, which is expected to bring him more opportunities with international publishers.
This year, the Taiwan Pavilion will also introduce the important works of three other illustrators. Among them is the world-famous Jimmy Liao, whose books have been translated and published in the United States, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, Japan and Thailand. His recent cooperation with British Walker Books sees the publication of The Monster Who Ate Darkness and The World Champion of Staying Awake. Chen Chih Yuan, who has garnished awards from the US National Council for Teacher Education, Publishers Weekly, Japan Library Association, and Taiwan's Golden Tripod, has successfully sold his Mimi series to France, the United States, Finland, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. This also marks the first time that Chinese-language children's book have been introduced to Finland, Denmark and Israel, further enhancing Chen Chih Yuan's status as an international writer.
The period 2010 – 2011 was a banner year for Taiwan's original comics. In addition to the serialization of various comics artists' works in Japan, Taiwanese comics also met with immense popularity with European readers at the Chambéry BD in France. The Taiwan Pavilion will exhibit works by this year's focus comics artist Sean Chuang. Chuang, who used to be an animator, has shot over 300 commercial films, all with a style of his own. His comics, though slow and painstaking in the making, have also met with great acclaim in recent years. For example, his Film Maker's Notes, published over a decade ago, has been widely praised for its refreshing style. The Window, which took him ten years to finish and publish in print and iphone/ipad editions, has already been sold to Spain and France, among other countries. At the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France, Chuang's works also attracted a wide audience. Graphic novels of his genre have been a global phenomenon in the comics book/illustrated novel industry in recent years. He is currently working on his third book, My 1980s (tentative title). The rich creativity and potential found in Chuang's comics will surely be a pleasant surprise at this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair!
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
