Shanghai Book Traders originated from the Shanghai Foreign Language Bookstore which was founded in 1950. It belongs to the Shanghai Century Publishing (Group) Co., Ltd. and is a state-owned book import-and-export company owning the rights to import and export variety of publications. Its major business areas include the import and export of books, newspapers and digital publications, book retail and wholesale, as well as participating in a variety of book fairs at home and abroad.
Shanghai Book Traders promotes its brand as “Reading in Shanghai” and expands its business overseas, including attending and holding various Chinese book fairs overseas in areas including North America, Singapore, Europe and the region of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It aims to let more readers know and understand China (including Shanghai) through the reading process. At the request of overseas readers, the “Reading in Shanghai” book fair successively opened regular exhibition counters in many cities in America, Canada and Singapore. To date, the “Reading in Shanghai” book fair has participated in 20,000 kinds of exhibitions and shared over 100,000 books.
Picture: The “Reading in Shanghai” Exhibition in the Book Fair held in Singapore
In order to strengthen cooperation and communication with Malaysia and ASEAN countries and to seek new export channels for copyright and physical books, Shanghai Book Traders rented an exhibition stand in the “Future Library” at the international book fair in Kuala Lumpur. Exhibited at the book fair, the copyright for Hundred Thousand Whys (6th edition) has been successfully exported to Malaysian market. Referring to this classic popular science book, Malaysian agencies are optimistic about the future of local market. They plan to popularize this book among over 2,000 Chinese primary schools in Malaysia and translate it into Malaysian, then extend its dissemination to over 10,000 schools and thousands of public and university libraries.
High-quality books in Shanghai continue to be produced at a high rate, meaning they need to be exhibited on the international stage more promptly. The global Chinese book co-exhibition and the brand “Reading in Shanghai” serves as an extremely valuable platform and channel to meet this aim. By expanding the international market, Shanghai Book Traders is helping to write a new chapter for the “going global” of Shanghai and Chinese publications.