Chen opens international book fair

President Chen Shui-bian attends a book launch to promote a comic book portraying his life as a hard-working student at the 11th Taipei International Book Exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center yesterday. PHOTO: CNA

The 11th Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) opened yesterday at the Taipei World Trade Center, featuring a host of domestic and international publishers from almost 50 countries.

The highlights of this year's exhibition are displays spotlighting Czech writing and the African Nobel Prize Laureate Wole Soyinka.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday attended the opening ceremony of the fair, saying that the annual TIBE has become a focal point for the global publishing industry and that Taiwan has also become a major publishing rights center in Asia striving to create more copyright opportunities.

Chen said that with about one fourth of the world's population having Chinese as their native tongue, Chinese-language publications would play an influential role in the global publishing business.

"Taiwan is one of the few Chinese-speaking places in the world that is democratic and that offers a liberal and vivacious climate for literary and arts creations," Chen said.

"I hope the TIBE can help to expand Taiwan's cultural and creative industries and serve as a bridge to the global publishing community," Chen said.

Another focus of Chen's visit to the exhibition was the release of a comic book portraying Chen's life as a student, when he scored record marks in his studies despite financial difficulties before becoming a student in the law department of Taiwan's top National Taiwan University.

This year, the TIBE is featuring a wide range of publications from the Czech Republic, with special attention being given to the publishing of two Chinese-translations of former Czech president Vaclav Havel's two most recent offerings the The Power of the Powerless and Farewell to Politics.

The TIBE also introduced to Taiwanese readers for the first time the African Nobel Prize Laureate Wole Soyinka who pens plays, novels and poems.

Nigerian-born Soyinka, 69, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986 with his 1972 work Poems from Prison. Soyinka stood out against the Nigerian dictatorship that seized power after the country emerged from colonial rule in the 1960s.

The first African Nobel Laureate, Soyinka wrote about concerns for the various native tribes in Africa and his work reflected the social reality of the oppressed African people during a period of great political turmoil.

Speaking at a forum introducing his literary works, Soyinka said, "To me, visiting Taiwan for the first time has many significances beyond literature. I am also interested in what happens in the other parts of the world where many forms of liberations or struggles have been waged."

"I find great affinity among the minority cultures, the so-called less well-known cultures of the world, no matter what languages they speak," Soyinka said.

The TIBE will be open until Sunday.