The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) is for the first time participating in Mexico’s Guadalajara International Book Fair to promote Taiwanese content in the Spanish-language publishing market.
Better known as the FIL, which is short for La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, the book fair is the most important event in the Spanish-language publishing industry, and second in scale only to the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, the agency said on Saturday.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s FIL, the 34th edition, was turned into an online event, it said.
Photo: AFP
The FIL opened on Saturday and is to run until Monday next week, the agency said.
The agency said that it partnered with the Taipei Book Fair Foundation to help 54 publishers present information on 176 titles in the FIL’s official catalog.
To improve the promotion of Taiwanese content in the Spanish-language publishing market, the agency also set up a virtual Taiwan Pavilion in Spanish (taiwan-filguadalajara2020.taicca.tw), produced a video introducing Taiwanese publishing and created a series of animated commercials for selected books, it said.
“As online editions of exhibitions become the norm, TAICCA has continuously promoted Taiwan’s publishing works to every corner of the world,” it said.
The theme of the virtual pavilion is “Lo pequeno es grande,” or “Small is Big,” which was also the theme of Taiwan’s online participation at the Frankfurt Book Fair last month, the agency said.
TAICCA said it has observed that the Spanish-language publishing market favors works with diverse graphic styles, and thus recommended a list of picture books and graphic novels on topics ranging from child development to dreams.
An online catalog (publication.taicca.tw/book/18) of all the titles presented at the FIL — including open-call selections and winners of the Golden Tripod Awards, the Golden Comic Awards and the Golden Butterfly Awards — is available in the virtual pavilion, it said.
The video, which is available on the agency’s YouTube channel, features footage from major publishing industry events in Taiwan, including the Taipei International Book Exhibition, the Wordwave Festival and the Golden Comic Awards ceremony, it said.
The animated commercials, which were made in collaboration with director Gooshun Wang (王谷神), are each 10 to 15 seconds long and aim to attract international buyers and expand the visibility of Taiwanese content overseas, it said.
The FIL has grown rapidly in the past five years, the agency said, adding that the number of participating publishers has grown from about 1,900 to 2,417, while attendance has increased from 720,000 to nearly 850,000.
“There is a large Spanish readership worldwide, and the FIL is one of the top Spanish publishing markets,” agency President Lolita Hu (胡晴舫) said.
The agency looks forward to improving understanding of Taiwanese culture within the Spanish-language publishing industry, and showcasing Taiwan’s diverse publishing landscape, she said.
Once the pandemic subsides, the agency hopes to send Taiwanese publishers to participate in the FIL in person, the agency said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS