For this year's Bologna Children's Book Fair, the 2017 Taiwan Pavilion highlighted the concept of Intellectual Property under the banner "Infinite Taiwan∞!” to focus on developing interdisciplinary projects based on original content.
A total of eight sections were offered to promote Taiwan's diverse culture and present a wide range of products encompassing digital publications, graphic books, recommended books, licensable books, and works by this year's featured illustrators.
Working with the Ministry of Culture's "Books from Taiwan” international licensing promotion project, the Taiwan Pavilion also served as a platform for Taiwan's publishing companies to promote their books and network with international copyright agents.
A special section was dedicated to children's books by Lai Ma (賴馬), a best-selling author on Taiwan's online bookstores last year. His works, which have been released in simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean editions, were showcased along with gamebooks, board games, puzzles, and wallpapers based on his original characters.
An excerpt from "The Stray Dogs Around My House and Me" by Lai Ma (賴馬).
Moreover, two Taiwanese illustrators – Teng Yu (鄧彧) and Wu Jui-che (吳睿哲) – were officially selected by the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, bringing the total number of featured Taiwanese artists up to 45 in the exhibition's fifty-year history.
An illustration by Teng Yu (鄧彧).
An illustration by Wu Jui-che (吳睿哲).
The book fair's other major component, the Bologna Ragazzi Award that was established in 1966, also honored Taiwanese illustrator Page Tsou (鄒駿昇) with a Special Mention in the children's books on art category for "The Gift (禮物)," marking the third time in a row for Taiwanese illustrators to be shortlisted by the book fair.
An excerpt from "The Gift" by Page Tsou.