Caution evident in buying and selling of politically sensitive material amid fears of growing repression from mainland’s Communist partyThe 2016 Hong Kong book fair, the most important event in the city’s literary calendar, opened its doors on Wednesday to familiar long queues and hordes of special security personnel on watch for potential stampedes. Inside, it was business as usual: a large convention hall divided into genres, with one large area just for religious publishers, complete with saffron-robed monks writing calligraphy and dispensing blessings. Media types gathered on the first floor where a local starlet in a low-cut dress posed for photographers in front of a stand devoted to fashion books and magazines.But this year is the first fair held in Hong Kong since the disappearances of five booksellers from the city in late 2015. For many visitors, the attention is squarely on the few publishers still willing to sell “forbidden books”. What has happened to the five men has profoundly shaken Hong Kong’s book trade: Gui Minhai, owner of the Mighty Current publishing house and the Causeway Bay Books shop, remains in detention in mainland China after having disappeared from his holiday house in Thailand in October 2015, only to reappear in a tearful televised confession in January 2016. Mighty Current editor Lee Bo was also reportedly abducted from Hong Kong and later reappeared in March, as did manager Lui Por. Just two days later, business manager Cheung Chi-ping... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
The impact of the coronavirus outbreak continues to be felt across the trade, with further cancellations of literary events and larger numbers in the book trade now working from home to fight the spread. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-15 14:06:36 UTC ]
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Publishers including Penguin Random House, Pearson, Bonnier Books UK and Macmillan Education have donated books they planned to use at the cancelled London Book Fair to the Book Trade Charity. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-11 20:10:12 UTC ]
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The book trade has expressed disappointment at the cancellation of the London Book Fair but accepted that it was the right call, as the UK works on containment of the coronavirus outbreak. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-04 04:39:23 UTC ]
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Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish citizen, ran a publishing house that appeared to anger the Communist Party Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-25 06:02:16 UTC ]
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The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund plans to create the Rory D. Root Comics Ambassador Grant, a program designed to support community building by retailers, named in honor of the late Rory Root, an influential Berkeley comics retailer noted for his pioneering embrace of book trade practices and... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-25 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai has been jailed for 10 years by a Chinese court for “illegally providing intelligence overseas”. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-24 22:55:21 UTC ]
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How can the book trade, and especially agents, be more welcoming of different personality types—many of whom could shake up their business? Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-21 04:49:38 UTC ]
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Publisher Eva Bonnier and author David Lagercrantz are among the signatories of an open letter calling for the release of Gui Minhai, a bookseller imprisoned in China. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-02-20 16:34:50 UTC ]
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Banner image: A phalanx of Braves prepares for battle Featured image: A protest slogan referencing the Polish Solidarity protest movement ¤ MO MING IS used to the acrid taste of tear gas. On October 1, China’s National Day, he zig-zagged across the Harcourt Road flyover in central Hong Kong... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-20 13:30:53 UTC ]
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The book trade is often praised for its durability (not least in these pages), forever teetering on the right side of oblivion. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-19 13:37:09 UTC ]
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Salaries need to be more clearly stated in book trade job adverts to avoid shutting people out through lack of transparency, and to help retain top talent, Katie Espiner, m.d. Orion, has said, calling on the whole trade to disclose salaries when recruiting. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-24 13:01:40 UTC ]
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The book trade has made its thoughts known in regards to which way it will likely be voting on 12th December in the coming general election, the fourth national vote in five years. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-21 20:08:52 UTC ]
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During the Digital Media Asia 2019 conference held in Hong Kong in October, tech giant Google reiterated its support for Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2019-11-04 18:00:50 UTC ]
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Dialogue Books has scooped a “mighty” novel from Kit Fan, set in the last shanty town of Hong Kong before its 1997 handover to China. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-10-17 17:21:05 UTC ]
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Philip Jones weighs up whether the book trade can, or should, try to balance politics with business. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-20 05:24:22 UTC ]
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Earlier this week, Active Interest Media, publisher of Better Nutrition, Yoga Journal and a slew of recently acquired former F+W titles, among many others, announced the launch of NatuRx, a new print and digital media brand with a self-described mission of "educating health-conscious consumers... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2019-09-19 18:48:19 UTC ]
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Donald Trump’s Alabama psychodrama is still going on. Previous scenes featured the president of the United States erroneously warning that the state was in the path of a deadly hurricane; doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on his error; defacing an official weather map with a Sharpie to... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2019-09-10 12:07:25 UTC ]
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A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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Treating the U.S. tariffs as another business challenge—along with rising production costs, slimmer profit margins, and more stringent regulations—is the pragmatic way forward for Hong Kong and China print manufacturers. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-08-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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