Cross-cultural 'baby'

A young reader is drawn by an English picture book at the Beijing International Book Fair. One of the highlights of the fair was Ten Chapters on Publishing: Cross-Cultural and Beyond. Cui Meng / China Daily

A veteran British publisher and a Chinese writer share with Mei Jia their views on the type of Chinese books that appeal to Western readers.

Veteran publisher Stephen Bourne has the formula to sell a Chinese book in the West.

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The Cambridge University Press president believes that if a Chinese book has faces on the cover and is written together with an established foreign author, it will more likely appeal to readers in the West.

He presented such a book at the 19th Beijing International Book Fair on Aug 30. With him was Chinese publisher and former official at the State Council Information Office, Wu Wei.

"The book is our third 'baby'," says Bourne jokingly. He has been working with Wu on the Cambridge China Library project since 2009, and has adopted a baby panda in Sichuan province.

The book, titled Ten Chapters on Publishing: Cross-Cultural and Beyond, published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, is a bilingual dialogue between Wu and Bourne on 10 publishing topics.

"To me, our book cover is like a wedding invitation, featuring faces of a European man and a Chinese woman, signaling that international publishing is a constant conversation in cooperation," he adds.