Tracing the evolution of Hong Kong Book Fair
From satirists to pseudo-models, book fair has drawn crowds and controversy over the years
From a modest start in 1990 with 149 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors, Hong Kong Book Fair has grown into, perhaps, the key event of the summer.
Its organiser, the Trade Development Council, expects this year's event, with 560 exhibitors, will draw a million visitors.
Thousands of people queuing up to enter the Convention and Exhibition Centre is a common sight. Inside the venue, manoeuvring is difficult, with crowds packing every booth and visitors carrying suitcases ready to stock up.
Bargain books prove as popular as new titles. Politically themed works often create a stir. The sarcastic comic book Broom-head, which poked fun at the then secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and her hair style, was a hot item at the fair in 2001, with about 40,000 copies sold. Ip responded by saying people who liked it were sexist.
The previous year Silly Old Tung took aim at former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, and went on to become a bestseller. The two books propelled their publisher, Jimmy Pang Chi-ming, to fame.
This year, the spotlight was on I'm No Hero, by Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung, and another book written by the organiser of Occupy Central, Benny Tai Yiu-ting.