The Hong Kong Book Fair will be celebrating its 20th anniversary when it gets underway on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) in Wan Chai. Among other things, the fair will be marking the special occasion with a Time-Tunnel exhibition that traces the history of the annual event. Running for a week, the fair will feature 15 themed zones aimed at everybody from children to readers with spiritual interests. There will be more than 500 exhibitors from 19 countries and regions. The fair this year will be bigger than ever - expanded to 44,213 square metres, or a third bigger than last year's show - and includes Italy, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, all of which are exhibiting for the first time. The International Cultural Zone will showcase books in various languages, with countries such as Denmark, India, the Philippines, Belgium, Bangladesh, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam also among the exhibitors. Another new zone this year is English World, which will feature 50 booths packed with books in English from different countries. In addition, there will be seminars featuring renowned writers and other media professionals who will speak on cultural, entrepreneurial, storytelling and English-learning issues. Speakers include comic artist Lau Wan-kit, rap artists MC Yan and MC Jin, Tang Siu-pun (better known as Ah Bun) and Taiwanese illustrator Jimmy Liao. Autograph sessions will be held, but details of the times will be announced closer to Wednesday's fair opening. Howard Goldblatt, one of the leading literary translators from Chinese to English, will speak on Friday at a seminar co-organised by the Hong Kong Art Development Council. The fair will introduce the Book Lover Super Pass this year. For HK$80, it grants unlimited access to the fair and VIP rights to skip the long queues to the event. The pass is on sale at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Design Gallery at the HKCEC and at all outlets of book chains Dymocks, Commercial Press and Joint Publishing. To buy a pass, you need to supply a colour passport photo. The fair opens at 9am on Wednesday, and closes at 10pm. The event ends on July 28. Hours vary from day to day for the rest of the fair - visit http://hkbookfair.hktdc.com/en/index.aspx for more details. The Hong Kong Book Fair website also has information about seminars, prices of tickets and where to buy them. Young Post is giving away 10 pairs of tickets for this exciting event. Please send your full name, phone number and address to yp@scmp.com with 'Book Fair' in the subject line.
