AT this year’s Hong Kong Book Fair, which closed Tuesday, a number of Shenzhen-based writers and publishers attended the fair introducing their works and exchanging ideas and experiences of cultural and literary promotion with Hong Kong scholars.

    More than 300 new books written by over 50 Shenzhen writers were being exhibited to promote Shenzhen’s Reading Month during the annual book event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

    The Shenzhen Municipal Government has designated each November as the city’s Reading Month since 2000 to promote reading among the public.

    Officials of the reading month’s organizing committee said the Hong Kong Book Fair has developed significantly in the past 23 years, which Shenzhen could learn from to develop its own brands of reading activities.

    Yu Changjiang, a sociology professor at the Shenzhen Graduate School of Beijing University, said compared with Hong Kong, Shenzhen’s Reading Month has been less successful at attracting grassroots readers, such as common residents and migrant workers, by offering their favorite books and reading-related activities.

    Yu said the best way to know what ordinary people like and dislike is to do surveys in the places where they live and work, such as in an industrial park or an urban village.

    Scholars and experts have also discussed how to strengthen literary cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen in a seminar held during the book fair.

    Luo Liejie, president of Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said the Shenzhen literary circle hopes to expand its writers and works to overseas markets with the help of Hong Kong.

    “We hope the two cities frequently hold literary activities to promote the creation and publication of literary works,” Luo said.

    Cai Yihuai, chairman with Literary Arts Committee at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, said the literary heritages of Hong Kong and Shenzhen have a lot in common. For example, urbanization and migrants have influenced both cities’ literary development, he said.

    “This is the common ground where two cities could develop more cooperative projects,” Cai said.

    In recent years, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have worked together to organize an increasing number of reading activities. For example, in collaboration with Shenzhen Book City, Hong Kong Trade Development Council invited 200 readers from Shenzhen to attend its book fair with fees waived in 2010. Shenzhen has been holding reading and essay contests among middle-school students in the two cities for 12 years.

    Outstanding books by more than 150 Shenzhen writers were also exhibited and sold during this year’s book fair in Hong Kong.(Anne Zhang)