Amanda Roberts

    aroberts42@live.com

    THIS week, a million readers are getting lost in a sea of books at the Hong Kong Book Fair, which this year was held from July 15-21. The HK Book Fair is an annual event that has been held since 1990. Now in its 26th year, the HK Book Fair is the largest event of its kind held in Asia.

    This year, the book fair hosted a record number of exhibitors — 580 from 33 countries and regions. The largest draw was certainly Children’s Paradise, a section that took up most of the third floor and was dedicated to publishers and education groups for children.

    The fair’s Author of the Year this year was Leo Ou-fan Lee (李欧梵). Lee, 73, is a Chinese commentator and author who was elected Fellow of Academia Sinica in 2002. Lee was also a professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of Chicago, University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard University. Lee has served as a columnist for several publications, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ming Pao, and Muse.

    Lee has been publishing since the 1970s, but his most recent work, “Musings: Reading Hong Kong, China and the World,” was published by a Hong Kong press in 2011. “Musings” is a collection of essays that explore cosmopolitanism in postwar Chinese literary culture — from the Hong Kong identity, intellectuals like Eileen Chang, Gao Xingjian and Lung Yingtai, to other cultural streams represented by writers ranging from Oe to Kafka.

    Other big name draws included Carol Thatcher, the daughter of late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was sharing her latest work, “Below the Parapet,” a biographer of her father, Denis.

    There were several interesting panels held, some drawing crowds of nearly 1,000 people. A panel on memoir writing was held by Bangladeshi author Maria Chaudhuri. Mercedes Vázquez, German Muňoz, Juan José Morales, Tammy Ho Lai’ming, and David McKirdy held a panel on Latin American authors Alejo Carpentier and Octavio Paz.

    Author Mark O’Neil was on hand to talk about his book “The Second Tang Dynasty — the 12 Sons of Fragrant Mountain Who Changed China.” And author Jason Y. Ng gave a speech about how an author’s globetrotting exploits influence the way he or she reads and writes.

    The fair was certainly a book buyer’s paradise. Almost all of the exhibitors were selling their books at discount prices. Many visitors at the fair were hunting for bargains.

    One of the most interesting exhibitors was a Peruvian company that claimed to be selling “the world’s smallest books.” The books were tiny, but still legible. They had books that contained writing from the Koran, the Bible and Kama Sutra, among others, and they sold display cases so you could proudly display your little books that were also works of art. One of the attractions that was not well advertised but was very interesting was a display from Xinjiang featuring clothing, handicrafts, and books from that far western region.

    While there were some mainland publishers present, most of the books for sale were printed in traditional Chinese or in Taiwanese-style vertical text, which some mainland guests were disappointed by. There were also some English booksellers present, most notably Page One Books.

    With tickets for as little as HK$10, fascinating guests, interesting exhibits and millions of books to choose from, it is easy to see why the Hong Kong Book Fair has become one of the city’s preeminent events.