The Frankfurt Academy Quarterly has shortened its name – from now on we are calling it simply the “Frankfurt Quarterly”. We’ve also redesigned the layout – we hope you like it. If you do (or if you don’t), please let us know! What we have not shortened is the content. We still examine our focal topic in the usual depth. In this issue we take a closer look at Asia – or to be more precise, at Japan, Korea, China and Indonesia, which are seen as the most exciting players in the region for publishing. Our cover, by the way, shows Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurter Book Fair, with Myong-woo Jo, the deputy mayor of Incheon, the South Korean city that will be “World Book Capital” in 2015. You can download the issue as a PDF here.
The creative industries as an economic factor are a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. It was only recently that the EU included them in its Strategy 2020. In Asia, on the other hand, above all in Japan and Korea, the production of cultural goods for the international export market has been steadily perfected since the 1990s. The Manga Mania of the 90s and 2000s was followed by the “Korean wave”, more recently China and Indonesia have also been joining the trend.
In our Three is a Crowd column we examine three different approaches to the creative industries: firstly there is the “viral” strategy, exemplified by Japan and Korea’s successfull international campaigns; secondly the self-contained approach, embodied by China’s recent move to use the creative industries and cultural products to boost internal demand (and possibly cohesion); and thirdly the urban, touristic approach, such as Indonesia’s push to nominate four of its cities as UNESCO Creative Cities, among them Bandung.
Under Trending Topics, which revolves around marketing and social media, we take a closer look at how Literature – with a capital L can be exchanged between East and West. Are Chinese social media platforms an appropriate tool for the promotion of contemporary British literature? Sophie Rochester of the Literary Platform thinks so. And Chigusa Ogino of the Tuttle Mori Agency tells us how she manages to enthuse Asian readers for Western literature.
Our Serendipity column is based, as always, on chance encounters. In this issue Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair, meets Eric Yang of the Asia Pacific Publishers Association. Their topic: why Asian students are so successful – and the part that Asian publishers have played in their success. Their conclusion? It’s all about education, stupid!
Enjoy your read!
Holger Volland
Vice President Media Industries, Frankfurt Book Fair
You can mail us by writing to faq@book-fair.com
PS: On the Frankfurt Book Fair website, you can find the latest information about international book markets. There is also a Report on Chinese Creative Industries, published by our BIZ office in Beijing, together with the Chinese trade journal, China Publishing & Media Journal.
