The Shanghai Book Fair, founded in 2004, will this year be held for the 16th time. While the theme “loving reading, loving life” remains unchanged, this year’s event will have some differences.

This year’s book fair has attracted more than 500 publishers from home and abroad, and more than 160,000 kinds of high-quality books are being exhibited. With some physical chain bookstores outside Shanghai as the subsidiary venues of the event, the 2019 Shanghai Book Fair is going out of the city for the first time.

According to the organizers, “transformation” is more obvious in this year’s book fair. As audiobooks and online bookstores have ballooned at recent book fairs, there are now many more combinations of online and offline events.

In addition, many exhibition areas have adjusted to display books according to their categories, instead of various publishing houses, which is convenient not only for readers to choose and purchase, but also for publishing houses to understand readers’ needs with the resultant purchasing data.

A Wechat mini program has also been added in this year’s fair for readers to check activity information and buy books on their mobile phones.

“People’s usual impression of a book fair is stacks of books. But this year, it is different,” said Wang Weisong, president of the Shanghai People's Publishing House. Besides the usual book displays, new exhibitions like photos, art, and cultural and creative products, as well as themed spaces have emerged.

“Visitors can enjoy an art installation, listen to an audio book, intensively read a book, or even appreciate creative and cultural products. By reading books and exchanging ideas, people can boost their sense of gain,” added Han Weidong, president of the Shanghai Translation Publishing House.