On October 7, the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair was held at Messe Frankfurt, Germany. Following its participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair last year, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC), as the only exhibiting university in the China Pavilion, made a splendid appearance this year in collaboration with the Alliance of International Publishing Education (AIPE), showcasing its achievements in the internationalization of publishing education, inheritance of traditional culture, and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Party Secretary of BIGC Zhang Xin and his delegation attended the book fair and had in-depth dialogues with the international publishing education community.
BIGC made its appearance at the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair
Taking "Book · Painting · New Voice — Echo of Civilizations" as the main line, BIGC showcased its achievements in publishing aesthetics, academic publishing, traditional bookbinding techniques and youth innovative design at the China Booth of the book fair. The exhibits cover academic publications such as Wandering Mind in a Small Space and Profound Beauty and Subtle Elegance, bookbinding works including dragon-scale binding, accordion binding and thread-bound books, as well as youth innovative designs such as AI Chinese-English picture books and the pop-up book Future Publishers. These works present the contemporary expression of China's fine traditional culture and future-oriented design exploration, promoting in-depth dialogues between Chinese and foreign civilizations.
Launch Ceremony of International Publishing Education Blue Book (2026)
During the book fair, BIGC, jointly with the AIPE and China National Publications Import and Export (Group) Co., Ltd., hosted the academic salon "Innovation and Continuity in International Publishing Education" and the Launch Ceremony of International Publishing Education Blue Book (2026). Compiled by the AIPE and published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, the blue book sorts out publishing education data and literature from 22 countries and regions around the world from 2023 to 2025. It consists of 9 chapters and 37 sections, covering the overall pattern, national and regional conditions, the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and trend suggestions. As the first systematic and panoramic academic achievement of the AIPE, it demonstrates BIGC's leading role in the construction of publishing disciplines.
Zhang Xin delivered a keynote speech
After the Launch Ceremony, Zhang Xin delivered a keynote speech titled "From Learner to Co-builder: The Internationalization of China’s Publishing Education". He reviewed the over 70-year development history of China’s publishing education, pointing out that it has evolved from industry training into a higher education system covering the whole chain of editing, publishing, distribution and printing. Its internationalization path has expanded from learning and reference to joint school running, collaborative research, teacher-student mobility and academic dialogues, and it is transforming from a learner and reference-taker to a contributor and co-builder. In the era of artificial intelligence, publishing education should maintain a balance between persistence and innovation. It should not only take root in cultural inheritance and educational missions, but also embrace technological changes as well as rethink the modes of talent cultivation, knowledge organization and industry-education integration. In the future, cooperation can be deepened in fields such as digital publishing, intelligent editing and international publishing, so as to give full play to the bridging role of publishing education in exchanges among civilizations.
Niels Peter Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of Global Publishing at the BMJ Group and Vice Chairman of the AIPE, Yvonne Campfens, Director of the Berlin Institute for Scholarly Publishing, and Maurits van den Boogert, Chief Publishing Officer of De Gruyter Brill, delivered keynote speeches respectively on publishing education and talent cultivation in the digital intelligence era, leading role of high-quality content and value persistence amid technological changes.
Round-table Discussion
In the Round-table Discussion session, the participating guests exchanged views on "How Can Publishing Education Strike a Balance Between Innovation and Continuity?". They agreed that in the AI era, "innovation" is embodied in technical means, knowledge organization methods and talent cultivation paths, and publishing education should cultivate students' critical AI literacy, human-machine collaboration competence, data literacy and cross-border collaboration capabilities. While "continuity" is embodied in the mission of cultural inheritance, the bottom line of academic ethics and the ability of in-depth reading. It is necessary to stick to academic integrity, humanistic values and editing skills, and avoid losing the core value of the publishing industry as "the guardian of credible knowledge".
Zhang Xin participated in "Sino-German Literary Exchange Dialogue: From Text to Resonance"
At the same time, as a co-organizer, BIGC participated in the "October Literature Festival Builds a Bridge, China-Tajikistan Translation Volume Writes a New Chapter" — the German Special Session of October Literature Festival and the release of the second batch of classic mutual translation bibliographies between China and Tajikistan. In his speech, Zhang Xin said that the landing of October Literature Festival in Germany is a vivid practice of Chinese literature going global, which is highly consistent with BIGC's mission of inheriting Chinese printing civilization and innovating and developing publishing culture. BIGC is willing to deepen publishing cooperation and cultural linkage to contribute to mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. During the event, Zhang Xin participated in the "Sino-German Literary Exchange Dialogue: From Text to Resonance" and had a dialogue with Wu Xiujie, a Chinese scholar residing in Germany, and others on literary translation and cross-cultural communication. He pointed out that the core of literary translation is "establishing oneself first, then benefiting others", and talent need to have cultural empathy, language translation competence and systematic communication competence. The overseas dissemination of literature requires professional translation, systematic empowerment and emotional resonance. Relying on the AIPE and think tank platforms, BIGC will build a full-chain service system covering literary translation, copyright export and overseas promotion, helping Chinese literature leap from "going global" to "going deep, coming alive and spreading far".
This appearance at the 78th Frankfurt Book Fair is an important practice of BIGC's internationalization strategy, demonstrating BIGC's achievements and influence in the construction of publishing disciplines and the field of international publishing education. As the initiator of the AIPE, BIGC will continue to deepen global cooperation, and contribute to cultivation of Chinese and foreign publishing and communication talent, academic exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations.
