That’s always supposing – a big assumption right now – that by next June the Pandemic is in retreat and it will be safe to run a major event like TIBE in-person. As we’ve just seen with the last-minute cancellation of the Beijing International Book Fair, the Pandemic is far from over.
The national book fair of Taiwan is still called the Taipei Book Fair despite not happening in the Taiwanese capital this year.
For the first time in its history the event opened (Friday, August 27) in Taichung, after which it will tour Tainan City and Yilan County. This follows the cancellation of the 2020 edition due to the Pandemic.
With analogue irony the fair, while free, requires online booking to attend, despite there being no online book fair. Instead the touring fair has a programme of physical events – for details check this report in Taiwan News – that will visit three venues outside the capital.
The Taichung show will run August 27 through September 12, then the Tainan City event from September 17 through October 3 and finally the Yilan event will start October 8.
It’s not clear why a hybrid event with both physical and digital elements was not pursued, given 22 million of Taiwan’s 23.8 million population are online.
And more surprising still given the success of the 2021 TIBE (Taipei International Book Exhibition) which ran as a fully virtual event this year after the 2020 event was cancelled outright.
This month the dates for the 2022 TIBE have been set – 2-7 June, since you ask – and it appears the focus will be on a physical event in the Taiwanese capital, but we’ll need to await further details to be clear if it will be a hybrid event.
That’s always supposing – a big assumption right now – that by next June the Pandemic is in retreat and it will be safe to run a major event like TIBE in-person.
As we’ve just seen with the last-minute cancellation of the Beijing International Book Fair, the Pandemic is far from over.
