Window to World Literature
2013 saw the launch of the first “Window to China Books” project in Nigeria. Since then, the program has shifted approach and now runs under the title, “Window to World Literature”. This change of name represents the cooperation initiative’s expansion over the past five years to several more countries, including Ghana, Congo-Brazzaville, Namibia, Zambia, Ethiopia; a total of eight in Africa. Each year almost ten thousand books on culture, life and society in Nanjing and China are donated to partner countries, while works by writers from these countries are introduced to Chinese readers. Nanjing also sends experts to deliver literary courses to local students and residents and invites foreign writers and literary professionals to visit Nanjing for training.
"Nanjing: A City of Literature" Featured Events at 2017 Hong Kong Book Fair
In July 2017, the 28th Hong Kong Book Fair provided an excellent opportunity for Nanjing, the first Chinese city to apply for the UNESCO Creative Cities Network City of Literature title, to host Nanjing: A City of Literature” Featured Events.
Taking place in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event was attended by Pan Guping, then vice-director of the Nanjing Municipal Publicity Department, Zhang Wenfeng, chief representative of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Jiangsu, Rosabel O'Connor, Deputy Consul-General of the Irish Consulate General in Hong Kong, and Alain Mabanckou, keynote speaker at the 2017 Hong Kong Book Fair “World Window Lecture Series” and professor of French literature at UCLA as well as other cultural icons from mainland China and Hong Kong.
As part of the featured activities, Nanjing Design Gallery organized a literature-themed exhibition which focussed on the literary and cultural history of Nanjing from Dream of the Red Chamber to the imperial examination, local Buddhism to Nanjing art and Kun Opera to the recent “City Series”. More than 260 artefacts and books were on display from 23 distinct local cultural creation enterprises.