ARTS AND CULTURE | Fair with extended English book offering

This year’s edition of the Macau Book Carnival is seeking to inject positive energy into the city by cultivating reading culture among locals, according to the organizers of the event, which was presented yesterday. A wide range of books will be available at the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM)’s Multisport Pavilion from July 10 to 19.
Themed “Reading – energy of the mind,” the 18th edition of the annual book fair invited a total of over 50 exhibitors, with foreign language titles accounting for one-seventh of this year’s entire offering. According to the organizers, most of those books are new arrivals. Chan Im Wa, president of the Macao Literary Promotion Association, also one of the major organizers, told the media that around 12 tables, out of over 70 in total, are devoted to showcasing English books.
Chan Im Wa said that the  carnival will see the release of 27 new books by local writers, 21 of which are from the second batch of the Macau Foundation’s collective literature program.
Living in a gambling hub where citizens are sometimes gripped by negativity, Chan encouraged the public to turn to reading to stay motivated.
“Reading has become an important tool to appease our hearts and light up our brains. It’s also getting unprecedentedly important for people living in Macau to read,” said Chan in her address.
With the power of positive energy a running theme in this year’s edition of the event, the organizer has invited an armless Hong Kong writer to share on July 12 how she made her life complete with the use of her legs. Another book penned by a local fisherman with only primary school education, which depicts the less-known historic development of the fishing industry in Chinese, will also be featured in the book fair.
Students interested in pursuing further studies in the Netherlands should not miss the talk on July 18, as two local graduates relate their study experiences back in Europe. They will also tell of the foot-
print they left across the Netherlands, which has become a popular study destination for Macau students to consider.
With Hong Kong’s well- known annual book fair to be held on July 15–21, Chan believes that local readers could benefit from the timing as well, since most of the city’s new books, which usually are released to the public at around that time, will also be offered in this year’s book carnival. Staff reporter