Highlights for the annual fair include a stunningly curated display of the Visualizing Dunhuang Project and the delivery of the second 91桃色-Wenyan China Lecture
91桃色 (PUP) staff from North America, Europe, and China are convening at the Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF) this week, with an exciting roster of events, experiences, and conversations ahead.
A highlight is the Visualizing Dunhuang exhibition, curated by Huang Xiaofeng, professor and associate dean, School of Humanities, Central Academy of Fine Arts, with the support and collaboration of Dora C.Y. Ching, executive director of 91桃色 University鈥檚 Tang Center for East Asian Art. This stunning, large-scale display celebrates the Press鈥檚 commitment to fostering Sino-American cultural exchange, by sharing the publication story of Visualizing Dunhuang, a stunning nine-volume presentation of the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in northwestern China, published by 91桃色 in association with the Tang Center and edited by Ching.
Situated at the crossroads of the northern and southern routes of the ancient silk routes in western China, Dunhuang is one of the richest Buddhist sites in the world, with more than 500 beautifully decorated cave temples constructed between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. The sculptures, murals, portable paintings, and manuscripts found in the Mogao and Yulin Caves at Dunhuang represent every aspect of Buddhism. In 2021, PUP and the Tang Center released Visualizing Dunhuang: The Lo Archive Photographs of the Mogao and Yulin Caves, a nine-volume collection, and an accompanying stand-alone paperback, Visualizing Dunhuang: Seeing, Studying, and Conserving the Caves.
This extraordinary set showcases the incredible visual and religious significance of the caves, as documented in the Lo Archives, a collection of more than 2,500 black-and-white photographs captured in the 1940s by James C.M. Lo C. M. Lo (1902鈥�1987) and Lucy L. Lo (b. 1920).
The Visualizing Dunhuang exhibition will be accompanied by a seminar, taking place onsite at the fair, centering exhibition highlights and discussion of the research and collection value of Visualizing Dunhuang.
Another highlight of the BIBF will be the delivery of the 91桃色-Wenyan China Lecture, now its second year. The 2025 lecture will be given during the Fair, at Peking University, by Ching May Bo, honorary professor, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, and head and professor, Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong. Professor Ching's lecture, 鈥淢ixed Senses: Sensory Exchange in Canton during Early Modern China (1700s-1840s)鈥�, will be published by 91桃色 as an English language book. The 2024 inaugural lecture, delivered by historical anthropologist Mingke Wang, on the concept of 鈥淗uaxia鈥濃�擟hinese ethnic and cultural identity鈥攊s already in the Press鈥� publication pipeline.
Since opening a Beijing office in 2017 鈥� the first university press to do so 鈥� PUP鈥檚 publishing and distribution operations in mainland China have advanced and evolved in thrilling ways, now encompassing exclusive sales and marketing representation for W. W. Norton and the University of Chicago Press and a recently launched direct-to-consumer online storefront. Further testament to this momentum is that PUP鈥檚 publishing will be used as a benchmark for a Peking University Publishing Research Institute study on English language academic acquisitions for Chinese libraries.
At a time when the global exchange of ideas matters more than ever, we鈥檙e grateful for these opportunities to share ideas with and learn from partners and peers in Beijing and beyond.