Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Statement from Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair on the current discussions about Guest of Honour China
15 September 2009
Dear Colleagues,
The question of whether the Book Fair itself could be subject to censorship or even engage in censorship, is false. The Book Fair is a marketplace for freedom, and ensures, through its very structure - with around 7,000 publishers, 2,900 events and 10,000 journalists - that censorship will not take place.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is not only a platform for Guest of Honour China, but also a podium for authors, books and publishers, for controversial positions from all nations. The thesis put forth by the Guest of Honour provokes an equally strong antithesis: The independent, the other China can be experienced in around 250 events. We have invited the Chinese Nobel Prize winner for Literature Gao Xingjian, who lives in Paris and was banned from publication in China, to our International Centre. Poet Yang Lian, who lives in London, will talk about living and writing in two cultures along with Gao Xingjian. Another important event will be the discussion about freedom of expression and of the press, using China as an example, with the Uyghur P.E.N. President Abdulrusul ÖzHun, who lives in exile in Sweden, along with the critical literary journalist Xu Xiao, among others. The President of the World Uyghur Congress is also expected to attend the Fair. The artist Ai Weiwei will be there, as will journalist Xue Xinran, who lives in London. Authors from Hong Kong - such as Leung Ping-kwan - and from Taiwan - like Chang Ta-Chun - are expected. The topic of Tibet will be discussed at numerous events, not least in the reading on the Sunday of the Fair entitled “Forbidden Reading” or in the discussion hosted by the Tibet Initiative Germany, “Tibet blogged - China’s fear of the freedom of expression”, at which Kelsang Gyaltsen, the emissary of the Dalai Lama, will also be in attendance. Each day around midday, the P.E.N. Centre Germany will host a “Chinese hour” with authors who are part of the Independent Chinese Centre in Hall 3.1. This series of events will also focus on solidarity with the author Liu Xiaobo, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for more than nine months.
The symposium was a test run and clearly showed that the need for discussion about China is enormous. It was once again made clear to me personally that the Frankfurt Book Fair has a balancing act ahead of it with Guest of Honour China, which will require fortitude. We want to create a platform for the most diverse and extreme points of view and, in doing so, facilitate dialogue. This generates pressure from all sides, from which we cannot retreat. This pressure can and should serve as the engine of a productive public discussion. Our goal is to have a dialogue both with official China, as well as with authors, academics, intellectuals from China and abroad. We will experience China’s literature and culture impartially.
Official China told us through former ambassador Mei Zhaorong at the symposium: “We did not come to be instructed about democracy.” Democracy and freedom of expression always involve friction and the scandal over the weekend was only the beginning of a democratic dispute that lies ahead for Guest of Honour China. The Frankfurt Book Fair is not offering instruction in democracy, to be sure, but it is democracy in action. These are the rules of the game of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The compromise of our project manager to speak with authors Dai Qing and Bei Ling and suggest to them an alternative to a public appearance at the symposium, was wrong. For this I have apologised to the authors and the public. The Frankfurt Book Fair does not compromise to the detriment of freedom of expression.
Facilitating dialogue is not easy. We have always been aware of this and the symposium confirmed this. Dialogue is, however, the right way and the only way.
Best regards,
Juergen Boos
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Juergen.boos@book-fair.com
12 September 2009
Dear Colleagues,
After an emotional start to the symposium this morning, we are now where we wanted to be. The dialogue has begun.
Dai Qing and Bei Ling have had a lot expected of them over the past few days and weeks due to mistakes in the organisation and communication of the symposium. It was important to me and to P.E.N. to give them both the opportunity to make a statement at the start of the event. This led to a programme change that could not be communicated to all of the event partners in a timely manner.
For this reason, part of the Chinese delegation left the conference hall prior to the statements made by Dai Qing and Bei Ling. I apologised to the Chinese organisation committee for not having communicated the programme change, whereupon the Chinese delegation returned to the conference hall.
It is important to me to conduct an open dialogue with all of the participants - the intellectuals, the authors and scholars, the participants of the official delegation and the media who have travelled here. I am very glad that this has been accomplished successfully after the initial difficulties.
The first two panels, in which Dai Qing and Bei Ling participated alongside representatives of official China and P.E.N., initiated a very sophisticated exchange of ideas. My wish is that the weeks leading up to the Book Fair and, of course, the Fair itself will be much influenced by this critical discourse.
Best regards,
Juergen Boos
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Juergen.boos@book-fair.com
11 September 2009
Dear Colleagues,
The reports on the international symposium "China and the World - Perceptions and Realities" have struck me.
I very much regret and am personally angered by the fact that it has come to this in the run-up to the event - to unnecessary mistakes and compromises in the organisation and communication of the symposium on our part. This has also led to misunderstandings and agitation in the public debate.
This afternoon, Peter Ripken, who is responsible for the the symposium programme, will pick up Dai Qing at the Frankfurt Airport. And I expect that Bei Ling will also come to Frankfurt and will participate in the symposium. I am pleased about this and I also expect an intensive dialogue to result from the discussion about the participation of both intellectuals.
We continue to rely upon dialogue with all of our partners - authors and intellectuals from China and from other countries, P.E.N., official China and, of course, with the media.
I assure you that the Frankfurt Book Fair firmly espouses the freedom of speech, of expression and of the press.
Yours,
Juergen Boos
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Juergen.boos@book-fair.com
10 September 2009
Dear Colleagues,
The international symposium “China and the World – Perceptions and Realities” will take place in Frankfurt this coming weekend. Under this motto, intellectuals, scholars, authors and journalists from China, Germany and Spain will gather in one place to offer extraordinary insight into China’s modern reality. The symposium will be hosted by the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Organizing Committee China – Guest of Honour Frankfurt Book Fair 2009, and in co-operation with the P.E.N. Centre Germany, along with the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Instituto Cervantes.
The objective of the symposium is to facilitate dialogue with official China, but also with authors and intellectuals like Mo Yan or Xu Xing.
A requirement for the realisation of the symposium was that the partners mutually agree on a list of topics and discussion participants. At the request of the Guest of Honour China organisation committee, Dai Qing and Bei Ling were stricken from the list of participants. It was only under these conditions that official China was prepared to participate in this event.
Organiser of the symposium Peter Ripken came to an agreement via telephone with Dai Qing and Bei Ling not to jeopardise the realisation of the symposium and thus to accept the non-participation of Dai Qing and Bei Ling. The symposium is one of the few events that the Frankfurt Book Fair is organising together with the Guest of Honour China organisation committee and other partners. The goal is to speak with each other and not over each other. Official China is also the subject of the debate.
The official programme of Guest of Honour China, with its hundreds of events, is the sole responsibility of Guest of Honour China and is financed, organised and carried out by the Guest of Honour. The Book Fair co-ordinates and advises with this. In addition, there are about the same number of events being organised independently by publishers, the media, NGOs, foundation and associations. By our calculations, there will be a total of about 500 events on the subject of China.
In the past few days, the debate in the German press has been about whether the Frankfurt Book Fair allowed itself to be pressured by its Guest of Honour China regarding the participant list of the symposium. The Frankfurt Book Fair will not allow itself to be pressured by anyone and, as a part of the German and international publishing industry, stands for freedom of speech, of expression and of the press throughout the world. With 7,000 publishers, 300,000 visitors and around 10,000 journalists, the Frankfurt Book Fair is a public forum that cannot be manipulated.
In the case of the symposium, we decided, under difficult circumstances and after consulting with the co-operation partners, to allow the conversation to go forward and not to cancel the event.
According to our information, it is possible that Dai Qing will now come to Frankfurt this weekend as a visitor and participate at the symposium. We are eager to start the discussions this weekend and to exchange thoughts with you on the subject of China. I am looking forward to hearing your questions, comments and suggestions.
Best regards,
Juergen Boos
Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
Juergen.boos@book-fair.com
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