Honor in Bologna

Separately, Chinese publishers will feature 4,000 titles at the fair, 40 percent of which are in foreign languages.

All the books, if only in Chinese, will be presented with a girdle written in English to offer a brief insight into their contents.

The guest-of-honor logo focuses on the theme of "dreams", showing the image of a child and a panda reading together.

And the design for the China pavilion is inspired by lanterns and classical stories.

Li, who is also the president of the China Children's Press and Publication Group, says this year's Bologna event will be remembered as a landmark for Chinese publishing, especially for children's publishing.

"We were onlookers at the fair a few years ago and now we're active participants. The business earlier was all about introducing foreign titles, but now we have 600 Chinese publishers (of children's books)," he says.