PHOTO ESSAY/2024 Taipei International Book Exhibition opens

Taipei, Feb. 21 (CNA) The 2024 Taipei International Book Exhibition opened at Taipei World Trade Center on Tuesday, offering book lovers publications from around the world, talks, and even the chance of a haircut.

At the German Pavilion, hairdresser Danny Beuerbach is scheduled to offer discounted or even free "literary haircuts" to visitors who read out loud from a book at different times every day during the six-day event.

Ahead of the book fair, Beuerbach visited the Librairie Le Pigeonnier bookstore in Taipei with his campaign "Book a look and read my book" to promote reading.

Beuerbach's children's book "Der magische Frisör" (The Magical Hairdresser) is displayed at the book fair and he is set to give a talk with Katherina Rapp, a senior project manager from the Frankfurter Buchmesse on Saturday afternoon at the "Blue Salon," according to the Goethe-Institut in Taiwan.

The Netherlands, the "guest of honor" country at this year's book fair, has "Miffy" -- a cartoon rabbit character created by Dutch artist Dick Bruna -- at the entrance to its pavilion to welcome visitors.

The Dutch Pavilion, the organizers said, is designed to explore the contemporary literature scene, children's literature, and the shared past of Taiwan and the Netherlands over the past 400 years.

On the opening day, Dutch historian Frank Dikötter gave a talk for the release of the Chinese language version of his book "China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower."

Feb. 20: Netherlands the guest of honor country as Taipei book fair opens

Poet Waitong Liu, who moved from Hong Kong to Taiwan in 2018, was joined by Taiwanese writer Liu Ka-shiang (劉克襄) and talked about his works published last year in Cantonese, the language of Hong Kongers.

Liu said that the importance of his three-volume "The Letter After the Kalpa" is about creating dialogue and preserving his mother tongue for the next generation.

In addition to a Digital Pavilion, which provides a "digital reading adventure and encourages interactive engagement with all readers," the National Palace Museum adopted augmented reality (AR) technology at its exhibition.

To echo the Lunar New Year of the Dragon, the museum uses AR technology to display a blue dragon pattern on a Qing dynasty vase in its collection, which can be seen through digital devices.

The book exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Thursday, remains open until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and closes at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Although the book festival is a ticketed event, the organizers give visitors vouchers of the same value as their tickets which can be used to shop during the book fair.