"Many guest authors later recalled their pleasant surprise when they attended the Shanghai Book Fair. The love of reading became a rare phenomenon in many parts of the world as we entered the 21st century. The Shanghai Book Fair is among the events that changed this," Yuan Xiaoyi, a translator and professor at the East China Normal University, writes in an essay for China Reading Weekly, reminiscing about her experience of attending the fair as both a reader and an author.

"By creating a cultural event and a cultural brand, Shanghai boosted the impact of bookstores, which had been on the decline. The fair made books and authors accessible to the public," Yuan adds.

"Thanks to my long-term work in the field of world literature, I am fortunate to be a regular visitor to the Shanghai International Literary Week, where I can feel, hear about and discover new books, new people, and new literature with other readers," she writes.