A former expert for the China International Publishing Group, she clearly saw the drawbacks of foreign language Chinese publications. "The translations are not so good," she said, adding that “promotions and advertisements are not ideal, either. Though all press conduct business with regards to copyrights, they don't make full use of it,” said Claudia with a tone of pity.

At the same time, Claudia thinks China imports too few books. It is necessary for both the China National Publications Import and Export Corporation and China International Book Trading Corporation to expand their importing businesses.

The German Book Information Center in Beijing was set up in 1998 in order to provide support and sponsorship for the German Foreign Ministry. It is engaged in a lot of business activities such as introducing German books to China, finding translators, helping publishers to buy copyright, and training Chinese within the publishing field. The center has close relations with the Frankfurt Book Fair and provides consultation services to Chinese publishers. Through its work, China has been buying an increasing number of copyrights from Germany and received a greater amount of training from German publication experts.

Claudia, who majored in Sinology in Hamburg University and once a book trader in Germany, said she enjoys her work very much at the Book Information Center in Beijing. She was happy to see the center established and is pleased to witness its continued expansion.

Having contributed much to the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and German book industries, Claudia will soon leave for New York to start a new career with the United Nations.

(china.org.cn by Li Jinhui October 8, 2002)