CRI听力:China as the Guest of Honor at 2015 BookExpo America, First in History

The opening day of this year's BookExpo America has seen thousands of readers line up to get their hands on the thousands of books on display.

"This is like one of the main places where I come to see books from foreign presses so I'm really excited to see some of those."

Thousands of publishers from more than 80 different countries are gathered in New York for the annual event.

For the first time since its establishment in 1947, China has been invited as the Guest of Honor.

More than 500 professionals representing around 150 Chinese publishing companies have formed the largest international delegation to ever attend the event.

More than 10,000 books are on display, of which, one-fifth have English versions.

Liu Cixin's fantasy "The Three-Body Problem" is one of them.

"I can see and feel the progress that China has made in introducing our culture to the world. From my perspective, I wouldn't have imagined my book would have been a good seller in the US market. But now, that is exactly what's happening."

There are more than 20 well-known names from Chinese literature attending the event in New York, including writers Liu Zhenyun, Mai Jia, and Feng Tang.

They are scheduled to sit on a series of panels at this year's BookExpo.

Shirley Young is the Chair of US-China Cultural Institute.

She says the BEA is a great platform to help expose the world to Chinese culture.

"This is a very important initiative….If the objective is for the world to understand China better, we have to use these very large platforms so I think it's a very good investment on China's part to have become the guest of honor this time at the book fair."

The Chinese delegation will take part in more than 50 events at this year's BookExpo America event.

One of the events includes the launch of a digital version of the Chinese President's book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China."

For CRI, I'm He Fei in New York.