Booksellers, authors, scholars, artists and publishers around the globe gathered at the 2019 International Bookstore Forum, opened on Nov.1 at Chengdu Fang Suo Commune, one of the 14 most beautiful bookstores in the world, and joined in the discussion on the theme of "The Era of Curation".

During the 3-day forum, attendants at the event shared their experiences and ideas on the bookstore operation, on how bookstores shape urban life.

France hosted the discussions of this year as the Guest of Honor of the forum. Britain was the Guest of Honor of last year.

At the opening ceremony, Nicholas Barley, director of Edinburgh International Book Festival expounded his perspectives on how a city becomes a Book Festival City. According to him, the success of the Edinburgh International Book Festival helped a lot to improve the cohesion of the city. "As far as I know, Chengdu is a good city to hold a book festival as the city has the special quality to bring people together and enjoy the atmosphere."

Since 2016, the Forum has been held successfully for 3 years. 2019 Chengdu International Bookstore Forum is an intellectual quest into bookstores, art museums, public cultural spaces and city's cultural life to see how their "curatorial" mindset is engaged to exemplify creativity and ideas, link up works, authors, institutions, communities and the public, and to update the local appeal with cultural narrativity and curatorial vitality to stimulate urban renewal.