The 2020 Shanghai Book Fair kicked off on Wednesday with more than 300 online reading events and 100-plus new books making their debut on online platforms for readers unable to attend in person. Highlights of this year's fair include exhibitions and books recording the battle against the novel coronavirus epidemic and China's friendship with other countries during the pandemic. In the main pavilion there is an exhibition about publications related to the COVID-19 fight, including “A Brief History of Anti-Epidemic, Oral Account of the Witnesses” and US author John M. Barry's “The Great Influenza.” Guide books on COVID-19 prevention and books about the heroic medical workers and many others contributing to the fight are also on display. The diary of Zha Qiongfang, a doctor from Renji Hospital who was dispatched to support Hubei Province, is among the exhibits. Foreign versions of three new books on the fight against coronavirus in China were released on Wednesday morning. The books, published by New Star Press and overseas publishing houses, were created at different stages of the battle. In "China, We Got Your Back," an Israeli author and Chinese journalist recorded the 384 hours during which a ton of medical supplies was collected in Israel and delivered from Tel Aviv to Huanggang in Wuhan Province. The Hebrew version is published by Israeli publishing house Sella Meir and the English version by UK-based Alpha Science International. "Under the pandemic, we had encountered two circumstances that we've never met before — the spatial isolation and misunderstanding in cultural diffusion. So we decided to show the countries' tight connection, which is especially precious during this period, by recording an Israeli’s campaign of bringing medical supplies from faraway Israel to coronavirus-hit China," said Liu Qi, a representative of YChina, which focuses on expat life in China where the Israeli author belongs. “China, We Stand With You!" has 35 foreign experts from 25 countries who stayed or returned to China during the pandemic telling their stories. Its English version is published by Alpha Science International. Consisting of 40 articles, more than 300 pictures and 12 short videos, the book shows what happened in China during the pandemic from a foreign perspective. One of the authors, Gorshkova Olena with Beijing-based magazine China Pictorial who has been in China since 2011, said she saw Chinese people were highly connected with each other and working together to defeat the virus. "People like the medics, police and those with the service center of each community are working very hard. The elderly who live alone and the children have been taken good care of and well protected. These moments all moved me.” The third book is the Japanese version of local infectious disease expert Zhang Wenhong's guide book on epidemic prevention and control. Xu Jiong, head of city's press and publication administration, said at the opening ceremony that the three books tell stories about foreigners' assistance for China, mutual help and the trust between foreigners and the Chinese people. They all reflect China's working together with the other countries to combat the virus. On Wednesday afternoon, Fudan University Press released its new book on the influence of the coronavirus on the economy and solutions to it. It talks about issues such as how to deal with the pandemic's effect on the economy, how to resume work and production steadily, how to realize the goals of socio-economic development under such circumstances and how to improve the city's public governance capacity in related industries during the "post-coronavirus era.” "Books about the anti-epidemic campaign have drawn much attention in this book fair," said Jiao Yang, Party secretary of Fudan University. "During this fight, people from Fudan University have made great performances in medical treatment, scientific research, public services and popularization of science and health knowledge. They also thought about the restoration of the economy in the post-coronavirus era and produced this book.” During the pandemic, many readers couldn’t buy books at a bookstore and e-books and audiobooks become their new preferences. Shanghai-based online reading app Spiritual Wealth Club has built a "Future Study Room" in the Future Reading Pavilion, which is at the book fair for the first time, with capsule-shaped reading spaces and tablets for people to read online. Dragonfly FM, a mobile audio content app, has decorated its booth as a "shikumen," or stone-gate house — a traditional Shanghai-style building — to promote its audio program "Stories of Shanghai Architecture." It lets people learn the stories behind local historical buildings. For teenagers and children, CITIC Press Group, which offered more than 800 online classes and 800 stories free on its app during the pandemic, is providing audiobooks, animation videos and audio and video courses at the fair.