[Photo provided to China Daily]

Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem that sold 160,000 copies in English since being printed will be released in German soon. It is the first book of his famous trilogy to be published in the language.

Liu told his audience at the fair that he was seeking connections between the infinite universe and people. In true form, he went: "If we invite all human beings to a concert, the Pudong area in Shanghai would be enough to contain them; and if we turned all humans into a meat ball, the diameter of the ball would be no longer than nine kilometers.

"What I'm doing is offering fantasies," he added.

The Confucius Institute also held an exhibition on children's picture books from China at the fair.

Jing Wei, its deputy chief executive, while introducing the exhibition said: "We have such a diversity of picture books in China. They tell the audience about how we cope with nature, and where we are from and are going (to)."