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S1 Sept.26,2011 S1
S2 Sept.26,2011S2
S3 Sept.26,2011 S3
S4 Sept.26,2011S4
China’s Publishing Industry: Getting Bigger and Stronger
The reform and opening-up policy
of 1978 has had an enormous impact
on China’s publishing industry, and
recent years have witnessed even more
development within the industry.
One significant development lies
in the new types of publishing entities
that have emerged in the Chinese
marketplace. In total, 528 for-profit
publishing houses, 265 independent
audio/video and digital publishing
units, and more than 3,000 state-
owned Xinhua bookstores have been
restructured to form different state-
owned (or national) publishing groups.
Some of these groups have already
exerted their influence and dominance
both a t home and abroad, wh i le
others are beginning to f lex their
muscles. There are now three major
national publishing and media groups,
namely China Publishing Group, China
Education Publishing & Media Group,
and China Science and Technology
Publishing & Media Group. Some of
these enterprises have been very
successful in listing their companies on
the stock exchange and making sizeable
investments in both local and overseas
markets.
Cu l tu re- re la ted indust ry has
become an important part of the
C h i n e s e e c o n o m y. P u b l i s h i n g
companies no longer function solely as
disseminators of information from the
Reported by Feng Wei and Ren Dianshun Translated by Yang Guishan
government, but have the responsibility
to promote cultural development and
economic growth. By implementing
progressive changes to the publishing
industry—for instance, realignment
according to market strengths and
advocating an internationalization
strategy—China is fast becoming a
powerful publishing nation on the global
stage.
The next f ive years wi l l be a
crucial time for Chinese publishing.
The promotion of the cultural industry
within the country and abroad has
created tremendous opportunities for
the publishing players. At the same
time, many factors have come together
to provide the impetus needed by the
publishing industry to go beyond the
Chinese shores. These include the rise
of China on the global stage, the push
of “going-out” (internationalization)
pol icy, stronger domest ic support
(particularly in financial incentives and
market capitalization), fast-growing
domestic and overseas markets, and
better technology that makes it easier
for Chinese publishers to connect with
the rest of the world.
It is worth noting that since China
officially joined the Universal Copyright
Convention and the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works, i ts publ ishing industry has
benefited from increased collaboration
with overseas partners. In recent years,
the political, educational, and business
communities within China and beyond
Director of GAPP Liu Binjie and Wang Jianzhou, president of China Mobile, signed a Strategic Cooperation Memorandum to Develop the Digital Publishing Industry.
S5 Sept.26,2011 S5
have spoken favorably of the significant
cultural strategy that has been adopted
by the central government, which is
to expand domestic market, obtain
capitalization and vigorously push the
“going-out” policy.
State-Owned Publishing Companies: Restructuring and
Going PublicThe move to get l isted on the
stock exchange is gathering momentum
among state-owned publishing entities.
Those that have been listed are set to
expand their business domestically and
globally while focusing on producing
qua l i ty works and s t rengthen ing
existing collaboration with overseas
partners. Given the rising number of
publicly listed publishing enterprises,
it is becoming clear that the Chinese
book industry will be shaped by market
forces, aka the invisible hands.
Boom in Going PublicIn this, the first year of the 12th
Five-Year Plan period (2011–2015),
state-owned publishing enterprises
have already started l isting in the
A-share market through backdoor
l is t ings. A case in point: publ ic ly
listed company ST Yuanfa announced
that it would purchase part of Hubei
Changjiang Publishing Group Co., Ltd.
and its 15 subsidiary companies—
valued at RMB2.5 billion—in a deal
that would allow the publishing group
to branch into the equity market.
However, this deal also marked the end
of backdoor listing onto the Shanghai
Stock Exchange.
S ince then , more pub l i sh ing
enterpr ises have made a beel ine
for the equity market. At the end of
2010, Fan Weiping, general director
of Department of Publication Industry
Development (which is part of the General
Administration of Press and Publication,
or GAPP), said that investors would see
a new batch of restructured publishing
enterprises with excellent performances
domestically and abroad. In fact, some
of the Beijing-based national publishing
giants are being regarded as rising stars
in the capital market.
Three months ago, two national
groups—China Science and Technology
Publishing & Media Group and China
Science and Technology Publishing &
Media Group Co., Ltd.—were officially
establ ished, and i t was prompt ly
announced that both would seek public
l ist ing in 2012. Meanwhi le, China
Education Publishing & Media Group
has been fast-forwarding its plan to get
listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange
by the f i rst half of next year. Nie
Zhenning, chairman of China Publishing
Group, said early this year that his
group would list as a separate company
by the first quarter of next year at
the latest. Many established Chinese
publ ishing groups, he added, are
seeking to list as separate companies
instead of as one big enterprise. China
Publishing Group, for instance, has 14
subsidiaries and 81 holding companies
as wel l as various joint stock and
affiliated companies.
Severa l l oca l (o r p rov inc ia l )
pub l i sh ing groups a re a l so busy
preparing for public listing. On March
28 , J i angsu Phoen i x Pub l i s h i ng
& Med ia Co., L td . comp le ted i t s
business registration in Nanjing, an
important step towards initial public
offering (IPO). On the other hand,
Zhongyuan Publishing & Media Group
injected RM1.369 billion into Xin’an
for a backdoor listing deal back in
2010. Hebei Publishing Group and
Shandong Publishing Group have also
restructured to become joint-stock
companies, and are now preparing for
IPOs. More companies are expected
to travel down the same path in the
next five years.
Effective policy plays a major
role in encouraging more publishing
companies to go public. In April 2009,
GAPP issued detailed guidelines on
how to further reform the press and
publishing industry. The guidelines
put forth the plan to build six or seven
publishing giants,with assets and sales
revenues exceeding RMB10 billion,
within the next three to five years.
Going public is one of the methods to
realize this plan. When news of the
backdoor listing of Hubei Changjiang
was announced, ST Yuanfa’s stock
was so popular its price jumped for
several consecutive trading days.
Based on the closing price on March
25, the market value of this group has
already exceeded RMB10 billion even
before it went public. (RMB10 billion
is approximately $1.6 billion; at press
time, there are about 6.4RMB to the
dollar.)
The rush to l i s t w i l l p rompt
small-scale companies or those with
limited resources to improve their
operations and set higher goals. As
usual, enterprises that have already
been publ ic ly l isted or which are
preparing to do so will have first-
mover advantage. As Wang Guike,
chairman of South Publishing & Media
S6 Sept.26,2011S6
Group, said, “The capital market is
changing China’s publishing industry,
and those who seize the opportunities
to move ahead through bigger capital
injection through public listing will be at
the forefront of the industry.”
Ambitious plans and dreamsWith a public listing, key publishing
enterprises will emerge stronger and
have access to more financial resources.
So far, the blueprint for the publishing
industry in the 12th Five-Year Plan has
shown great results.
Investors are invariably attracted
to the performance of listed publishing
companies. By the end of the 12th Five-
Year Plan, the annual income of Time
Publishing and Media Co., Ltd. will
reach between RMB6 and RMB7 billion,
and Chinese Universe Publishing and
Media Co., Ltd. will achieve its goal of
hitting RMB20 billion in terms of sales
revenues.
Currently, many of these listed
companies have focused on new
media and digital publishing as ways of
gaining capital investment. Early this
year, China South Publishing & Media
Group signed a contract with Huawei
Technologies Co., Ltd., to restructure
Tianwen Digital Media so that it is
equipped to grab a greater share of the
digital products market. Time Publishing
and Chinese Universe Publishing will
also put more resources into their
digital publishing business and seek out
strategic partners with digital publishing
and new media experience.
Amassing cultural assets is one
goal that all listed publishing companies
share. Chinese Universe Publishing, for
instance, announced on August 11 that
it would invest RMB1.3 billion in five
major projects such as Xinhua Culture
City and Modern Publishing Logistics,
wh i ch focuses on d i s semina t ion
and production of cultural products.
Another RMB200 mil l ion wil l go to
its wholly owned subsidiary Jiangxi
Xinhua Distribution Group, and toward
restructuring Xinhua Joint Distribution
Co., Ltd. As for Time Publishing, it will
pour a sizeable amount of money into
building its cyber-port—a creative digital
community covering 40 acres that will
be populated by technology and digital
content tenants.
Meanwhi le , Ch ina Pub l i sh ing
Group will purchase a provincial-level
publishing company after its IPO.
China Education Publishing and Media
Group has also indicated its intention
to seek potential companies—both
local and abroad—for a merger in
order to raise capital. On the other
hand, China South Media is focused
on speeding up its restructuring and
putting its efforts into high-quality
traditional publishing projects and
unique publications over the next five
years. At Time Publishing, the plan
is to split the company’s assets for
individual listings, and the progress
has already started.
Many of these listed publishing
ent i t ies have also indicated their
ambition to create a few more listed
companies during the 12th Five-Year
Plan. Gong Shuguang, chairman of
Hunan Publishing Group Investment
Co.,Ltd. said that, by the end of 2015,
his group will have created two new
l isted companies focused on new
technologies and real estate, which
will have more than RMB20 billion and
RMB26 billion in sales revenues and
total assets, respectively.
According to Liu Binjie, director of
GAPP, the total output of the publishing
industry will reach RMB2,940 billion
by the end of 2015. The big number
and the rush to market capitalization
S7 Sept.26,2011 S7
will definitely push more companies
to rest ructure and become more
professional.
Market forces at workThe market cap i ta l i za t ion o f
various state-owned enterprises has
brought about one significant change:
the balance of executive power against
free market forces. Presently, these two
forces have combined to push China’s
publishing industry forward. According
t o Gong Shuguang , t he c en t ra l
government has already divided the
publishing industry into three different
levels. The first level is made up of four
or five national publishing groups with
the same number of provincial groups.
These companies will occupy 70% of
the book market. The second level
contains small professional publishing
groups , w i th 10% of the market
share, while the final level comprises
miscellaneous publishing institutions,
including privately owned publishing
companies.
For Cheng Sanguo, chief advisor
of Baidao New Publishing Institute, the
areas controlled by executive power—
textbook publishing, for instance—will
continue to exist for the foreseeable
future. “So, state-owned publishing
enterprises will be further classified
into three groups. The first group deals
with textbook adoption and publishing
business. The second group focuses
on general books in addition to some
textbooks, while the third group is
made up of listed companies that are
the result of mergers and acquisitions
(M&A).”
As a matter of fact, M&A in the
Chinese publishing industry is no longer
news. There have been many mergers
and acquisitions, such as between
Jiangxi Publishing Group and China
Peace Publishing House, Jilin Publishing
Group and Chinese Business Association
Publishing Co., Ltd., and Beijing Normal
University Publishing Group and Anhui
University Press. Going forward, M&A
and market capitalization are likely
to be the two strongest trends in the
Chinese publishing industry. Market
capitalization will determine the price
of the M&A and motivate companies to
pursue high-quality resources.
Over the next five years, several
ma jo r pub l i sh ing compan ies are
expected to break into smaller entities
and thereby redistribute their resources.
However, there are several challenges
that will surface. The M&A activities
will create some big companies, raising
the fear of industry monopoly. Large
publishing enterprise, after being listed
through governmental support, will exert
tremendous influence and bargaining
power. They may go on to form new
alliances and make new rules. But this will
cause the big publishing enterprises to
have more clout.
So while the growth of publishing
enterprises is good and beneficial to the
overall industry, that growth also sparks
fears that some enterprises will become
too big and too powerful. Presently,
there are no forces to counter the rapid
rise of major publishing enterprises and
any disadvantages that they may cause.
One industry insider has gone so far as
to say that small and niche publishers
will die in the face of these emerging
large enterprises. And this, he said, will
create big trouble, especially when the
market has only so few (loud) voices as
it is.
But Gong Shuguang is convinced
that the emergence of big powers in
the publishing industry will not diminish
the richness of China’s culture and
literature. “This is because, after all has
been said and done, the industry is still
going to bow to market forces of supply
and demand. As long as there are
varied demands, the supply will retain
its diversity.”
The Development of Digital Publishing
“ The mos t popu l a r book on
CMRead—Ch ina ’s mob i l e phone
e-reading platform—has been viewed
more than 1.2 billion times, makes a
profit of RMB15 million, and earns the
author RMB1.7 million, “ said Wang
Jianzhou, president of China Mobile,
at the Beijing International Book Fair
forum on August 31. This is exciting
news for the Chinese digital publishing
industry. But it is disheartening to note
that the book is of poor quality, and
is published by Cloudary Corporation,
an online community-driven literary
platform.
Last year, GAPP issued several
guidelines to accelerate the development
of Chinese digital publishing industry, and
lay down rules and tips on developing
e-books. This year, the number of e-books
for mobile phones has increased rapidly
and many e-commerce Web sites have
started to offer e-books. These provide a
good foundation for the development of
the industry, but much still needs to be
done.
Offering e-books on mobile phones
remains one of the most attractive
e-publishing models. Statistics from the
Ministry of Industry and Information
S8 Sept.26,2011S8
Technology, released on July 25, show
that the number of people reading on
mobile phones has increased by 229%,
to 57 million, within the last six months.
Even though mobile-based e-reading
was made available only within the last
year, every month the platform boasts
45 million readers and earns RMB0.1
billion.
“I also read on my mobile phone,”
said Xi Guohua, the new secretary
of the Party Leadership Group and
vice-president of China Mobile, at the
contract-signing ceremony between his
company and GAPP on June 5.
The contract is not unique. On
June 21, 2010, GAPP had a strategic
memorandum o f coope ra t i on t o
promote digital publishing with another
telecommunication company, China
Telecom.
On July 5, Liu Binjie, director of
GAPP, and Wang Jianzhou, president of
China Mobile, signed a memorandum
of cooperat ion to develop d ig i ta l
publishing industry in Beijing. According
to the memorandum, GAPP will work
with China Mobi le to prov ide the
required technology and digital services
to Chinese publ ishing companies.
GAPP will also help publishing houses
collaborate with China Mobile, assist
CMRead in building and operating the
digital reading platform, and get more
e-books onto CMRead.
Xi Guohua said that China Mobile,
as a major strategic partner of GAPP,
will provide the necessary support to
get China’s digital publishing industry
up and running while operating within
the country’s legal framework and
market rules.
Private hands in the e-book industry
This year, the biggest news in the
digital publishing industry concerns
China’s biggest e-commerce company,
Jingdong Mall, an online retailer. The
new company that emerged from
this buy-over is called 360buy, and it
is going all out to provide discounts
on printed books while putting more
e-books in its mix. Meanwhile, two
other well-known book and electronics
retailers, Dangdang and Joyo Amazon,
are quietly building up their e-book
services as well.
In August, Li Guoqing, general
director of Dangdang, announced that
the company is moving into the e-book
arena, and will work on reducing the
price of e-readers that it offers through
its Web site by about RMB500 (about
$80). The latter is likely to increase
sales of the e-reader and encourage
more e-book sales. Dangdang and
Joyo Amazon have already collaborated
with many publishers and are moving
aggressively into the e-book segment.
Li Guoqing said that his company is
working on streamlining e-book pricing
and profit-sharing with publishers.
Basically, Dangdang gets 40% while
the publisher gets 60%. Negotiations
to get the pricing right have started.
Dangdang is hoping that publishers will
price their e-books reasonably, as high
prices that are too high will of course
drive away customers.
Joyo Amazon has stricter terms
than those offered by Dangdang. It
takes 55%, with publishers getting
45%. Joyo Amazon controls the pricing
also. In fact, once the agreement is
made between Joyo Amazon and the
publisher, the latter must provide the
retailer with all content and digital
rights. Additionally, if Joyo Amazon
creates the digital format, the profit-
sharing ratio will be adjusted to 60:40,
as Joyo is beating the production costs.
Over at 360buy, there is no clear
indication yet if it will move into the
e-book market. But many industry
watchers say that it is just a matter
of time. Suffice to say that with these
three big e-commerce companies
looking into e-book retai l ing, the
Chinese digital publishing industry will
get a considerable boost.
Flourishing digital publicationsBesides partnering w i t h t e l e com-
munications companies, GAPP has also
established various initiatives to help
publishers build their digital publishing
units. In July 2011, GAPP approved nine
new national-level digital publishing
units in addition to those in Shanghai,
Chongqing, Hangzhou, Hunan, Shaanxi,
Hubei, Tianjin, and Guangdong. More
publishers have sent in their requests
and proposa ls , and are awai t ing
approval from GAPP.
In total, GAPP is looking to create
around 10 national digital publishing
bases—or digital parks—by the end of
the 12th Five-Year Plan in 2015. GAPP is
determined to increase the gross output
of China’s digital publications, with a
target for the segment set at 25%
of the country’s total book market. By
2020, GAPP aims to make sure that all
publishing houses digitize their lists and
have more digital products and services
in the market.
However, several provinces have
been acting according to their own five-
S9 Sept.26,2011 S9
year plans. Shanghai, for instance,
has a buzzing digital publishing and
new media industry. At Shanghai Press
and Publication Bureau, its 12th Five-
Year Plan contains, among others, the
establishment of an expert group to
promote digital publishing industry.
Shanghai has a lso p laced d ig i ta l
publishing at the top of its to-do list. In
fact, the Shanghai provincial government
has supported numerous e-publishing
projects, including Xinhua e-Bookstore
and e-schoolbag. By the end of 2015,
Shanghai aims to have three to five
leading digital publishing companies
with annual revenues exceeding RMB2
billion, and to grow the digital publishing
market to hit RMB70 billion.
Over in Hunan Province, one of
China’s important cultural centers,
d ig i ta l publ ish ing is a lso an i tem
in its own Five-Year Plan. In fact,
the provincial government wants to
develop print and digital publishing
simultaneously, and to have digital
publishing revenues hitting RMB5 billion
by 2015. More than 100 projects are
in the pipeline at its digital publishing
base, and these include products for
mobile phone, educational products,
and e-commerce initiatives.
Ove ra l l , t he Ch inese d i g i t a l
publ ishing industry wi l l no doubt
change and grow over time, thanks to
government support and the inevitable
introduction of new technologies. For
now, there is no clear leader among
the publishing companies in terms of
digital publishing, and the income from
digital products remains insignificant.
Admittiedly, progress so far has been
rather slow, especially compared with
the rapid rates of change in other
countries. However, as is clear, the
market potential is huge.
Certainly, the Chinese industry
can learn a good deal from overseas
publishing companies, whose industries
are far into their own digital revolutions
in both products and e-commerce. As
the digital parks and the pioneering
provincial efforts continue, there is
great potential for growth.
Privately Owned Houses and Government SupportPrivately owned publishing companies
are fast becoming a new force in China’s
book industry. There are more than 5,000
such companies right now working on book
packaging. Such companies do not have
the right to publish books, but by partnering
with state-owned publishing enterprises,
they can grow and play a major role in the
industry.
I n r e c e n t y e a r s , p r i va t e o r
independent publishing companies have
been given a tremendous boost by the
government. Instead of focusing on
simple production of books, they have
broadened their business models to
include media production and digital
publishing.
The right to publish will take some time to happen
Since 2009, a series of guidelines
have been issued that offers private
pub l i s h i ng c ompan i e s a way t o
recognition and operational legitimacy.
Officials from various government
bod ies a l l ind icate the i r suppor t
for private publ ishing. Dur ing the
National People’s Congress and the
Chinese People’s Political Consultative
C o n f e r e n c e i n 2 0 1 1 , A l l - C h i n a
Federation of Industry and Commerce
put forth a proposal to gradually open
publishing rights to private publishing
houses. Its intention is to promote and
support such publishing entities.
Several suggestions were made
in the proposal. Firstly, issuance of
ISBNs can be made after GAPP has
evaluated the private publishing house
that will handle the specific publication.
Secondly, GAPP can set the strategic
One of China's largest digital publishing cloud computing centers, the Tianjin National Digital Publishing Base, began operations in August.
S10 Sept.26,2011S10
plan for the development of private
publishing companies in order to define
the industry and bring these companies
into the government’s national and
local five-year plans. This way, the
government will be able to offer more
support to private publishing houses
and build a regulatory framework that
promotes fair competition within the
book industry. Experts from both state-
owed and private publishing companies
have unanimously agreed that it is a
matter of time before private publishing
companies are given the rights to
publish. So the central government
might as well set the path and point
them to the right direction.
The growth o f pr iva te ly own
publishing houses is obvious to all. Since
the establishment of Beijing Publishing
Innovation Park a year ago, for instance,
32 companies have moved into it. Six
are digital publishing companies and
the rest, traditional publishing houses
including Beijing Tiechu Culture and Book
Co., Ltd., Beijing Time New Classics Co.,
Ltd., Ltd. and Beijing Thinker Culture and
Communication Co., Ltd.. The park offers
favorable rental and tax policies. Private
publishing companies within this park can
have their name printed on books that
they publish. Granting limited rights to
private publishing companies is a good
start to fair competition and the growth
of the overall book industry.
Capital injection creates bigger and stronger privately own
publishing companiesRecent months have seen private
book enterprises expanding in size
through publ ic l is t ing, f inancing,
and collaboration with state-owned
publishing companies. The listing of
Hunan Tangel Publishing Co., Ltd. is
one such example.
After i ts successful l is t ing on
the Shenzhen Stock Exchange last
December, Hunan Tangel Publishing
made its appearance at the Beijing
Book Transaction Fair—one of China’s
top three exhibit ions for the book
industry—and created a lot of buzz.
Chairman Xiao Zhihong said that the
company would hit annual revenue
and profit margin of RMB2 billion and
RMB100 million, respectively, within the
next three years. He is striving to build
the company into a first-class provider
of publications and cultural products
for the youth market. The success and
growth of Hunan Tangel has prompted
many others to follow suit.
Chen Liming, general manager
of 10-year-old Beijing Classic & Wise
Culture Development Co., Ltd., is
planning to complete the company’s
f i n a n c i n g p l a n w i t h i n t h e n e x t
five years. Beijing Thinker Culture
Communications, Shanghai 99 Reader
Culture Industry Co., Ltd., and Beijing
Mediatime Books Co are all planning to
go down the same path.
Last year, a few private enterprises
gained capital injection from outside
the book industry. Shandong Century
Jinbang Book Co., Ltd. received RMB1
billion while Xiron Culture obtained
RMB100 mi l l ion from the venture
capital company Dinghui. Shen Haobo,
president of Xiron Culture, believes that
obtaning capital injection is necessary
in the deve lopment of any g iven
industry, and that by attracting such
investments, the publishing industry will
become more competitive and stable.
Collaborating with state-owned
publishing enterprises is another way
forward for private publishing houses.
Several collaborations have emerged
in the past few months. On January 7, A building in the Beijing Publishing Innovation Park.
S11 Sept.26,2011 S11
Beijing Jiuzhou Yingcai Books Planning
Co., Ltd. and Beijing Publishing Group
Co., Ltd. established Beijing Education
Holding. Less then two weeks later,
China South Publishing & Media Group
Co., Ltd. and Beijing Booky Publishing
Inc. signed a strategic cooperation
agreement to set up China South Booky
Publishing Inc.
Col laborations between state-
owned and private enterprises aside,
these new companies are expanding
t h e i r s c o pe b e yond t r a d i t i o n a l
publishing. A case in point: Beijing
Fonghong Media Co., Ltd., which was
China’s first collaboration between
state-owned and private enterprises,
has been wel l funded and is now
reorganized into two companies—
Chongqing Decision Books & Media Co.,
Ltd. and Tianjin Ifengspace Media Co.,
Ltd.. The goal of spinning off into two
companies is to diversify their platforms
for content, going beyond print.
“From single-book collaboration
in the past to project cooperation and
now capital-based agreement, state-
owned and private book enterprises
have witnessed a major shift in the book
industry. Such cooperation combines
resources, making the whole greater
than the sum of its parts,” said Bao Hong
of China Press and Publishing Institue.
Huang Junqing, chairman of Booky
Publishing Inc, believes that the future
development of the Chinese publishing
industry will be highly centralized. Private
publishing enterprises must become
big and strong if they want to gain a
foothold in the cultural industry. Such
collaboration gives private companies
legitimacy and a proper identity. Then,
the companies will have the foundation
and framework to expand into other
areas, such as film, television, and
digital publishing.
At the same time, some private
publishing companies have focused
the i r attent ion and resources on
producing blockbusters in order to
maximize profits. And blockbusters can
then translate into successes in other
media. Beijing Thinker Co’s executive
director Wang Xiaodong said, “The
book rights for hit TV series Tie Lihua
and movie Let the Bullets Fly belong
to us, and it is natural for us to move
onto film- and TV-based projects.” Both
Fonghong Media Co., Ltd. and Booky
Publishing Inc are preparing to set up
their own media production companies
by leveraging their content.
For privately owned publishing
enterprises, digital publishing offers yet
another promising field. “Even though
there are lots of uncertainties about digital
publishing, especially about its profitability,
digital publishing’s impact on traditional
publishing is obvious to everybody. In
order to survive and grow, we are willing
to try new ways to forge our future,” said
Mao Wenfeng, chairman of Jiangsu Keyi
Publishing & Distribution Group Co., Ltd..
Many private publishing companies
have already placed digital publishing
at the top of their agenda. In March,
Jiangsu Keyi Group Co Lt and Jiangsu
Sanyuan Education Co., Ltd. signed an
agreement to invest RMB200 million to
jointly introduce new technologies to the
educational sector and take their first
step into digital publishing. Shandong
Spark International Media Group has
even announced that digital publishing
would determine the company’s survival,
as seen from its new slogan, “Survival
of spark lies in digital.” Lu Jinbo, general
manager of Wan Rong Book Development
Co., Ltd., said, “The Internet has changed
China in the past 10 years. And digital
publishing will change the face of the
book industry in the same way over the
next 10 years. As such, our company will
gradually increase our digital products to
stay relevant.”
P r i va t e l y owned pub l i s h i n g
enterprises are constantly evolving
and expanding. Their new off ices
and presence in newly established
industr ia l parks are indicat ive of
t he i r g row th and deve l opmen t .
Jiangsu Keyi Group, for instance, is
building a cultural and creative park
in the eastern suburbs of Nanjing.
In Guangdong Province, Zhihong
Educat ion Group and i ts partners
are construct ing Impression Qidu
Cultural Industrial Park in the high-
tech deve lopment zone in Z ibo,
while Everight Publishers Co., Ltd. is
establishing a Creative Industrial Park in
Dongguan. As well, Jinxing International
Education Group is constructing Jilin
Education Publishing Industrial Park
in Tiedong district in Siping. These
industrial parks are almost all financed
by these pr ivate enterpr ises with
support from the local government.
“For private publishing companies,
the right to publish is a restriction. But
the right to publish is tied to national
policies and governmental principles,
and that is beyond private enterprises’
control. However, the government has
given them sufficient room to grow and
develop. For now, the best way forward
is for these privately owned companies
to improve themselves and make their
marks.” said Bao Hong.
S12 Sept.26,2011S12
China Publishing Group: Focusing onLong-Term International Strategy
One of the national entities in the
Chinese book industry, China Publishing
Group, takes its role in promoting
Chinese culture and literature abroad
very seriously. Liu Bogen, vice-president
of China Publishing Group, recently said
that his group would seek to leverage
the company’s publishing resources
while continuing to boost China’s “go-
out,” or international, program.
The yea r 2011 marks a new
milestone in China Publishing Group’s
ambitious efforts. In the first half of
this year, the group sold the rights
to more than 100 titles, including Ai
Reported by Feng Wei Translated by Yang Guishan
Mi’s The Love under the Hawthorn
Tree (published by The People’s
Literature Publishing House), New
Problems in China’s Copyright
Challenge (The Commercial Press),
Grandma’s Quotations (Zhonghua
Book Company), and Robin Li:
Baidu’s King of Search (Modern
Press) . “Wi th the he lp of our
overseas subsidiaries in more than
10 countries, we have also held
a series of book fairs in May and
July in the U.S., Hong Kong and
Macao to celebrate the centennial
of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution," said
Liu. "This is the second time our
group organized such event outside
of China. The first one—called
‘Exhibition of Excellent Books from
China Publishing Group’—was held
in 2007. We have also taken advantage
of Xinhua Bookstore’s U.S. branches to
create the buzz for big events such as
these book fairs,” Liu added.
“In order to form a truly global and
wide-ranging international program to
spread Chinese culture and literature,
China Publishing Group will focus on
two specific goals: increase rights sales
while adding more overseas branches,
and improve accessibility to Chinese
culture while popularizing major works,”
added Liu. “What we have achieved in
the past nine months is just the very
beginning of our efforts.”
Ch i na Pub l i s h i ng G roup w i l l
prioritize four categories of books when
recommending Chinese works for selling
rights to overseas partners. Said Liu, “The
first category belongs to bestselling and
high-quality books that have been produced
by our major publishing companies. The
second one involves series by famous
authors or well-known personalities.
The third category are books about the
developments and changes in modern
China’s economy and politics, and the last
category are books about China itself.”
R i gh t s sa l e s have i n c reased
significantly at China Publishing in recent
months. The Love Under the Hawthorn
Tree, for instance, has been sold to 11
countries, including the U.K., France,
Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway,
Greece, Sweden, Canada, Japan, and
Taiwan, and is now available in 10
languages. (The big screen adaptation,
directed by famed Chinese director
Zhang Yimou, premiered several months
ago under the name Under the Hawthorn
Tree .) This book is one of the group’s
two bestsellers in terms of rights sales.
The other title is Yu Dan’s Confucius
from the Heart , originally published by
Zhonghua Book Company. “When it
comes to choosing books for export,
classical works that are presented in
attractive formats are our first choice.
Works that focus on fundamental values
such as honesty, kindness and inner
Liu Bogen, v-p, China Publishing
S13 Sept.26,2011 S13
beauty come next. And even though we
prefer to export bestsellers that do well
domestically, we have to consider the
international audience, looking for titles
that can straddle both markets,” added
Liu.
Recent months have also seen
China Publishing Group taking another
big step in its “going-out” program
by exploring synergies within its own
publishing companies. In 2010, People’s
Literature Publishing House, known for
its long-established relationships with
various multinational publishing houses,
was chosen to spearhead the group’s co-
publishing program. The program is aimed
at putting together writers, illustrators,
translators, and publishers from China and
various countries to produce high-quality
works. People’s Literature Publishing
House and its partners will invite the best
writers from China and from the partners’
countries to create two titles under the
same theme or format, and bind the
works in one volume. This will then
be published in China and the partner
country in two languages.
A case in point: In August 2010, a
Sino-Greek publishing cooperation was
signed to produce and distribute two
children’s books in a cultural exchange
project. According to the agreement,
two children’s books will be published:
one written by a Greek author and
illustrated by a Chinese illustrator, and
the other written by a Chinese author
in collaboration with a Greek illustrator.
Both books, in one volume, will be
published simultaneously in Greece and
China, and this, it is hoped, will help
bring both ancient cultures together.
Another important step taken by
China Publishing Group is to establish
joint ventures with top publishing
companies around the globe. Last year,
it set up four joint venture publishing
companies with Xinhua Bookstores:
China Publ ish Tohan Inc., Aurora
Publishing Limited, and two branches
of Xinhua Bookstore (in Brooklyn and
Manhattan). China Publish Tohan,
for instance, is a joint effort by China
Publ ishing Group, China Nat iona l
Pub l i c a t i ons Impor t and Expo r t
Corporation (CNPIEC), Japan’s Tohan
Corporation, and China Media Group
Corporation (Japan). Fifty-one percent of
this joint venture company is owned by
China Publishing Group.
Presently, China Publishing Group
has established 28 overseas branches in
countries such as the U.S., U.K., France,
Germany, and Japan. “We
wi l l cont inue to
cooperate with
major international publishing groups to
promote Chinese culture," said Liu. "In
the case of joint venture cooperation,
we work on the premise that we will
hold the majority shares." Liu said
the company plans to increase its
overseas branches to 40 within the
next five years. “We are still at the
initial ‘going-out’ stage. Our plan is
to cultivate and produce excellent
works for an international audience
instead of just focusing on selling
rights and reaping short-term profits.
Making profit itself is less important
t h a n d o i n g b u s i n e s s
in te rnat iona l l y and
promoting Chinese
culture and literature
abroad.”
Liu Bogen meets delegates from Wolters Kluwer.
China Publishing headquarters.
S14 Sept.26,2011S14
Globalization of China EducationPublishing & Media Group
For Li Pengyi, a famous publisher and
President of China Education Publishing
and Media Group, the ultimate goal of
his career is to develop the company into
a truly international entity and a leading
educational publisher in the world. To
achieve this, he plans to seek financing
through public listing on the Shanghai
Stock Exchange and opportunities in the
overseas markets.
First, some background information
about China Education Publ ishing
and Media Group: It comprises three
main companies—People’s Education
Reported by Ren Dianshun Translated by Yang Guishan
Press, Higher Education Press,
and Language and Literature
Press—and is one of China ’s
larger publishing groups. Higher
Education Press itself ranks #40
in a l is t of the top 50 global
publishers in 2010, announced by
Publishers Weekly (July 4, 2011).
This ranking is the highest ever
achieved by a Chinese publisher.
The formation of China Education Publishing &
Media GroupThe ceremony celebrating the
group’s formation was held in the
Great Hall of the People in Beijing
on December 18, 2010. It was a
momentous occasion marking the
establishment of the biggest and
strongest publishing and media
group that China has ever seen.
Overall, this group, a government-
owned cultural enterprise, is the sum of
several companies. In addition to People’s
Education Press, Higher Education Press,
Language and Literature Press, the
companies China Educational Instrument
and Equipment Corporation, and China
Educational Publications Import & Export
Corporation, are part of the group.
People’s Education Press has been
in the business for more than 60 years
and specializes in course books, teaching
materials, and educational texts. Its
materials are used throughout China’s
elementary schools. Higher Education
Press , as ind icated by i t s name,
focuses on books for higher education,
vocational/technical education, and
adu l t educa t i on . Language and
Literature Press belongs to the Ministry
of Educat ion (under the Nat ional
Language Committee) and is the only
publishing house in China to specialize
in Chinese course books. It plays an
important role in the development
of the Chinese language as well as
Chinese education in China.
It is estimated that China Education
Publishing & Media Group publishes well
over 8,000 titles per year. Its 2010 sales
hit RMB6 billion, with a net profit of
RMB900 million. According to Li Pengyi,
the group has more than a 50% share
of the elementary education market
and 70% of the senior high education
segment. It also covers around 30%
of the higher and vocational/technical
education segment.
Besides these three publishing
houses, China Educational Instrument
and Equipment Corporation, the largest
importer and exporter of its kind in
China, has an annual turnover of
RMB1 billion. And China Educational
P u b l i c a t i o n s I m p o r t & E x p o r t
Corporation is the only company of such
scale and type of operation in China.
China Education Publishing & Media
Li Pengyi, President
S15 Sept.26,2011 S15
Holdings Co., Ltd., was registered with
the State Administration for Industry
and Commerce on March 31 of this year
and is now run as a stock corporation.
According to Li Pengyi, the group is
now preparing for public listing in the
A-share market, hopefully in 2012.
Overseas collaborationPr ior to the group format ion,
People ’s Educat ion Press, Higher
Educa t i on P res s , and Language
and L i terature Press a l ready had
well-established relationships with
multinational publishing companies
such as Pearson Education, Springer,
Reed Elsevier, Oxford University Press,
and Cambridge University Press.
Member companies of the group
have been actively exploring additional
ways to go international, publishing
course books on Chinese as a second
language, and importing and exporting
high-quality STM journals and books for
use in the educational sectors.
In recent years, People’s Education
Press has developed several outstanding
teaching materials, such as Standard
Chinese , My Mandarin , and Follow Me
and Learn Mandarin , and sold the rights
to Asian, European, and American
publishers. One series launched by
Higher Education Press, Experiencing
Chinese , has become the first Mandarin
teaching material used in several
countries, including Thailand, Australia
and the U.S. (in Chicago). In Thailand,
Experiencing Chinese has been selected
by its Ministry of Education for more
than 500,000 students in about 600
primary and secondary schools.
Frontiers, a series of journals in
English, is the result of collaboration
between Higher Education Press and
Germany’s Springer Group. These
journals function as a cross-disciplinary
platform to communicate the latest
research and development in a number
of fields. To date, 24 journals are being
published both online and in print,
with 17 covering natural sciences,
engineer ing, technology and l i fe
sciences, and seven focusing on social
sciences. As part of the agreement,
Springer handles overseas distribution of
the journals, while Higher Education Press
takes care of publication and production.
Meanwhile, China Educational
P u b l i c a t i o n s I m p o r t & E x p o r t
Corporation and China Educational
Instrument and Equipment Corporation
enjoy long-term relationships with
various countries around the world.
Once the group is listed, Li Pengyi
plans to find like-minded international
bus i nes ses fo r co l l abo ra t i on o r
acquisition, and to strengthen the focus
on educational and STM publications.
“Me rge r a nd a c qu i s i t i o n i s t h e
preferable method because it allows us
to realize three goals simultaneously:
investment in overseas ent i t ies ,
internationalization of the group, and
learning from international partners
on ways to manage our company in a
more professional manner,” said Li .
Li believes that the go-international
strategy of China’s publishing industry
can be realized through three steps. “Let
me use the sea and a ship as metaphors.
Firstly, we should go to the sea using a
borrowed ship, in which case we enter
the global markets through copyright
sales. Secondly, we use a ship made
by ourselves. In this case, we establish
companies overseas and build our own
brand. Thirdly, we use a ship bought
from others, which means that we buy
established international companies
through capital investment.”
S o t h e p r o c e s s o f “ g o i n g
international” at China Education
Publishing and Media Group, added Li,
requires three important steps: the full
integration of different entities within
the group, public l ist ing to obtain
capital, and the execution of a properly
designed global strategy.
Communist Party of China official and State Councilor Liu Yandong (right), with Director of General Administration of Press and Publication Liu Binjie (left), at the inaugural ceremony of the China Education Publishing & Media Group.
S16 Sept.26,2011S16
Science and Technology Publishing & Media Group: Realizing Potential through Restructuring
China Science and Technology
Publishing & Media Group Co., Ltd., is
the youngest publishing media group
in China, having been established
only this July. It is also one of the
three largest nat ional publ ish ing
media groups in China.
T h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f i t s
establishment is evident from the
publicity received during its inaugural
meet ing, which was attended by
several members from the Communist
Reported by He Wenjing Translated by Yang Guishan
Pa r ty ’s Po l i t bu ro a s we l l a s
s tate counc i lor L iu Yandong.
T h e P o l i t b u r o ’ s s t a n d i n g
committee member also called to
congratulate the company.
At the inaugural meeting,
Liu Binjie, director of General
Admin i s t ra t i on o f P ress and
Publication (GAPP), said that the
establishment of China Science
and Technology Publ ish ing &
Media Group wil l help to kick-
start the transformation of China’s
current science and technology
publishing industry that has long
been character ized by smal l -
scale operations with scattered
resources and low competitiveness.
He wants to see the publishing
group stepping up to the plate
to advance scientif ic research
both at home and abroad, improve its
competitiveness and lead the country
in science and technology publications,
especially in helping to realize the
national “going-out” strategy.
This new publishing group has
China Science Publishing Group in its
fold, with Posts and Telecom Press,
and Publishing House of Electronic
Industry Press as its stakeholders.
China Science Publishing Group
is known for its many well-regarded
authors and academicians from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences and
the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Ove r t h e p a s t two yea r s , a f t e r
restructuring and consolidating its
list to focus on science, technology,
med ic ine , educa t ion , and soc ia l
sciences, China Science Publishing
Group now boasts 260 academic
journals. Its growth between 1996
and 2000 has been in the double
digits. So far, it has published 14,637
titles, with an average title increase of
9.6% per year. Its 2010 total assets
were va lued a t RMB1.26 b i l l i on ,
while its net assets, sales revenues,
and ne t p ro f i t were a t RMB0.83
billion, RMB0.98 billion, and RMB0.15
billion, respectively. Compared to the
previous year, its total assets, net
assets, sales revenue, and net profit
have increased by 114%, 200%,
96%, and 198%, respectively.
In the 2010 Publishing Industry
Analysis Report released by GAPP,
China Science Publishing Group was
ranked #5 in terms of overall scale
of operation. The group has jumped
three slots within a year, helped no
doubt by its ambitious growth and
development.
Posts and Telecom Press, and
Pub l i s h i ng Hou se o f E l e c t r on i c
Liu Jianyao, President
S17 Sept.26,2011 S17
Publishing & Media Group Co.,
Ltd., is busy working on its market
capitalization plan. Rumors have
it that the company will have its initial
public offering by the end of this year. If
that happens, then the group will have
even more capital to further restructure
and expand its operations.
Liu Jianyao, President of China
Science and Technology Publishing
& Media Group Co., Ltd., said that
the group wil l focus its efforts on
l a un ch i ng a ma j o r s c i e n c e and
technology resources platform in
o rde r t o conso l i da te i t s ma rke t
presence. To date, it has launched
a Science Library platform that will
generate around RMB1 million for the
company. Next on the group’s to-do
list is a Science eStudy series.
W i t h i n t h e n e x t f i v e y e a r s ,
d ig i ta l pub l i sh ing i s expected to
become a major part of the group,
and various initiatives are currently
be i ng pu t i n p l a ce t o i n t eg ra t e
different resources, expand R&D
efforts and build overseas markets.
Meanwhile, the group is working on
a cooperative publishing platform
that will be shared among its three
major entit ies, and is planning to
extend its digital services to cater
to different subjects and levels of
interest. Its goal, ultimately, is to
create a group that is equally strong
in both tradit ional publishing and
digital offerings.
Industry Press, are also ranked high
on the GAPP repor t , mos t l y due
to their special ization and market
strength.
W i th these th ree pub l i sh ing
entities in its stable, China Science
and Technology Publishing & Media
Group is now working on combining
in te rna l resources , merg ing the
operations, and integrating various
pub l i sh ing asse t s owned by the
Chinese Academy of Science, other
central ministries and government
agenc ies . Eventua l l y, the g roup
wi l l handle a l l of China ’s sc ience
and techno logy pub l i ca t ions—in
book, journal, database and digital
formats—and wi l l take charge of
impo r t s and expo r t s a s we l l a s
printing of the publications.
Given its new structure and big-
scale operation, it is not surprising to
hear that China Science and Technology
The inaugural meeting of China Science and Technology Publishing & Media Group.
Some tit les from C h i n a S c i e n c e and Techno logy Publishing & Media Group.
S18 Sept.26,2011S18
Establ ished on December 25,
2008, China South Publishing & Media
Group Co., Ltd. (or China South Media,
in short), has positioned itself as the
leader in the Chinese publishing and
media industry. It made history when
its initial public offering last October at
the Shanghai Stock Exchange raised
the largest capital ever recorded in the
industry.
According to its 11th five-year plan,
China South Media is taking significant
measures to strengthen and promote
its international strategy through
enhancing col laboration and joint
ventures with overseas organizations. A
series of awards, such as National Key
Cultural Export Enterprise, Progress in
Copyright Export Award, and Award for
Outstanding Progress in the Promotion
China South Media: Breaking into International Markets
of Chinese Books, is being used to
advance and speed up its going-out,
internationally focused strategy.
Quality, not just quantityIn recent years, exports of rights
and printed books at China South Media
have been growing steadily. Its rights
deals have increased by more than 50%
in each of the past three years, hitting
191 in 2010. Meanwhile, the quality
of its titles has also improved by leaps
and bounds. Between 2009 and 2010,
a dozen titles from China South Media
were selected for the Chinese Classic
International Publishing Project—the
most from any local publishing group.
Each year, many titles published in
Hunan Province are sold all over the world
through China South Media’s operations
and distribution channels. In 2006, two
million sets of The Complete Works of Wu Guangzhong were exported, bringing
in close to RMB1.5 million, and setting
the highest sales record for a single work
for the province. Several other exports
have made history as well. Math , an
educational title published by Hunan
Education Press, for instance, has been
exported to Taiwan. It is the first book
used in mainland China that has been
selected for adoption in Taiwan. Another
educational title, History, from Yuelu
Publishing House, is used in Sangmyung
University in Korea, and became China
South Media’s f irst textbook to be
adopted by a foreign university.
Co-publishing plays an important
part in China South Media’s going-out
strategy. One of its major co-publishing
Reported by Yang Guishan
China South Publishing & Media Group launched its initial public offering at the Shanghai Stock Exchange on October 28, 2010.
S19 Sept.26,2011 S19
projects is the World Classical Music
series, which is jointly developed by
Hunan Literature & Art Publishing
House and Schott Publishing Group. It
is regarded as a bridge linking Chinese
and Western cultures. Another co-
publishing project, Eulenburg Version:
The World’s Top 50 Classical Orchestras ,
is now available in three languages—
English, German, and Chinese—with
Schott Publishing handling the German
and Engl ish edit ions. This ser ies ’
success has prompted both publishing
houses to agree on producing 200 titles
together at the rate of 20 per year.
The Comp l e t e Wo r k s o f Wu
Guanzhong from Hunan Arts Press
is a very successful export as well.
Published in both Chinese and English—
with the English edition available in
both print and electronic formats—
this unique title has been
sold to many Southeast
Asian publishers and
its rights bought by
seve ra l Eu ropean
p u b l i s h e r s . T h e
Korean edition of Just
When We Were Young
Pioneers and City of Love ,
publ ished with Areeseem
Press, is another co-publishing success.
Faces of China through the Eyes of an
American Principal Year of the Rabbit
from the China Show series that was
launched in the U.K. is made possible
through the collaboration between
Hunan Electronic, Audio, and Video
Press, European Publishing House,
and Author House. A new title, The
Year of the Dragon , will be published
soon. These examples showcase China
South Media’s ability to enhance its
international strategy through different
methods of collaboration.
This year, China South Media has
started inviting overseas authors to join
its publishing program—a move that
would further enrich its list and increase
its profit. Meanwhile, the company is
busy promoting the English edition of
Faces of China through the Eyes of an
American Principal internationally with
Hanban (National Office for Teaching
Chinese as a Foreign Language) and
the Confucius Institution.
Aside from book and rights exports,
China South Media’s printing business has
taken a presence in the U.S. and France.
In the fi rst half of this year, Hunan Tianwen
Xinhua Printing Group took over Paris-
based book-printer Kryum Print. Almost
at the same time, Hunan Book Company
also expanded its business to take on
packaging printing. One of its
first overseas projects,
bringing in sales in
excess of US$4 million,
involves printing for
an American food
company.
Digital products and moreChina South Media has embarked
on several projects that would leverage
its content and help to transform the
company from a traditional publisher to
one that is in tune with the Google/iPad/
Twitter era.
Together with Huawei, the world's
second-largest telecommunications
solutions provider, China South Media
has built a platform to market and sell
its digital products globally. Leveraging
on both par t ies ’ operat iona l and
technological strengths, this platform
may a l low Ch ina South Med ia to
become a huge player in the global
market for digital reading. During
the process, an RMB300-million joint
venture was established to reorganize
Beijing-based Tianwen Digital Media &
Technology Co., Ltd. Today, Tianwen
uses Huawei’s 15 mobile platforms
to distribute electronic newspapers
to more than 320 million customers
including those from Indonesia, Ghana,
Syria, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. It is
now China’s largest news network with
the biggest number of overseas users.
both print and electronic formats—
this unique title has been
sold to many Southeast
Asian publishers and
Just
When We Were Young
City of Love ,
publ ished with Areeseem
packaging printing. One of its
first overseas projects,
bringing in sales in
excess of US$4 million,
At the book launch for "Fine Arts in the Era of Mao Zedong" at the Beijing Fair.
China South Media: Breaking into International Markets
S20 Sept.26,2011S20 S20 Sept.26,2010S20
China South Media has also signed
a strategic agreement with McGraw-
Hi l l Educat ional Publ ishing Group
to share publishing resources and
distribution channels. The agreement
further identified subject areas such
as geography, history, music, and art
as those with the most copublishing
potential. A series of gerontology
titles that has been published through
this joint effort is now listed in China’s
international “going-out” program. On
the digital publishing side, Tianwen
Cartoon Company (a China South Media
subsidiary) and Japan’s Kadokawa
Group have come together to set up
Tianwen-Kadokawa Cartoon Company
in Guangzhou. By leveraging Japan’s
mo re ma tu re manga pub l i s h i ng
industry, this joint venture is focused
on promoting original graphic novels
and light novels, and converting such
works into multimedia products, thus
accelerating China’s entry into the
global cartoon/animation industry.
Hunan Audio and Video Publishing
House also ventures overseas with
its collaboration with the Confucius
Institute in Korea. Its first co-publishing
project, Charming Mandarin: Reading
Stories and Learning Mandarin , is the
first digital publication that China South
Media has developed with an overseas
organization.
Through its many collaborations,
China South Media now has more
c h a n n e l s a n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s t o
penetrate international markets. Right
now, the company is preparing an
international Web site that will serve as
a communications platform for overall
international strategy.
Strengthening human resourcesI n o r d e r t o c r e a t e m a r k e t -
focused products and d ivers i f ied
marketing channels for its “going-
out” strategy, personnel with the
right attitude and talents need to
be recru i ted. Accord ing ly, Ch ina
S o u t h M e d i a h a s e s t a b l i s h e d
international divisions both at its
headquarters and its branch offices,
and these are now staffed by many
talented multilingual speakers with
proven expertise in publishing and
marketing. They form a team with
a good collective understanding of
how business is done internationally.
At the same time, China South
Media has set up various awards and
incentive schemes to encourage more
copyright sales and international co-
publishing projects. Goals have been
set for annual performance based on
criteria such as the number of rights
sold, the qual i ty of co-publ ishing
projects, and the revenues generated
from such projects. The evaluation
results directly impact the subsidiary’s
annual performance and are reflected
in the yearly income of the manager in
charge.
T h e c o m p a n y h a s a l s o
strengthened its relationship with
overseas reta i l out lets and sa les
channels in order to streamline the
process of exporting printed books.
In the future, overseas branches of
China South Media wi l l take over
export and distr ibution functions,
especially in global publishing hubs
such as Frankfurt and New York.
Currently, the company works with
nine major retailers to distribute its
titles in countries such as the U.S.,
Germany, Austral ia, New Zealand,
Korea, and Malaysia.
China South has successfu l ly
expanded its international presence
by focusing on product quality, and
market needs. Over the next f ive
years, China South Media intends
to increase its R&D investment on
international markets and expand
its digital publishing market. More
collaboration with overseas retailers
is being planned, while its printing
bus iness is be ing pr imed to take
on more international projects. The
company is also working with both local
and central governments to get export
subsidies or exemptions, and other
types of assistance in various areas to
help it penetrate tougher markets in
Europe, the U.S., and Japan where more
investment is expected.
Ch ina South Publ i sh ing & Med i a G roup headquarters.
S21 Sept.26,2011 S21
Table 1: Top 100 bestselling translations in China (2008 to June 2011)
Year Number of translated titles Homegrown titles
2008 28 72
2009 25 75
2010 21 79
Up to June 2011 24 76
Market Analysis: on Bestslling Translations in ChinaBy Beijing OpenBook Co., Ltd. Translated by Yang Guishan
Chart 1: Origin of the top 100 translated bestsellers inthe fi rst half of 2011
Chart 2: Main genres of the top 100 translated bestsellers
This market analys is covers only market
bestsellers in translation, and is focused on three
genres: fi ction, nonfi ction and children’s books. The
data comes from Beijing OpenBook’s defi nitive book
retail monitoring service. Set up in July 1998, this
service collects information on book sales in big
and medium-sized cities, and crunches the data to
determine general trends of the national book market
and quantify changes in the publishing industry.
Translated titles have long been considered
the “blue chips” in China’s book market, as they are
received favorably by the public, especially if the
titles are already blockbusters back in their domestic
markets. Besides bringing rich foreign culture and
new ideas to China, translations often inspire Chinese
publishers to create titles of their own and improve
the generaly quality of their list. In short, translations
help to promote and develop the Chinese book
market.
According to Beijing OpenBook, translated titles
accounted for 20%–25% of the top 100 bestsellers in
China since 2008. Last year, the number of translated
bestsellers dropped slightly, from 28 to 21, but it went
up to 24 in the fi rst half of 2011. Generally speaking,
as Chinese publishers obtain more knowledge of
overseas markets while developing the local book
industry, the selection of translated titles has gotten
more in line with market demand, while the quality
of the translations has improved.
Translated bestsellers by country of origin
The U.S., with 29% (or 29 of the Top 100 in
the first half of 2011), remains the main source of
S22 Sept.26,2011S22
translations for China. Austria is next,
mostly due to the popularity of Thomas
Brezina’s popular Tiger-Team series for
children. Interestingly, translations from
the U.K., Japan, and Taiwan account
for roughly 13% each, or 13 titles. In
the past couple of years, titles from
Japan and Taiwan have been on the rise
because geographic proximity and shared
cultural background makes Japanese
and Taiwanese authors much easier to
promote to mainland Chinese readers.
Translated bestsellers by genreIn the f i rs t ha l f o f 2011, the
number of fiction and nonfiction among
the top 100 translated bestsellers were
even, at 23. Sales-wise, fiction and
nonfiction titles are just as close—
21.16% for fiction, and 22.31% for
nonfiction, as percentages of the total
sales of the top 100 imports. Children’s
books represent the biggest chunk of
the list with 30 titles, and 32.53% of
the total sales.
FictionMost of the fiction titles on the
bestsel ler l ist for the f irst half of
2011 are familiar to Chinese readers.
Only a few are new publ icat ions.
Haruki Murakami, who is a lready
popular for Norwegian Wood that
was published in 2010, has three
o ther books—the th ree vo lumes
o f 1Q84 —on the l i s t . The o the r
new book for this period is Gabriel
Ga r c i a Ma rque z ’s One Hund red
No. ISBN Title Price(RMB) Publisher Author
1 9787544143158 The Art of Speaking of Cai Kangyong 25 Shenyang Publishing Cai Kangyong
2 9787801706409 Happier: Learn the Secrets to 28 Modern China Publishing Tal Ben-Shahar
Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment
3 7501217890 The Greatest Salesman in 16.8 World Knowledge Press Og Mandino
the World (hardcover)
4 9787507419887 The Secret 32 China City Press Rhonda Byrne
5 9787108032911 Watch 39 Joint Publishing Long Yingtai
6 9787561345948 A Complaint Free World 24.8 Shaanxi Normal University Press Will Bowen
7 9787802444522 We All Have A Disease 36 Modern Press Zhu Deyong
8 9787501194964 Mismeasuring Our Lives: 35 Xinhua Publishing Joseph E. Stiglitz
Why GDP Doesn't Add Up
9 9787535765444 The Grand Design 48 Hunan Science & Stephen Hawking
Technology Press
10 9787506036603 A Compass to Fulfillment 26 Oriental Press Kazuo Inamori
(Revised edition)
No. ISBN Title Price(RMB) Publisher Author
1 9787544249867 1Q84: Volume 3 (hardcover) 39.5 Nanhai Publishing Haruki Murakami
2 9787544247269 1Q84: Volume 1 (hardcover) 36 Nanhai Publishing Haruki Murakami
3 9787508044019 Encounter of the Unknown Self 29 Huaxia Press De-Fen Zhang
4 9787544253994 One Hundred Years of Solitude 39.5 Nanhai Publishing Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5 9787544247252 1Q84: Volume 2 (hardcover) 36 Nanhai Publishing Haruki Murakami
6 9787020069828 The Da Vinci Code 26 People's Literature Publishing Dan Brown
7 9787020078127 The Lost Symbol 38 People's Literature Publishing Dan Brown
8 7208061645 The Kite Runner 25 People's Literature Publishing Khaled Hosseini
9 9787532742929 Norwegian Wood 23 People's Literature Publishing Haruki Murakami
10 9787544807395 Twilight: Breaking Dawn 39.8 People's Literature Publishing Stephenie Meyer
Table2:Top10translatedfictionforthefirsthalfof2011
Table3:Top10translatednonfictionforthefirsthalfof2011
S23 Sept.26,2011 S23
Years of Sol i tude , a work that is
highly regarded as a commentary
on the society and history of Latin
America. It is the first authorized
Chinese vers ion and i t does very
well in the market, which goes to
show that classics such as these do
work if translated well and marketed
properly.
NonfictionThere is more variety in translated
nonfiction, with top titles in areas such
as psychology, science. and business.
Psychology self-help titles are popular
and account for more than half of the
top 10 titles. Only three out of the top
10 are new titles .
The #1 bestseller in this genre is
The Art of Speaking of Cai Kangyong .
Cai, a popular and eloquent TV host
in Taiwan, takes full advantage of his
talent to write an entertaining yet
practical book that went straight to
the top of the chart. Another title,
We All Have a Disease , is written by
famous Taiwan cartoonist Zhu Deyong
using simple yet witty il lustrations
that have found favor with many
fans. Joseph Stiglitz’s Mismeasuring
Our Lives : Why GDP Doesn’t Add Up,
on the relationship between the GDP
and living standard, also does well.
It is obvious that nonfiction titles by
celebrities and established authors as
well as those on practical topics tend
to sell well, while classics such as
The Greatest Salesman in the World
are great reads that would carry from
one generation to the next.
Children’s booksTranslated children’s titles always
take up several slots on the top 10
chart but there were very few titles
on the list in the first half of 2011.
Bestsellers such as Totto-Chan : The
Little Girl at the Window , Charlotte’s
Web, and the new version of Thomas
Brezina’s Tiger-Team series have been
there for a long time. But it is common
knowledge that children’s titles require
a lengthy promotional period to attract
children and their parents.
This genre’s popularity, however,
means that local publishing companies
can g rab more marke t sha re by
e s t ab l i s h i ng a good r epu t a t i on
in buying and trans lat ing qual i ty
children’s titles.
Table 4: Top 10 translated children’s books for the first half of 2011
No. ISBN Title Price(RMB) Publisher Author
1 9787544250580 Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at 25 Nanhai Publishing Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
the Window (hardcover)
2 7532733416 Charlotte's Web 17 Shanghai Translation Elwyn Brooks White
Publishing
3 7544222977 Totto-Chan: The Little Girl 20 Nanhai Publishing Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
at the Window (paperback)
4 9787534259692 Der Teufels-Dampfer & 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
Die Insel des T-Rex Children's Publishing
5 9787534259715 Im Donner-Tempel & Rätsel um 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
das Schul-Skelett Children's Publishing
6 9787534259647 Lichter im Hexenmoor & Das 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
Geheimbuch für Gespenster Jäger Children's Publishing
7 9787534259678 Das Geisterflugzeug & Das Amulett 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
des AuBerirdischen Children's Publishing
8 9787534259739 Unsichtbare Ungeheuer & 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
Die Suche nach dem Teufelsfisch Children's Publishing
9 9787534259722 Der Alptraum-Helikopter & 13.8 Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
Der entführte Pharao Children's Publishing
10 9787534259746 Der Fluch des Pharaosr & Zhejiang Juvenile & Thomas Brezina
Das Geheimnis der grünen Kanister 13.8 Children's Publishing
S24 Sept.26,2011S24
Spearheaded and funded by the
General Administration of Press and
Publication (GAPP), Chinese Classics
International Publishing Project is
aimed at encouraging and supporting
the publication of export-oriented titles,
and pushing Chinese publishers to go
international. China Publishers sat down
with Gui Xiaofeng, deputy director of
the Project’s expert committee to get
the latest news on this special initiative.
W h e n t h e p r o j e c t w a s
launched in October 2009, the
response from the publishing
industry was been overwhelmingly
positive. Are you seeing the same
kind of response for this year’s
project?
China Redactological Society is
mainly responsible for receiving Project
proposals from publishing houses,
Chinese Classics International Publishing Project: Introducing the Best Books to Overseas Readers
doing initial review and organizing
expert evaluation. As of May 5, the
expert committee has received 297
project proposals. These came from
109 publishing houses, 27 of which
are based in Beijing. Last year, 116
publishing houses submitted a total of
328 titles. Based on my observation,
the quality of titles proposed for the
project has improved significantly. We
use the strict guidelines set out by the
project—covering content, range of
topics, reputation of publishing house,
and so on—to review and select titles
for the expert committee.
This project only funds books.
What are the main criteria for book
selection?
The project guidelines specify that
books will go in either the Chinese
Academic Classics series or the Chinese
Literary Classics series. The Academic
Classics series is further divided into
philosophy, political law, economy,
military, history, language, literature
and ar t , and genera l works . The
Literary Classics series, on the other
hand, covers poetry, the novel, drama,
essays and anthologies. Proposals that
do not fall into any of the subdivisions
are automatically disqualified. The
guidelines also indicate that proposed
t i t l e s m u s t b e t a r g e t e d a t t h e
international market with plans for
rights sales and co-publishing. Accepted
proposals must then be published by
the end of a specified calendar year.
What does this year’s crop of
titles look like?
Our selection process turned up
244 titles—183 academic titles and
61 literary works—from a total of 297
Reported by Lu Jing
Gui Xiaofeng, born in Kunming in 1944, graduated from the Chinese Department of
Shanghai Fudan University. Currently, he is the president of China Redactological Society
and Vice President of the Publishers Association of China. He was former Vice Director
of the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP). In recent years, Gui has
committed himself to research on Chinese culture and was recently served in teaching posts
at a number of universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nanjing
University, Fudan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He is
deputy director of the expert committee of the Chinese Classics International Publishing
Project under the auspices of the GAPP.
Gui Xiaofeng
S25 Sept.26,2011 S25
proposed titles. A total of 94 publishing
houses are represented in this year’s
project. Overall, this is a slight decline
from last year's project, in which there
were 280 titles from 103 publishing
houses. This year, 141 titles, or 57.8%
of the se lec ted tota l , have been
recommended for funding, whereas last
year, the numbers were 147 titles, or
52.5%, respectively.
At the end, the project decided
to fund 47 titles, or only 33.3% of
those recommended by the expert
committee. Last year, 67.3% of the
titles recommended were funded.
Out of these 47 t i t les, 41 are
classified under Academic Classics series.
There are five philosophy titles, nine
historical titles, four in political law, six for
economics, four for literature and art, and
13 general works. The remaining six titles
are classified under Literary Classics, and
these are all novels.
The evaluat ion process is
mostly focused on quality, right?
What other principles are at work
here?
We are required to choose titles
that reflect Chinese culture, represent
China and its cultural image, and are
projected to attract foreign readers.
In order to meet these standards, we
have 24 experts in a committee that
is further divided into four different
groups: two Social Science groups
(Group A and Group B), Literature, and
General. Group A reviews mostly titles
on philosophy, history, language, other
social sciences and general natural
science. Group B is responsible for
titles on political law, economy, culture,
education and sports. Literature Group
reviews classical titles, contemporary
works, art theory, and selected general
titles. The last group, General Group,
is made up of experts in publishing,
copyright, publicity, and translation,
and they evaluate the 244 titles based
on their specialty before offering their
recommendation to the other three
groups. Al l 24 experts pay special
attention to various aspects, such as
content quality, potential for export,
author’s academic status, and book
design.
Could you tell us how the basic
process of the review work?
The first step is the group review.
Each group reviews the materials
and has a d iscuss ion about what
has a good chance to make the final
list. Suggestions, including funding
suggestions, are proposed for each
project that i s recommended for
financial support and submission the
the Excpert Committee. Specialists from
each group also have to review other
groups’ projects to prepare for the final
voting.
Then comes the second step.
The person in charge of every group
reports to the committee about the
works under review, complete with
the list of suggestions and some of the
problems that emerge. After discussion
by the whole committee, the final list
is formally submitted to the committee
and voted on by secret ballot.
Therefore the experts play a
huge role.
The r e v i ew p ro ce s s i s d eep
and very specific. There are many
meetings, and written evaluations
to consider and discuss, including
obse r va t i on s on t ho se p ro j e c t s
that are recommended for funding,
wh i ch l ay s a sol id foundation for Type for Chinese characters carved from wood, on display at Frankfurt.
S26 Sept.26,2011S26
committee’s final vote. The General
G r o u p a l s o c o n t r i b u t e s a l o t ,
particularly with its invited experts
from the Copyright Value Evaluation
Project Office of Protection Center
of China (CPCC). These specialists
analyze the copyright issues for each
project. What’s more, the person in
charge of every group undertakes
elaborate preparations—writing the
report outline in advance, hosting
preliminary discussions, that lead
up to the meeting. Final ly, every
expert gives a thoughtful vote after
much consideration. As I have said,
the passing rate was lower this year
than last , a resu l t I th ink of the
rigorous standards and the healthy
airing of different opinions.
Previous t i t les under this
project have been introduced to
20 countries and translated into
14 languages. What is the plan for
this year’s titles?
We are planning to export these
titles to 22 countries across Europe,
As ia, and the Oceania. The t i t les
would then be trans lated into 14
languages, including English, German,
and Spanish.
T h e r e h a s b e e n o n e m a j o r
change recently: previously, most
of the titles were translated into no
more than two different languages,
but those selected in 2010 that have
now been translated are available in
multiple languages. The Love under
the Hawthorn Tree from People ’s
L i te ra ture Pub l i sh ing House, fo r
instance, has been exported to 11
countries and is now available in nine
languages. Another title, History of the
Communist Party in China: 1921–2011 ,
from Foreign Language Press, wi l l
be co-published in seven language
editions.
T h e p r o j e c t h a s b e e n
instrumental in promoting cultural
exchanges and copublishing efforts
between China and other countries.
Any particular aspect of the Project
that you think should be changed
or improved?
T h i s p r o j e c t h a s d e f i n i t e l y
increased the influence of Chinese
culture on the world stage. It fosters
stronger cultural exchanges and better
bilateral ties with foreign countries.
The experts for this project all agree
that the selected titles must not only
be authoritative and broad in scope but
also help overseas readers understand
the real China. For instance, the author
of From Chang’an to Rome actually
traveled the whole length of the Silk
Road to assess i t s impact on the
trading route and its role in spreading
various cultures. It is an exhaustively
research title that combines personal
experience and up-to-date research.
There are certainly areas about
the project that can be improved.
For instance, we can broaden the
selection scope, contract publishers to
work on specific titles, introduce more
contemporary literary works, and so
on. Nothing is perfect, after all. As the
project matures, we can expect it to
evolve according to market needs and
industry changes. Some titles that have been selected in the Project.
S27 Sept.26,2011 S27
Held at the National Center for the
Performing Arts on August 30, the Fifth
Special Book Award of China was the
culmination of an effort that took two
years of review and evaluation. Five
individuals who have contributed to the
promotion of Chinese culture abroad
were selected for the award.
The honors went to S tephen
Bourne, CEO of Cambridge University
Press; John Naisbitt, author/futurist
and one of Accenture ’s 50 global
Special Book Award for Outstanding Overseas Friends
management masters; B.R. Deepak,
t rans la to r and v i ce -pro fessor a t
Jawaharlal Nehru University; Lizuka
Yutori, translator and professor at
Chuo University in Japan; and Kristofer
Schipper, sinologist and professor at
Leiden University in the Netherlands.
The 2011 award winnersThe five winners may come from
different parts of the world but they
all have the same goal: to help spread
Chinese culture, and that was duly
honored.
Stephen Bourne, for instance,
establ ished the Cambridge China
Library (CCL) in 2009 to translate and
publish Chinese classics into English
in order to promote literary exchanges
and d iscuss ion between Ch inese
and Western readers. He set up a
special editorial team of experts from
China, the U.S., and Europe to select
and recommend Chinese works for
Reported by Lu Jing
The Fifth Special Book Award ceremony was held at the National Center on August 30. Party official and State Councilor Liu Yandong (center) and Director of General Administration of Press and Publication Liu Binjie (on her left) presented the awards to the winners.
S28 Sept.26,2011S28
t rans lat ion. Among
the projects selected
a r e t h e C u l t u r a l
C h i n a s e r i e s ( 3 0
volumes, from China
International Press),
A History of Chinese
Civi l izat ion (four volumes, Peking
University Press), and Introductory
Theory of Advanced Mathematics (four
volumes, Higher Education Press). So
far, 10 volumes in the Cultural China
series have been published, and the
English edition of A History of Chinese
Civ i l izat ion wi l l be avai lable next
January. More titles will be selected for
CCL in the coming
months.
J o h n N a i s b i t t
w h o s e n a m e h a s
long been familiar to
Chinese readers, wrote
China’s Megatrends in
2009. He and his wife have just released
their latest title, China’s Megatrends: The
Chengdu Model , at the 18th Beijing
International Book Fair, which ran from
August 31 to September 4, 2011.
As for the other three winners, they
are fluent in Chinese and have devoted
themselves to the study of Chinese
literature. Sinologist B.R. Deepak has
been involved in the study, research,
and development of Chinese literature
and culture as well as on the relations
between China and India since the
1980s. He has written six monographs,
compiled two dictionaries and written
numerous research articles. Perhaps his
most remarkable work is the first-of-
its-kind translation of Chinese Classical
Poems from the 11th to 14th centuries.
Available in Hindi, this book showcases
the beauty of Chinese poetry and
cultural heritage. “Both China and India
are countries with long histories and old
civilizations, and I feel so deeply that
Chinese culture has not been spread
enough, and it’s essential that more
people learn about China,” said Deepak
at the news conference of for the
Special Book Award.
D e e p a k h a s
a lso t rans lated the
works of J i X ianl in,
China's famous writer,
l i ngu i s t , educa to r,
translator, essayist,
and social activist, who
is proficient in 12 languages himself.
Deepak kept in close contact with Ji
during his study at Peking University
and thought that Ji's work deserved to
be translated for the India market.
Deepak is aided by his Chinese
wife, from Beijing, who he says helped
him considerably in his translation work.
L izuka Yutor i who is the f i rst
Japanese w inner spec ia l i z i ng in
translating of contemporary Chinese
authors and research done on modern
Chinese literature in Japanese. Modern
Chinese Novel , a quarterly publication
for which he serves as editor-in-chief,
publ ishes works by contemporary
Chinese authors in Japanese. More than
300 works from about 130 writers have
been made available, including writings
by Yu Hua, Tie Ning, Wang Anyi, and
Shi Tiesheng. Yutori also has written
numerous research papers on modern
Chinese culture and art.
According to Yutori, there is very
little active translation of Chinese going
on in Japan, only a few university
p ro fessors and researchers who
translate works that
they are interested
in on their own time.
Therefore it’s not easy
for Chinese works to
be translated in Japan.
“Translation is lonely
work with little pay and less gain. I’m
just one of those who is devoted to it.”
Kr is tofer Schipper, prof ic ient
in eight languages and famous for
pub l i sh ing The Tao i s t Body and
translating philosophers Zhuangzi and
Lao Tsu (author of Tao
Te Ching ) into Dutch,
established the Global
Civilization Research
Center and Library of
the Western Belvedere
at Fuzhou University
in 2001. (This particular contribution
has also earned him the Friendship
Award from the state government.)
In 2009, the nearly 80 -year-old
Schipper took the translation work
of Five Canons —a large international
sinology cooperation project organized
by China's national leading group office
Stephen Bourne
John Naisbitt
B.R. Deepak
Lizuka Yutori
Kristofer Schipper
S29 Sept.26,2011 S29
for promoting Chinese. Now Schipper
t rave ls of ten between China and
Netherlands, playing an important role
in the cultural exchanges between the
two countries.
Future plans for the Special Book Award
E s t a b l i s h ed b y t h e Gene ra l
Administration of Press and Publication
(GAPP) in 2005, the Special Book
Award is an important part of the
central government’s drive to promote
cultural exchanges between China and
other nations. Its main objective is to
recognize foreign writers, translators,
and publishers who have contributed to
the promotion of Chinese culture and
the dissemination of Chinese works in
overseas markets. It has been awarded
every other year during the Beijing
International Book Fair.
To date, the award has been given
to 22 people from eight countries.
The winners include Howard Goldblatt
(translator of Jiang Rong’s Wolf Totem
and A-lai’s Dust Falling Down ) and
Robert Lawrence Kuhn (author of How
China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story
of China’s Reform and What This Means
for the Future ). These award winners
play an important role in promoting
bilateral understanding, respect, and
development.
Meanwhile, plans are afoot to
improve the award’s selection and
eva luat ion process . As has been
reported from the news conference
for the recent award-giving ceremony,
the focus is now on recognizing more
diversified works from different fields as
well as on improving the evaluation and
selection process.
This year ’s award review and
evaluation process was also carried
out much earlier than usual. In fact,
the department sent out letters to
various embassies last December in
order to provide ample time for proper
recommendations of award candidates.
Guidelines on selection of sinologists,
authors, translators, and publishers who
have made outstanding achievements
in writing, publishing, or translating
excellent works from China were also
provided.
The whole evaluation process
is also becoming more transparent,
objective, and fair. GAPP’s international
commun ica t ion and coopera t ion
department wrote to some embassies
a s k i n g f o r n a m e s o f p o t e n t i a l
candidates. The embassies promptly
responded with names of several
writers and translators. It was as a
result of the new efforts to recognize
important contributors from different
fields, that three more names—John
Naisbitt, Stephen Bourne and Richard
Levin (president of Yale University)—
were added to the candidate list. The
department then collected works by
these candidates and bound them
into volumes for expert review and
evaluation. The winners were duly
selected.
Effective this year, the Special
Book Award will become an annual
event with RMB50,000 prize money
for each winner. These major changes
fully reflect the Chinese government's
determination to encourage more
contributions from overseas friends
while bringing the award in line with
other international prizes of similar
nature. GAPP is ramping up its efforts in
acknowledging—and rewarding—those
who are actively engaged in promoting
cultural exchanges between China and
other countries, and spreading Chinese
culture throughout the world by making
important works available in different
languages.
Titles from the Museums from Cultural China series, t h e H i s t o r y o f C h i n e s e Civilization, and the Theory of Advanced Mathematics series.
S30 Sept.26,2011S30
I n r e c e n t y e a r s , v a r i o u s
government initiatives and programs
have been established to promote
Ch inese cu l tu re abroad wh i le a t
the same time introducing Chinese
r e a d e r s t o d i f f e r e n t c u l t u r e s
and new works f rom around the
wor ld. In 2009, for instance, the
Genera l Admin i s t ra t ion o f P ress
and Publ icat ion (GAPP) launched
the Chinese Classics International
P u b l i s h i n g P r o j e c t t o p r o m o t e
translations and publications of works
that focus on modern China. A year
later, GAPP started a Sino-Foreign
Translation and Publishing Project
to promote literary exchanges and
publishing cooperation with overseas
partners.
The objective of this new project is
to translate the most important works
from China—including literature and
research in any field—and to select
outstanding works from overseas for
Sino-Foreign Translation and Publishing Project: Promoting CulturalExchanges and Collaboration
translation into simplified Chinese for
the domestic market. So far, China has
signed memorandums of cooperation
with the Arab League and Cuba.
Constructing a modern “Silk Road”
In May 2010, a memorandum
of understanding on the China-Arab
Translation and Publishing Project
was signed by the GAPP and the Arab
League. With this, selected Chinese
history books and outstanding modern
literary works will be published and
distributed within the Arab League’s 22
countries, effectively rebuilding a newer
and modern Silk Road based on cultural
exchanges.
Statistics show that China has
translated and published 669 titles, of
which 565 are literary works, from the
Arab League countries between 2001 and
2010. These titles include The Arabian
Nights , the complete works of Lebanese-
American author Khalil Gibran, and The
Cairo Trilogy by 1988 Nobel Prize winner
Naguib Mahfouz. Clearly, Arabic literature
has already been promoted and read in
China for many years.
Likewise, The Analects of Confucius
was translated into Arabic back in the
1930s. Translations of other ancient
Chinese classics soon followed. Today,
The Book of Changes (or I-Ching ),
Tao Te Ching , Intrigues of the Warring
States , and The Art of War are available
in Arabic. The same applies to the
four great classical novels of Chinese
literature: Dream of the Red Chamber ,
Water Margin , Romance of the Three
Kingdoms, and Journey to the West .
Meanwhile, contemporary Chinese
works by authors such as Lu Xun and
Lao She are gaining popularity among
Arabic readers.
At the Cairo International Book
Fair in January 2011, director of the
GAPP, Liu Binjie, said, “Both China and
Reported by Lu Jing
Chinese translations of some famous Arabian works, along with some Chinese classics translated into Arabic.
S31 Sept.26,2011 S31
Arab nations have very rich cultural
her i tages, and both part ies have
mutually agreed to further deepen
and strengthen our cultural exchanges
and collaboration. This process would
require us to build a bridge, or a link,
between the two cultures. Literary
translation and publishing, I believe, is
the key to unlock both parties’ cultural
treasures and make them available
to readers in China and in the Middle
East. We will then be able to share
knowledge and research in social,
intellectual, scientific, and economic
fields.”
According to the memorandum,
both parties will focus on translating
classics and contemporary Chinese
literature as well as children’s titles.
Over the next five years, both parties
will translate and publish 25 titles
each.
Grants will be given to publishing
houses that will translate and publish
the se lec ted t i t l es . Both par t ies
have also agreed to set up expert
committees—with each made up of five
professionals chosen from government
agencies, publ ishing houses, and
academic institutions—to spearhead the
project. These experts will evaluate the
publishing houses that will handle the
translation and publishing, determine
work schedule and budgets, supervise
the process, submit progress reports,
and so on.
The memorandum also specifies
that People’s Publishing House will be
the committee’s office in China. Algeria-
based Arab Higher Translation Research
Institute will be the other committee
office. Meetings will be held annually
to check on the progress o f th i s
collaboration.
China-Iran and China-Cuba agreements
T h i s y e a r m a r k s t h e 4 0 t h
anniversary of China’s diplomatic
relat ions with Iran. Several GAPP
programs have been carried out to
promote more publishing projects with
Iranian publishers. GAPP also organized
several publishing houses to actively
participate at the 2011 Tehran Book
Fair. Then, in May 2011, GAPP signed
a memorandum of understanding on
China-Iran Translation and Publishing
Project to introduce more works to
readers of both countries. This being
the second project under the Sino-
Foreign Translation and Publishing
p r o g ra m , i t c o n t a i n s t h e s a m e
objectives and processes as those in
the China-Arab agreement.
Several months later, on July 13,
Jiang Jianguo, vice-director of the GAPP
signed a publishing memorandum with
Cuba’s Book Committee during his visit
to that country. This is China’s first
collaboration with a Latin American
country on publishing matters.
According to this memorandum,
publishers from China and Cuba will
attend each country’s international book
fairs to facilitate cultural exchanges.
The Ch ina-Cuba Trans la t ion and
Publishing Project will kick-start with
both sides recommending titles for
translation and publication, setting up
grants to support translation activities,
distributing classic works of Chinese and
Cuban literature, and encouraging their
publishing houses to increase copyright
cooperation. The list of recommended
books will be made available in the first
quarter of 2012 ,and both countries will
translate and publish five books each
starting from 2013.
On the whole, the Sino-Foreign
Translation and Publishing Project will
further promote cultural exchanges and
collaboration between China and its
overseas partners. It is certainly a big
step forward in realizing China’s “going-
out” policy.
S32 Sept.26,2011S32
The year 2012 marks the 40th
anniversary of diplomatic relations
between China and the U.K. It is also
the year Beijing passes the baton of the
Olympics to the city of London. So the
choice of China as the market focus for
the 2012 London Book Fair seems most
appropriate and natural. For China, it
will be a great opportunity to showcase
its culture and literature—i.e., its soft
power—to fa ir attendees and the
publishing community from near and
far.
The London Book Fair Market
Focus i n i t i a t i ve i s an impor tan t
chance for U.K. and international
pub l i shers to communica te w i th
their foreign counterparts, and seek
out and capitalize on new business
pa r tne r sh ips . The Ch ina Marke t
Focus and the associated cultural
Market Focus for the 2012 London Book Fair: China
program wil l place a spotl ight on
c on t empo ra r y Ch i n e s e a u t ho r s
and on China as an important and
growing publishing arena.
The ma r ke t f o cu s p r og ram ,
which wi l l be held in conjunct ion
with the GAPP, is run by the London
International Book Fair, along with the
British Council, and will be supported
with a series of cultural events as
well.
The China Market Focus cultural
program at the 2012 London Book
Fa i r w i l l beg in w i t h a handove r
ceremony from the outgoing Market
Focus country, Russia. A series of
cultural events will then take place
unti l the end of 2012. During this
pe r i od , t he spo t l i gh t w i l l be on
contemporary Chinese authors, and
China as an important player in the
global publishing
industry.
The opening
ceremony is one of
the most important
official events for
the Market Focus
c o u n t r y. I t w i l l
b e a t t e nde d b y
Chinese and British
pol i t ica l f igures,
r ep re sen ta t i ve s
f r o m m a j o r
publishers of the
two countries, and more than 600
members of the media from around
the world. China will hold a variety of
colorful events to put on display the
beauty of traditional Chinese culture
and literature.
During the Market Focus period,
the London Book Fair will schedule
a se r i e s o f h igh - l eve l d i a logues
t o fu r the r p romote coope ra t i on
between China and the U.K., and
enhance understanding on various
top i c s i n c lud ing the connec t i on
between publishing activit ies and
the economy; the current state of
the arts, music, and entertainment
i ndus t r i e s , and the p rog res s o f
d i g i t i z a t i o n i n t h e p u b l i s h i n g
industry, as well as the copyright
protect ion and Chinese language
t e a c h i n g a n d l e a r n i n g . T h e s e
d i a l ogues a re mean t t o exp lo re
areas beneficial to both countries
and the publishing world at large.
More than 30 cultural activities will
be held including Sino-U.K. language
education publishing forum, including a
discussion about children's illustrators,
a seminar on purchasing rights to
Ch inese t i t les , and so on. These
activities will provide Chinese publishers
with opportunities to communicate,
cooperate, and interact with publishers
f rom a l l ove r t he wo r l d , and t o
further increase their presence in the
Reported by Lu Jing Translated by Yang Guishan
China-UK Literature in Translation Forum, sponsored by the General Administration of Press and Publication and the British Council, will be part of the opening activities for the 2012 London Book Fair.
S33 Sept.26,2011 S33
international book market.
Im p r o v i n g c o m m u n i c a t i o n s
between Chinese writers and Western
scholars is an important aspect of the
Market Focus program as well. The
introduction of contemporary Chinese
wr i ters and outstand ing Chinese
literary works to mainstream Western
society wi l l be a br idge spanning
two different worlds of culture and
literature.
More than 50 Chinese writers,
l i terary cr i t i cs , and scho lars wi l l
participate in various activit ies to
p romote Ch inese l i t e ra tu re and
culture. These events will take place
just before the Book Fair and will
carry on until the end of the year.
D i a l o gue s and pane l s i n c ud i ng
Chinese and British writers, scholars,
and l i terary cr i t ics, together with
author readings, will touch on various
fields, including literature, philosophy,
technology, and economy.
After the Book Fair, there will be
continuing activities around Great
Britain, such as the Wales Literature
& Art Fest iva l , the Edinburgh Art
Festival, and Thames Art Festival
( b a c k i n L o n d o n ) . T h e s e w i l l
significantly broaden the exposure
of Chinese literature to the British
people.
O n e o f t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t
segments of the Market Focus program
is the translation, publication, and
promot ion of the focus country ’s
most important literary works. This
time, various events will be carried
out to showcase Chinese authors and
works that have been selected, and
promoted, for the international market.
At the same time, bricks-and-mortar
bookstores and online book retailers
in the U.K. will also come together
to promote these selected works and
authors to the public.
Dur ing the year, the London
Book Fair organizing committee will
coordinate a series of cultural and arts
exhibitions that throw the spotlight
on China’s long civilization and literary
tradi t ion. These wi l l cover movie
screenings, photo exhibits (on Chinese
arch i tecture and typ ica l Ch inese
families), Chinese philatelic shows,
and many others. These are aimed at
promoting a better understanding of
China, its people and culture in the U.K.
and Europe.
Market Focus for the 2012 London Book Fair: China
S34 Sept.26,2011S34
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