Checking on the

Academic Book
Market in China
T
China’s academic he numbers tell the story: In 1980, when China’s

illustration © ispyfriend /istock.com

economic reform had just kicked off, its academic
book segment is community produced no more than 85 journals.
Today, that number has ballooned to more than
flourishing amid 8,000.

market shifts and

According to the Blue Book of China’s STM Journals
Development, STM journals account for 5,020 of those journals,

technological
of which 548 are in English and jointly published with foreign
publishers such as Springer Nature, Elsevier, and Wiley. Last
advances October, the STM Report looked at three million articles from
42,500 journals and found that 19% of them came from
China—more than any other country, including the U.S. (which
published 18% of the papers) and India (5%).
Modern academic publishing is relatively new to China. Its
oldest university press, China Renmin University Press, was
only established in 1955, followed by East China Normal
University Press two years later; they were the only two in the
country until economic reform. And while the first few aca-
By Teri Tan demic journals in the West were published starting in the
1660s, the Chinese academic sector did not produce much until
after 2005. Since then, however, output, especially in the STM
segment, has grown in tandem with the nation’s aggressive
R&D initiatives.
Throughout the years, the progress in the Chinese academic
publishing segment has been tightly linked to the country’s
economic reform and R&D investments. And the latter are
accelerating: in 2018: China’s National Bureau of Statistics
This feature is published with the support of the reported that more than 1.96 trillion CNY were spent on
publishers covered in these articles. R&D—up 11.6% from the previous year—which will no doubt
expand academic publishing.

W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 35
 Academic Publishing in China
But much still needs to be done to elevate the segment and
its output, say insiders. And that has been the goal of several
recent talks aimed at gathering local opinions and international
perspectives. Last May, Tongji University and Tongji University
Press organized one such forum, which focused on leveraging
the strengths of academic presses’ parent universities and using
new technologies to publish and disseminate first-class articles
and journals. Another one in August, hosted by China National
Publications Import and Export Corporation, discussed the
future directions of academic publishing and how university
presses and researchers should go about promoting academic
dialogue and social progress nationally and globally.
Reflecting Academia and Reader Needs
Obviously, the first changes need to come from within, and, for
Chinese university presses, this means finding (and expanding)
their readership in the domestic market while also carving a
niche for their products overseas. Now that these presses have
largely been decoupled from their parent institutions to become
financially independent entities—as a result of a nationwide
restructuring campaign back in 2010—their fortunes (or lack
thereof) depend on the ability to diversify their lists to meet
market needs.
For Wang Yan, president of East China Normal University
Press, “long sellers—not bestsellers—are the key to an estab-
lished and successful publishing program, and these are the titles
that we want to have in our catalogue.” Long sellers, she adds,
“live on, get into libraries—public or private—and become a
part of the essential collection. With long-seller content, we can
extract parts of it to create derivative products, adapt it to fit
specific markets, or transform it to fit different platforms or
distribution channels. The opportunities are immense.”
ECNUP’s Shanghai Maths series is one such title, evolving from
a supplementary workbook back in 1993 into a bestselling series
that has also been adapted for the U.K.’s school curriculum.
Wang and her team also want to fill gaps in the market. “For
instance,” she says, “while we have books on mastering math,
there are few publications about how famous mathematical
equations were derived. This prompted us to publish titles such
as Mathematics Masters, featuring lectures by Chinese mathema-
tician Hua Luogeng.”
Meeting the demands of an evolving book market and digital-
savvy consumers requires a nimble publishing operation, Wang
adds. “The ability to adapt to and anticipate new demands is
critical, especially in these times of instantaneous information-
feeding fueled by the ubiquity of mobile devices. Being focused
on our strengths and publishing what we know best will keep
us on track.”
Even with long sellers, Wang wants to go beyond print. “It
also should not be extended just to the digital realm. The goal,
for a long-selling textbook or educational title, should be to
Visit publishersweekly.com/academicpublishinginchina2019 to read this special report online.
36 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
make use of the content and create a whole ecosystem around it
that puts together the author, publisher, reader, and teacher for
further collaboration and interaction. The ecosystem must also
be enhanced with the application of new technologies and tools
such as AI, analytics, Big Data, and social media to make it even
more useful and relevant. It will enable the creation of new
materials—ancillaries, curated items, lectures, and audio or
video content, for instance—that can enrich the repository.
Then the content can be ‘hybridized’ for multiformat and mul-
tichannel dissemination for a wider reach.”
Digitizing for Wider (and Faster) Access
Digitizing content and creating hybrid products has taken on
a frenetic pace, no doubt propelled by growing demand.
According to the China Press and Publication Research
Institute, 2018 revenues for all digital products—including
animated videos, blogs, educational products, games, journals,
newspapers, and music—reached 833.78 billion CNY, an
increase of 17.8% from the previous year. Sales of online educa-
tional products alone accounted for 133 billion CNY.
There is no question that the internet has transformed the
Chinese academic publishing scene, says Zhu Yongliang, gen-
eral manager of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company: “The
availability of a massive amount of information on the internet
has popularized online reading, which is fragmented but exten-
sive, especially on mobile devices, and this is something new to
the publishing industry.”
The urgency around meeting demands from the younger
generation of users, who are toting mobile devices and con-
suming information on the go, is palpable. And for a nation
boasting more than 800 million internet users, of whom 98%
are mobile-based, the question is no longer whether or when to
digitize content but how fast.
Guangxi Normal University Press Group, for instance, has
nearly 45,000 titles in its catalogue, and 1,000 more are added
each year. Zhang Yibing, its chairman, is well aware that he and
his team are sitting on a treasure trove of content waiting to be
transformed, rediscovered, and monetized. With textbooks,
teaching materials, and academic titles (specifically in the
humanities) forming the core of GNUP’s publishing program,
there are ample opportunities to reformat content to fit a new
generation of learners and teachers. Then there are the group’s
rare books and archival tomes spanning years of research and
collection—such as the 50 volumes on the archaeological and
historical findings of Dunhuang and the 283-volume Chinese
Maritime Customs Service series—that can be turned into spe-
cialized databases for export to libraries and research institu-
tions, or integrated into specific courses at local universities.
“The past couple of years have seen us working on a digital
content transformation and bringing about an integrated pub-
lishing program,” Zhang says. “An ERP management system is
 Academic Publishing in China
now driving our new and more efficient production and pub-
lishing processes, while the projects we marked for digital trans-
formation are going through that process. What we want is to
create a whole digital learning ecosystem that will add value to,
and blend with, our existing print products. Digitization gives
us the opportunity to collect and preserve valuable historical
content for future generations while affording us the capability
to repurpose existing content to meet emerging market needs.
The value of the content to the end user propels GNUP’s digi-
tization efforts.”
Hua Chunrong, general manager of Tongji University Press,
is also busy laying the groundwork for digitizing and hybrid-
izing his publishing program. “While our press is predomi-
nantly print-based,” he says, “digitizing our list, creating a
digital database, and making these a part of our publishing and
reading ecosystem is the way forward.”
Transforming content for the digital world is easy, says Zhang
Gaoli, president of China Translation & Publishing House.
“Nowadays, all contracts have digital rights clearly specified,
and having audio, e-book, and bilingual editions are simple
given the processes, tools, and platforms that are available in
the market,” he says. “What is difficult lies in the royalty pay-
ment, which can get complex in a hurry depending on factors
such as volumes, bundling options, and subscription levels.”
The digital age also comes with self-publishing, observes
Zhu, of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company. “The boundary
between knowledge producer and content editor is blurring,
and the threshold in academic publishing is being lowered.
Anyone with the right content and credentials can publish an
academic article or book nowadays.”
He adds, “The questions remain: how do we harness these
digital tools and new technologies to transform the Chinese
academic publishing industry? How do we parlay the new oppor-
tunities emerging from China’s abundant and growing academic
R&D into innovative content for both domestic and interna-
tional readerships? These are the new challenges of our time.”
Leveraging New Tools and Models
A slew of new technologies—especially those that are algo-
rithm-driven and cognition-based—is a boon to publishers
eager to augment content and shorten the production process.
Zhu, of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company, says that Big
Data “makes it possible for publishers to provide knowledge-
based services based on consumer needs and preferences, which
is great for targeted academic publishing. There has been an
exponential increase in the demand for in-depth and specialized
field information and research results due to the internet. With
semantic search engines, we can now analyze user preferences,
usage patterns, the effectiveness of advertisement placements,
and so much more. And this is making academic publishing
more personalized, accurate, and immediate.”
Zhang, of Guangxi Normal University Press Group, says that,
“using cognitive technologies and discoverability tools, we are
working on personalizing content and increasing consumer
engagement. We want to offer adaptive online courses, microlec-
tures, virtual study tours, and other new models of learning and
teaching that will take advantage of the digital era that we are in.”
Zhu, of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company, notes that
Big Data can also enhance content: “Data analytics makes
research results and conclusions more accurate. For scholars, new
scientific research tools based on Big Data technology have
accelerated the speed at which research can be completed.
Technology and the internet have also broken down the bound-
aries of traditional classical disciplines to enable the emergence
of a large number of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary
research fields, which further enriches the academic publishing
segment.”
Easy, fast, and secure payment methods have also expanded the
market for new business models such as online courses and audio-
based language-learning subscriptions, says Zhang, of China
Translation & Publishing House. “With the WeChat app, for
instance, the consumer can select the course or syllabus required,
scan the QR code, and make a direct payment from their bank
account to the content provider or creator. It eliminates third-
party intervention while simplifying the whole process.”
“With these new models,” Zhang adds, “the collaboration
between the content provider and publisher goes deeper, as it
needs to evolve quickly with immediate content enhancements
and direct-to-consumer updates to suit market demand, unlike
in print products.”
These communications among collaborators and stakeholders
on the publisher side have become easier with internet-enabled
tools, says Zhu. “Collaborative editing platforms and data ware-
houses imbued with Big Data capabilities further speed up the
publishing and production processes.”
New marketing channels and broadcasting networks can also
influence a book’s sales numbers. In 2017, Zhang and his team
at China Translation & Publishing House launched Freshman
Readings in English—aimed at English-language students at the
National Southwestern Associated University—with a first
printing of 3,000 copies priced at 78 CNY. Between a series of
CCTV documentaries celebrating the university’s 80th anniver-
Cashless transaction is reshaping book retailing in China; see “A Quick
Visit to Two Academic Bookstores,” p. 46.
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 37
 Academic Publishing in China
sary and the book’s popularity on social media networks, sales
grew to nearly 100,000 copies. The revised edition with audio,
priced at 99 CNY, has already sold 80,000 copies.
And companies must be able to keep up with a rapidly
evolving social media landscape: platforms such as Dangdang
and JD, which were recently very popular, are fast becoming
outdated, observes Zhang. “That is the speed at which things
are moving.”
Other technological questions are on the horizon. With 5G
(fifth-generation wireless networks, which are much faster than
their predecessors) catching on in China, Hua, of Tongji
University Press, sees a need for the industry to evolve to keep
pace. “This is going be a big challenge. Information exchanges
will happen at a phenomenal speed with 5G, and this will revo-
lutionize all industries, including publishing and book retailing.
How will TJUP and other university presses adapt to this? How
will our industry change in the near future by taking advantage
of 5G? How will 5G affect content dissemination, and how will
readers utilize 5G in their search for content? These are some of
the questions that all of us will need to ask of ourselves and be
prepared to answer.”
Tackling the Talent Crunch
Zhu, of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company, also points out
that the Chinese academic publishing industry “needs to culti-
vate more qualified and professional talents that can grasp and
utilize new digital tools effectively while leveraging on our
country’s R&D results and major scientific and technological
breakthroughs.” Hua, of Tongji University Press, agrees that
the shifts in publishing and bookselling require a new type of
talent. “But staff with global views and marketing experience
are usually hard to come by. Add the need for a good under-
standing of digital and print publications, and the ways to
merge them to appeal to today’s tech-savvy and sophisticated
readers, and the talent search gets complicated.”
Finding employees with translation and localization skills,
too, can pose a challenge. “Translation is hard; literary transla-
tions and those involving colloquial Chinese are even harder,”
says Zhang, of China Translation & Publishing House, who has
been in the business for 28 years. “Things related to culture are
the most difficult to translate, and if tweaks have to be made,
then the story may get watered down and the reader will miss
the original flavor and voice.”
But, Zhang adds, “there are limited translation resources and
talents within the publishing industry. While big companies
such as Alibaba or Huawei have offices all over the world and
access to a much bigger pool of talent, Chinese publishing com-
panies are nowhere near that size or scope. Investments in our
book industry are predominantly localized or onshore, and this
does not afford us the opportunity to tap the international talent
pool. Time and bigger resources are needed to address this issue.”
For now, efforts are slowly and steadily being made to culti-
vate a Chinese talent pool that understands the hybrid print-
38 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
digital publishing ecosystem. For instance, last September
GNUP’s parent university, Guangxi Normal University,
launched an app, Duxiu School, to teach digital publishing. It
now has more than 200,000 registered users and an average of
12,000 active users per month.
Penetrating Overseas Markets
Chinese academic publishers are exploring new ways to get their
products into foreign markets. According to Hua, of Tongji
University Press, language remains a major barrier to getting
more articles and works by Chinese scholars published in inter-
national journals or distributed in overseas markets. “This,” he
explains, “is one of the reasons we started our original English
publishing program back in 2017. We want to share our R&D
results and local experiences with relevant international aca-
demics and industries, and one effective way of accomplishing
this is to publish directly in English.” The publisher has thus
far achieved its overseas penetration through direct exports of
its original English titles and copublishing deals with multina-
tional publishers.
“But,” Hua explains, “‘going out’ [exporting existing prod-
ucts to overseas markets] is just the first step. The whole idea
now is about ‘going into’ different markets with content that
bundles together content written by Chinese scholars that
reflects local experiences with content reflecting international
perspectives. These new materials, mostly market-driven con-
tent, are geared towards a global readership, and through this,
Tongji University and our press will be able to spread our schol-
arship abroad.” The university, which is known for industry and
brand collaborations (including with BASF on sustainable con-
struction and rural vitalization, Merck on stem cell research,
and Porsche in automotive studies), has followed a similar
strategy by publishing English-language journals, including She
Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation and Underground
Space with Elsevier, and Built Heritage and Pollution Control with
Springer Nature.
For Wang, of East China Normal University Press, products
such as Shanghai Maths and 5-Minute Maths Mastery, which
are being adapted for overseas markets, signify the next step in
its foreign-market strategy. “Exporting the rights is one thing,”
she says. “Having the content adapted for use in schools and
collaborating closely with the country’s education ministry is
another. Going into overseas markets validates our content as
useful, influential, and credible. And it goes a long way in estab-
lishing our brand and products.”
In the following pages, PW talks with five major academic
players to learn more about their publishing activities, visits
two academic bookstores, looks at how urbanization is propel-
ling R&D programs and the Chinese academic publishing seg-
ment, and checks out some of the new titles coming out from
the five publishers. ■
Note: Exchange rate at time of printing is 100 CNY = $14.11.
 The Magic Elephant Books
The Magic Elephant Books is a children’s book brand launched by
Guangxi Normal University Press Group at the beginning of 2015.
Our goal is to build a magical kingdom that connects books with
children and adults. Readers will have the best children’s books that are
enjoyable, fun, and imaginative.

The Launch of Three Overseas Branches in Croatia, Malaysia and Japan

Guided by Guangxi Normal University Press Group, the overseas branches in Croatia, Malaysia, and Japan which are run by
The Magic Elephant Books were founded. Through two platforms, one for publication and the other for foreign rights, and one
international illustrator center, we are working on enhancing the cultural exchange between China and these three countries,
introducing high-quality Chinese stories abroad, and bringing the best cultural products into China. To-date, we have produced over
130 original titles and worked as the publisher and global agent for world-class authors such as Svjetlan Junaković, Yang Shifan, and
Huang Shi. Selected titles have been sold and now available in various foreign editions, including Japanese and Traditional Chinese.

Fly, Fly, Fly Moonrise

Svjetlan Junaković & Liu Ben Wang Shuyin
An international collaboration between A picture book filled with Chinese
a Chinese author and a world-class c u lt u r a l a l lu s i on s t h at c om b i n e s
Croatian illustrator, this rhythmic picture calligraphy, architecture, sculpture…
book is filled with fun and imagination. Through these pages, the Jade Rabbit in
It shows all kinds of flying things while the Moon Palace witnessed the meeting
conveying a desire for freedom and of the lovers on the Magpie Bridge, saw
moving upward. the castle in the air, and jumped into the
house of Lord Ye with a dragon…

No ？ The Amazing Book

Yang Sifan Yang Sifan
Illustrator Yang Sifan, who has been Selected for inclusion in the 2017 White
nominated for Biennial of illustrations Ravens Catalogue, each illustration
Bratislava, describes the animals to in this book tells a story that shows
show their creativity. The things that are different views about books from ostrich,
considered to be wrong can be all right penguin, mice, crocodile, giraffe and
for something else… many other animal friends.

For rights, contact: Xie Yuan xieyuan@bbtpress.com www.bbtpress.com

 Academic Publishing in China
China Translation & Publishing House
E
stablished in 1973 as China Translation & Publishing
Corporation, this state-level institution was originally
tasked with translating and publishing documents
from the United Nations and UNESCO. Later, it was
split into CTPH and China Translation Corp. to accelerate
growth. But the early years left an indelible mark on CTPH.
“Those activities gave us plenty of exposure to different coun-
tries, companies, and translators, and we got used to working
across cultures and languages. So by the time the separation
happened in 2015, we were able to reorganize quickly and move
aggressively to build our publishing pro-
gram,” says president Zhang Gaoli, who
launched the Wee Sing series for English-
language learning and bilingual Chinese-
English editions of Dr. Seuss books just a
year later.
The current team of 62 people, of whom
35 are editors, recently translated the best-
selling series DK English for Everyone and
Penguin Great Ideas. CTPH offers about
380 new titles annually (with nearly 10,000
in the backlist) in five major categories: arts
and literature, children’s books, education,
foreign-language learning, and social
sciences.
Several original series have spread the
CTPH brand beyond the Chinese shores and
accelerated its rights-selling and copub-
lishing programs. One explores the key
market players behind China’s economic
rise. “Many people wanted to learn and
understand more about China and its eco-
nomic expansion, and that gave us the idea
to look into the success stories of local entre- Zhang Gaoli, president of China Translation & Ankur Prakashani (Bangladesh), Estacion
Publishing House.
preneurs and share them with the rest of the
world,” says Zhang. The first five volumes of the Chinese
Entrepreneurs series are on Jack Ma (of Alibaba), Ma Huateng
(Tencent), Dong Mingzhu (Gree), Ren Zhengfei (Huawei), and
Wang Jianlin (Dalian Wanda). The second set of five titles—on
the leaders of Fosun, Haier, Baidu, SF, and Yangtze River—was
launched in early 2019. The series, available in English through
CTPH’s copublishing program with London-based LID
Publishing, has been translated into 16 languages, including
Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.
Another series, From Inside China, offers more glimpses into
the country, the mindset of its people, and the ideologies that
continue to shape it. Among the 26 titles in the series are: Green
Great Wall, Migrant Workers and the City: Generation Now, The
People’s Secretary: Fighting Corruption in the People’s Party, and
40 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
Zhongshan Road: Following the Trail of China’s Modernization.
“Migrant Workers, for instance, has captured the attention of
publishers from countries such as Canada and India, where
shifting demographics are slowly but steadily transforming
their economies from agriculture to service and high-tech indus-
tries. So we are able to share our unique challenges and experi-
ences with these overseas readers,” Zhang adds.
In the series The Sinologists, on the other hand, the voices come
from a group of foreigners who know and love China. “How
Robin Gilbank from the U.K. or Wolfgang Kubin from Germany
look at us as a country and people is vastly
different from how we view ourselves. Their
perspectives, which highlight the differ-
ences and similarities between Chinese and
the authors’ own cultures, will foster a better
understanding of China as a whole.”
Gilbank’s An Englishman in the Land of Qin
and Exploring China and Kubin’s Life in
China are among the nine titles in this series.
CTPH is also known for introducing
big-name contemporary ethnic Chinese
authors to the international stage through
its Kaleidoscope: China’s Ethnic Writers
series. Out of the 40 works in the series so
far, the most popular have included
Tibetan writer A-lai’s Hollow Mountain
(with rights already sold to 14 countries),
Yi author Jidi Majia’s Identity, Yunnan poet
Luruo Diji’s No Water Cleaner Than Tears,
and Kazakh author Yerkesy Hulmanbiek’s
An Eternal Lamb.
Collaborations with overseas companies
are plentiful at CTPH, including with
La Cultura (Peru), Havana University Press
(Cuba), Kossuth (Hungary), Pyi Zone (Myanmar), Rao
(Romania), and Saengdao (Thailand). To date, CTPH has inked
more than 300 rights deals with publishers from 23 countries
in the Americas, Europe, and the group participating in China’s
Belt and Road economic initiative.
In May 2018, CTPH signed an agreement to launch the
Chinese edition of UNESCO Courier magazine. Zhang says,
“With this project, it seems like CTPH has come full circle,
going back to the very first overseas partner that we collaborated
with 46 years ago. It also goes to show that, despite the years in
between and throughout the major changes in this book market,
our goal and commitment as a publishing house remains stead-
fast—and that is to bring the best content from China to the
world, and vice versa.” —T.T.
 ‘”÷ “≥.pdf 1 19/9/18 上午11:27

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 Academic Publishing in China
East China Normal University Press
E
ducation is at the heart of the mission of ECNUP, which
ranks among China’s top 10 university presses in terms
of sales and influence. A look at its catalogue uncovers lishers ‘going out’ [exporting titles] for a while now. This set of
everything on the subject, including textbooks from
the preschool to the vocational level, teacher education mate-
rials, and titles on educational theory and psychology.
In spring 2019, ECNUP signed an agreement with SAGE
Publishing to publish ECNU Review of Education, an open-
access English-language journal that focuses on cutting-edge
educational research in China and the
world. The journal, according to ECNUP
president Wang Yan, “seeks to build a
global forum for scholars interested in
advancing knowledge, generating big
ideas, and exerting a real impact in
education.”
Prior to that, at the 2018 Beijing
International Book Fair, ECNUP signed
two cooperation agreements with over-
seas partners. The first was with Peter
Lang to publish the English edition of
China’s Path to Education Modernization, a
collection of 10 monographs that provide
deep analyses, details, and insights from
top Chinese scholars in educational
research. The second was with World
Scientific Publishing to publish the
WSPC-ECNU Series, which showcases
major research results since 2012 in areas
including education, literature, philos- Wang Yan, president of East China Normal
University Press.
ophy, and sociology. “These two series
offer the international academic community valuable studies
and viewpoints on the problems, experiences, and traditions of
modern-day China,” says Wang.
But it is not just high-level academic publishing at ECNUP.
Last November, Wang and her team, together with LEGO
Group, launched an elementary-school STEAM course. The
goal, adds Wang, “is to support teachers in an inspiring,
engaging, and effective way while turning Chinese students into
collaborative learners with 21st-century skills. We are lever-
aging the power of play to develop lifelong skills.”
Then there is the 65-volume Shanghai Maths series, the
press’s flagship product and its biggest—and most influential—
export to-date. HarperCollins, which has had the rights for the
U.K. and British Commonwealth territories since 2015, intro-
duced the math textbooks to British primary and secondary
schoolers, and the set became an immediate hit. Now, another
series, 5-Minute Maths Mastery, is being adapted and tweaked
to suit the British curriculum.
42 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
For Wang, Shanghai Maths is a major milestone for ECNUP.
“We have been talking about Chinese publications and pub-
textbooks, which is being considered for adaptation in non-
English languages, is about ‘going into’ [adapting content for]
different markets. This is exactly what we want to do for other
publications as well, but we are starting with our strongest
product, and that is mathematics.”
Imports and translation activities continue to grow as well.
One major project that has kept the team
busy for many months has to do with the
centennial birthday of philosopher, psy-
chologist, and educational reformer John
Dewey. One title, Dewey: Record of His Time
in China and What He Did, was published
in May, followed by a 12-volume Selected
Works of John Dewey series. The team has
also organized six events, mostly lectures
and conferences, on Dewey and his influ-
ence on Chinese education.
Wang adds, “We have several other big
projects going on, mostly single-title
publications. One of them is A History of
Africa in Pictures, which features photo-
graphs—many of which are rare—of old
Africa alongside anecdotes and back-
ground stories.” Her team is also working
with French publishers on titles about
music history and feminist studies.
Another groundbreaking and research-
intensive publication explores the evolu-
tion of ancient Chinese script during the Qin, Han, and Six
Dynasties periods in 10 volumes. The research findings will also
be made into a digital database to encourage further studies and
discovery.
“While we want to focus on our strengths in areas such as
education and mathematics, we also want to publish meaningful
works that address gaps in the Chinese book market and aca-
demic publishing, on topics such as feminism. Or have Chinese
poets analyze and interpret English poems and vice versa, and
publish the original and interpreted selections to showcase the
different emotions, experiences, and ideas involved.” The latter
is encapsulated in Third Shore of the Sea, edited by poet Yang Lian.
The ECNUP publishing program, Wang says, “aims to
attain the highest levels of scholarship and research while
creating products that appeal to the reading public. Well-
written and in-depth content offers great value to readers and
enriches their lives—and this has always been our guiding
principle.” —T.T.
 Academic Publishing in China
Guangxi Normal University Press Group
L
everaging GNUP’s more
than 30 companies and
subsidiaries to enhance
its brand and influence
keeps the group’s chairman,
Zhang Yibing, busy and ener-
gized. Major acquisitions—of
the Australian company Images
Publishing in 2014 and U.K.-
based ACC Publishing in
2016—have been followed by
several new partnerships and
overseas branches.
The group made collaborative
agreements with Asia Think
Tank Co. last November, with
the goal of connecting with
ASEAN member countries, and Zhang Yibing, chairman of Guangxi Normal University Press Group.
Japanese publisher Juritsusha six
months later, to create a platform for children’s publishing
activities in Northeast Asia. “Together with our Croatian
partner, children’s publisher Djecja Knjiga, we hope to create a
network that spans Europe and Asia,” adds Zhang, who estab-
lished a Macau office in July to forge a link between the Chinese to date.
special administrative region and other Portuguese-speaking
places.
Then there are major translation projects, such as the one with 1939/1941, which spotlights Chinese historical sites and cul-
a Malaysian government agency to publish 10 classic Chinese
literary works in Malay and vice versa. “This is the first time
such a large number of Malay literary works is being exported
to China, and for us, it begins a new chapter in interregional
exchanges and understanding,” Zhang says.
Arts Bridge—the brand that combines the resources and
talents of Images and ACC and is supported by editorial offices
in Australia, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.—presents an
even bigger platform for GNUP. “It gives us the opportunity
and space to promote Chinese art, artists, creativity, and design Cambodian, English, Indonesian, Lao, Malay, Thai, and
on the international stage” Zhang explains, adding that Arts
Bridge had held events at the 2017 Frankfurt and 2019 London
book fairs. “We introduced to the world the exceptional art of
designer Zhu Yingchun, including his award-winning book The
Language of Bugs, and selected ceramic works from Bai Ming.
Now, Zhu’s book and Bai’s ceramics are, respectively, found in
the British Library and British Museum permanent
collections.”
The 2017 publication The Beauty of B&Bs, featuring more
than 100 outstanding architectural designs, further showcased
Arts Bridge’s reach in putting together an international group
of editors and publishers with a shared agenda in promoting
44 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
art and design.
Then, in May 2018, GNUP
released the first issue of
Architecture China at the Venice
Architecture Biennale. “This
will become a quarterly journal
jointly published by ACC,
Images, and GNUP and edited
by Li Xiangning, deputy dean
and professor of architecture and
urban planning at Tongji
University,” Zhang says.
Shi Zhan’s Pivots: 3,000 Years
of China was launched during a
popular talk show in 2018 and
sold more than 50,000 copies
within 48 hours. “Its current
sales of about 280,000 copies are
indicative of an audience curious
about changes within China and its current position on the
world stage,” says Zhang. Wu Gou’s Elegant Song: The Visible
Civilization, which explores life during the Song dynasty, won
the 2018 China Good Book award and has sold 80,000 copies
Other outstanding titles from GNUP in recent months
include The City of Shadows: Liang Sicheng and Guanghan in
tural heritage, and translations of Bob Dylan’s The Lyrics: 1961–
2012 and David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British
Folkways in America.
There has also been a surge in collaborations between GNUP
and countries involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “Our
group has invested nearly 10 million CNY in 20 publishing
programs to foster cultural and information exchanges,” says
Zhang. Oriental Wisdom, a 100-title series of key Chinese clas-
sics, will initially be translated into eight languages (Burmese,
Vietnamese). Other projects include a book on the historical
friendship between the Chinese and Philippine peoples, a cul-
ture and tourism series on the Maritime Silk Road, and a series
on the history of Hepu County, a major ancient trading hub.
“Chinese publishers, including GNUP, have copublished and
traded rights with the West going back several decades. The
same, however, cannot be said about neighboring and regional
countries—and we are going to ride on the Belt and Road
Initiative to rectify this,” says Zhang. “Sharing knowledge while
exploring different perspectives is what publishing and GNUP
are all about—and this goal transcends culture, geography, his-
tory, and language.” —T.T.
 Academic Publishing in China

Tongji University Press

F
or 35-year-old TJUP, focusing on the strengths of its Some of these original
parent university’s faculty makes perfect sense. “Art and English publications are
design, architecture and the built environment, and civil breaking the staid academic
and structural engineering are our three core areas,” says mold. One such project is the
general manager Hua Chunrong, adding that Tongji University three-volume architectural
was ranked #14, #18, and #40 in these subjects, respectively, in graphic nonfiction series
the 2019 QS World University Rankings. “We started in 2012 focusing on contemporary
by establishing a high-end professional publishing brand, Beijing—798 Art District,
Luminocity, which focuses on urbanism and architecture. Our Nanluoguxiang, and Sanlitun.
slogan, ‘reading enlightens the city,’ encapsulates this focus.” Hua says, “Aside from pub-
In 2017, the team started publishing original titles in English lishing academic titles to sup- Hua Chunrong, general manager of
Tongi University Press.
and distributing them worldwide. “We are one of the first in port the faculty, our goal is
the Chinese academic world to do so,” says Hua. Among the 10 also to offer accessible, entertaining, and visually attractive titles
original English titles it has published so far are Neil Leach that can reach the general readership.”
and Philip F. Yuan’s Computational Design, Mary Polites’s The The press’s collaborations with overseas publishers are also
Rise of Biodesign, and Lan Wang’s Walkable Cities in High Density going strong. Between 2017 and 2018, TJUP signed about 20
China. copublishing agreements with companies such as De Gruyter,
The university’s various joint-degree programs, workshops, Elsevier, Springer, and Taylor & Francis. This year, TJUP is
and research with visiting professors, mostly from the West, looking into publishing select titles in Arabic and Kazakh as a
give the press access to “international standards, multicultural part of the pan-Eurasian knowledge network involved in the
viewpoints, and global ideas. At the same time, our local lec- Belt and Road economic initiative.
turers—many whom have studied and worked overseas—prefer Hua’s goal for the press is “to publish Chinese experiences and
to write in English on their own or collaborate with these vis- bring Chinese scholarly voices to the world. What we are
iting professors and fellow researchers. This forms a strong striving to do through our publishing program is to replace the
basis for our English publishing program,” Hua says. label ‘printed in China’ with ‘published in China.’” —T.T.

A Quick Visit to Two Academic Bookstores

The first stop on PW’s itinerary is the tranquil Tongji Bookstore,
located adjacent to the junction of two busy roads in Shanghai’s
Yangpu district. It fits around 10,000 titles, on topics ranging from
arts and design to science and the humanities, into 325 sq. m., and
has an outdoor seating area and a garden intended for little exhibi-
tions and events. Memories of crammed and dusty academic book-
stores of the past are chased away by the bright and open space with
creative book displays, no doubt a nod to its parent university’s
strengths in architecture and design.
“We are creating an ‘urban living room’ that connects academia to
the public and offers an inclusive environment to encourage public
reading,” says Hua Chunrong, general manager of Tongji University
Tongji Bookstore offers an open and airy space for public reading.
Press, adding that the bookstore was launched to commemorate its
parent university’s 111th anniversary on May 18, 2018. “Despite the Payment for books, coffee, and ice cream is cashless, mostly through
popularity of e-retailers and social media platforms in selling and buy- Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay, the two most popular digital
ing books in China, there remains an urgent need to have bricks-and- wallets in China, which account for 93% of the country’s mobile payment
mortar stores, especially as a cultural meeting point for interacting industry. (Various news organizations predict that, by 2020, Chinese
and exchanging ideas. Furthermore, now that we are doing more consumers will transact nearly $45 trillion through mobile payments,
trade-based titles, proximity to the reading public is essential.” making it the world’s first cashless economy.)
Books aside, the Tongji Bookstore is also known for its little café PW’s next stop is Hangzhou, which is about 180 km. away, or around
that serves inky-black pineapple ice cream. The insider joke is that con- an hour by high-speed train. Here, the 500 sq. m. Boku Tianmu Bookstore,
suming the ice cream is equivalent to digesting the ink spilled on book owned by Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company, offers nearly 40,000
pages, or in other words, becoming a learned person. titles from various publishing houses and a brand-new look and feel.
continued on p. 48

46 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
 Academic Publishing in China
Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company
Z
PMC excels at producing authoritative, major reference
works. The China Classic Book Collections, for instance,
compiles 690 ancient titles from the pre-Qin to late Qing
dynasties into 166 volumes (of more than 170,000 pages)
available in print and digital formats. Another ambitious project
is the Zhejiang Literature Collections, of which 500 volumes are
already completed, with another 300 to follow by 2022.
As for the Complete Works of Mo Yan, 26 out of a planned
47 volumes are now available. Reprints of works by Mo, the first
Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner, have exceeded two mil-
lion copies, and rights have been sold to more than 40 countries.
Then there is the Complete Works of Edvard Munch, repro-
ducing 1,871 works by the Norwegian expressionist painter,
which King Harald V of Norway purchased and later presented
as a state gift to Chinese president Xi Jinping.
But ZPMC is not just about art and literature. There are many
STM journals and publications as well, including the China’s
Big Scientific Facilities Projects series, which focuses on 13 of
the nation’s most important and innovative scientific installa-
tions, such as the electron-positron collider and Daya Bay
nuclear power plant. Foreign rights were sold to De Gruyter.
“Intraregional rights sales and copublishing efforts have been
brisk in recent months, particularly with Belt-and-Road coun-
tries,” says general manager Zhu Yongliang. “Africa is an
emerging market, where our titles on agricultural science and
technology and public health and medical treatment are avail-
continued from p. 46
Last October, the seven-year-old store was relaunched with a cash-
less and mostly unstaffed system from Tmall, Alibaba’s third-party
business-to-consumer platform for retailers. A shopper enters the store
by accessing the Tmall app or Alipay account on his or her mobile phone.
The shopper immediately receives a personalized page on Smart Shelf
with book recommendations based on previous shopping patterns.
More book reviews, related information, and corresponding shelf loca-
tions appear on the interactive LCD screens located throughout the store.
Each recommended book has a QR code to support online and offline
Boku Tianmu Bookstore adopts a high-tech book retail concept.
48 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
able in 11 countries and 20
language editions.” In
Cameroon, the French edi-
tion of one ZPMC textbook
series is used by 200 middle
and high schools.
Behind the scenes, inte-
gration and realignment of
ZPMC divisions are ongoing.
Earlier this year, its large-
scale Bookuu Digital
Publishing Group was
formed to integrate its audio,
video, online, and periodical Zhu Yongliang, general manager
units. “Bookuu Digital offers of Zhejiang Publishing & Media
a knowledge-based service Company.
platform with new media matrix to connect various ZPMC
publishing units with writers and readers and to disseminate
product information through multiple channels and formats,”
adds Zhu.
The Bookuu platform, Zhu says, “allows users to set up their
own stores independently and have access to add-on functions
such as retailing, e-reading, and e-learning. It combines these
activities with social media. The whole idea behind Bookuu
Digital and its platform is about meeting industry shifts and
consumer demands.” —T.T.
browsing and purchase. Tmall’s Smart Payment system then enables
the shopper to pay via facial recognition and provides an updated trans-
action history through the mobile phone. The shopper’s browsing activi-
ties and transaction history are further analyzed for more accurate
recommendations of both books and author-related events.
“We use WeChat and various social media platforms to disseminate
information on in-store promotions and events,” says Zhu Yongliang,
general manager of Zhejiang Publishing & Media Company, which has its
own WeChat account to publish information on the store’s weekend
events, such as handicraft lessons, flower arranging classes, parent-
child games, and book readings. Some 93 events have been held
since its October relaunch.
Such activities, adds Zhu, “represent our multipronged outreach
efforts to foster better understanding of a bookstore’s different roles in
a community, and to increase interactions between the bookstore and
readers and among the creative, publishing, and reading communities.”
In recent months, the local governments of some major Chinese
cities are working to support and revive bricks-and-mortar book-
stores, which have struggled in the face of intense competition from
online retailers and social media platforms. Beijing now has a
50-million CNY fund to subsidize 150 specialty and community
bookstores, while Shanghai plans to ensure that each of the city’s
major universities (of which there are more than 40) has its own
campus bookstore. —T.T.
I I
--------------------
ZHEJIANG PUBLISHING UNITED GROUP
:EJ Zhejiang People's Publishing House
Jack Ma: Founder and CEO of the
Alibaba Group
Jack Ma is the founder and CEO of the
Alibaba Group, a privately owned Internet
based e-commerce company in China whose
sales are estimated to be bigger than its
American competitors eBay and Amazon.
com combined. This book unveils Jack Ma' a
thousand faces in real life from different
angels, and it reveals a Jack Ma different
from your imagination.
:EJ Zhejiang Science and Technology Press
Quantum Hydrodynamics Equations
and Its Mathematical Theory
This book collects and collates the data
of quantum hydrodynamic equations
and studies its mathematical problems.
The contents include: the derivation
and mathematical models of quantum
hydrodynamic equations; global existence of
-��- ...
,., _,,.,,.. ' .
E!�!l�-�:-1-.�;;
. �·- weak solutions in the compressible quantum
hydrodynamic equations; and the existence
of finite energy weak solutions of inviscid
quantum hydrodynamic equations.
:EJ Zhejiang Children's Publishing House
Ancient City of Liangzhu
5000 years ago, ancient cultures in different
parts of China became civilizations.
Liangzhu city is one of the best known from
archaeology and reveals what civilization
was like 5000 years ago. On 6th July 2019,
Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City was
inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage
site.This book reveals the 5000-year-old
civilization, in three parts:water, city and
jade.
:EJ Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House
Illustrations of Liangzhu Jades
Liangzhu, a prehistoric civilization from
5300 to 4300 years ago, is said to be
of China's first dynasty. This book uses
archaeological lines to show Liangzhu jade,
from the cong, the scepter, to the headwear,
ornaments, daily necessitiesof the Liangzhu
people. This book clearly presents us the
fine art of four or five lines in the Liangzhu
jades within one millimeter, so that we can
appreciate Liangzhu while enjoying the art.
www.zjcb.com
I I
,------------
:EJ Zhejiang People's Fine Arts Publishing House
When C onfucian Spirit Meets
Southern Elegance
The study traces the calligraphic traditions of
the Northern Qi Dynasty. The protagonists ,
are works of calligraphy rendered in bafen
shu, or"classical clerical script", and the
stylistically consistent group of sutra
inscriptions in the Chinese province of
Shandong that is closely connected to the
calligraphy-monk Seng'an Daoyi.
:EJ Zhejiang Culture and Art Publishing House
Binocular Typhoon
More than a decade ago, there was a rape
and homicide case in which the innocent
person was shot as the murderer. Ten years
later, the real killer appeared. There was a
division within the police about whether to
re-examine the old case or just let it be. Bao
Xuefei, a female police officer who was
promoted by the case, and Fu Lian, a police
officer bent on fighting for the justice of the
wronged dead, fought a life-and-death battle.
:EJ Zhejiang Education Publishing Group
Content Introduction for Contemporary China's
Science and Technology Stories
This series of books compose the "China
Story" in the field of science and technology
innovation, aiming at publicizing our major
achievements in science and technology
innovation, promoting the noble sentiment
!
of scientific and technological workers ! ! ! ! ! ! !
and their patriotism of selfless dedication,
l
advocating the spirit of science, dedication i i i j i j j
and innovation, and enhancing national self-
esteem, leading the social fashion.
:EJ Zhejiang Photographic Press
China the Beautiful
This book offers you a panoramic view of
the natural and cultural landscapes of China.
The book unfolds vivid pictures of the
real and the imagined, the country and the
universe, the sacred and the mundane. These
works are results of photographers' endless
search into and boundless love for the
Chinese civilization, full of deep admiration
about the ancient and rejuvenated Chinese
land and good wishes and expectations for
China to be more beautiful.
contact at zjcb@zjcb.com
 Urbanization Spurs Major
R&D in China
By Teri Tan
B
y 2030, McKinsey Global Institute predicts, China’s
urban population will hit the one billion mark. Just
40 years ago, barely 18% of its population lived in
urban areas. Fast forward to September 2019, and that
figure is now nearing 60% out of 1.43 billion people.
With the country’s population growing at 0.6% per year amid
fast-expanding urbanization, shortages of energy, land, and
water are imminent. Calls for sustainable and livable spaces are
getting louder. So how will China deal with key issues such as
housing, the environment, and transportation while supporting
increasing urban population density?
Enter smart cities. At the World Intelligence Congress in
Tianjin last May, participants were given a tantalizing glimpse
of smart-city management with a giant screen displaying real-
time information on traffic, the flow of people, and the weather,
beamed from a municipal control center.
Currently, there are 500 smart-city pilot projects in China,
representing half of all such initiatives around the world. For
the companies involved, there’s big money to be made: last year,
the smart cities represented a 200 billion CNY market that
financial organizations predict will double by 2023. So how does
Chinese and urban growth push the country’s R&D efforts and
academic publishing?
Growing Transit Needs
When it comes to moving the masses in urban areas, the trans-
portation system needs to be fast, cost-effective, and reliable
© nikada / istockphoto
High-speed rail connects 80% of China’s main cities.
50 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
Keeping up with urban demands
has benefited various industries,
including academic publishing
while severely reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Networks of
greener and faster transportation lines linking one city to the
next also facilitate inter-city economic integration and promote
the growth of second-tier cities along the rail lines.
High-speed rail is one such solution. China’s high-speed rail
network, which connects 80% of its major cities and covers
30,000 km, is now the largest in the world. Investments in
railway infrastructure totaled 802.8 billion CNY last year,
with much of the R&D focused on building faster and more
efficient trains.
Since these trains run on electricity and must be able to draw
power from energy sources other than petroleum, R&D in
renewable energy has picked up as well. Transportation system
simulation and automation laboratories are running at top
speed to meet increasing demands. New plans—such as the one
announced by the China Aerospace Science & Technology
Industry Corporation in August 2017 to develop HyperFlight
trains, which can reach up to 4,000-kph speeds, by 2025—are
no doubt adding fuel to the R&D efforts.
China has one of the most complex traffic infrastructures and
driving behavior patterns in the world. (Overseas automotive
companies like BMW Group are opening R&D centers to carry
out simulated testing and perfect their technologies in the
country.) Autonomous driving technologies are being tested in
16 smart cities. This is where R&D on signaling and wireless
communication is most crucial.
The government also plans to increase electric vehicles on the
road to two million units by 2020. Come 2035, China may
require that 60% of its auto sales be plug-in hybrid or electric
cars, up from less than 5% right now. The Chinese Academy of
Sciences’ success in identifying a new, cost-effective way of
extracting lithium from other minerals—thus bringing the
price of lithium-ion batteries down—may have something to
do with this ambitious plan.
Turning to AI and Big Data
Shandong University, ride-hailing company DiDi Chuxing, and
the Jinan city traffic police have come together to solve traffic
congestion there by using AI, Big Data, cloud computing, and
the Internet of Things (IoT). The city’s congestion-reduction
system, controlling 36 streets and 450 crossroads, searches for
optimal traffic solutions and provides real-time recommenda-
tions to drivers through mobile apps and outdoor LED screens.
In Hangzhou, Alibaba came up with the “city brain,” which
uses AI to prevent gridlock, shorten commutes for the city’s
 Academic Publishing in China
© yongyuan dai / istockphoto
Shanghai turns to AI and Big Data to ease its traffic congestion and park-
ing shortage.
seven million inhabitants, and help fire trucks and ambulances
reach emergencies faster. It also incorporates crime analytics for
predictive policing, intelligent video surveillance, and intrusion
detection systems to promote public security.
Over in Shanghai, a metropolis known for a chronic parking
shortage, a smart-parking network is easing congestion and
driver frustration. Its mobile app even allows drivers to book
parking spaces in advance.
As for Beijing, the government’s drive to integrate AI into
the daily lives of its people and introduce the smart-city concept
resulted in the launch of a smart park last November. Its features
include autonomous shuttle buses and smart walkways and
lamp posts that track people’s steps using facial recognition.
(Facial recognition backed by AI and 5G wireless internet is
another area of interest in China; the government is planning
to build a giant database that can identify any of its 1.3 billion
inhabitants within seconds. This has raised public concerns
about privacy.)
Linking various government services to increase convenience
for urban dwellers is another common use of AI and Big Data.
The governments of Shanghai and Tianjin offer a cloud-based
platform and an app through which residents can access more
than 100 public services. Cashless, secure, and fast payments
through apps such as WeChat Pay or Alipay further allow resi-
dents to skip long lines.
Not surprisingly, 2018 saw tech companies investing 153
billion CNY in R&D on cloud computing, Big Data, and AI,
up 45% from the previous year. In the publishing segment, an
initiative launched in July 2018 has brought together researchers
and major Chinese universities to collaborate on textbooks
about AI. East China Normal University Press, for instance, has
introduced six textbooks on AI technological research and
development for primary and secondary schools; four more titles
will be released this year.
Transforming the Built Environment
Buildings are energy guzzlers, and, in urban areas, creating
energy-efficient and sustainable buildings while looking into
advanced construction materials is now typical.
Corporations and universities, such as Germany-based BASF
and Tongji University, are partnering to look into sustainable
materials for innovative buildings. Architecture firms,
including Milan’s Stefano Boeri Architetti, and municipalities
such as Nanjing are working together to implement “vertical
forest” buildings. Springer Nature’s publication Spotlight on
Materials Science in China highlighted the country’s vast R&D
in materials science, an interdisciplinary field that goes beyond
construction materials to applications in biomedical engi-
neering, which is particularly important to the elderly urban
population.
Then there is the focus on low-carbon, renewable, and greener
sources of energy. R&D on solar fuels and solar cells to find
better photovoltaic power generation is (pun intended) pow-
ering ahead. China has parlayed the results of such research into
massive solar farms and become the world’s largest manufacturer
of solar panels (with 60% of the global output). Solar power is
now cheaper than grid electricity in many Chinese cities, further
driving demand and R&D. By 2020, investment in clean energy
R&D—including such areas as smart grids, intelligent build-
ings, and hydrogen energy—is predicted to exceed 50 billion
CNY.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences is widely acknowledged to
be the #1 R&D player in the world in sustainable energy. It is
also ranked #1 in research output in chemistry, physical sci-
ences, and earth and environmental sciences in Springer Nature’s
2019 index of the top 100 natural-science institutions
worldwide.
Going Cashless and Staffless
On March 8, Shanghai’s rapid transit system recorded its highest
daily ridership at 13.3 million. Moving the city’s population of
24.2 million around calls for reducing lines and crowds. So
Shanghai and Beijing (which has 21.9 million inhabitants,
compared to New York City’s roughly nine million) are going
cashless for their public transportation systems.
Beijingers can now buy tickets and add value to their metro
cards by scanning QR codes displayed at ticket windows and
machines located at transit stations. E-wallet payments are also
common in Beijing’s retail outlets and eateries. As a result,
unstaffed stores relying on cashless transactions are springing
up. These have prompted tech companies like Tencent to focus
their R&D programs on mobile payment platform ecosystems,
including machine reading, near-field communications, and
security. Tencent’s app WeChat and its e-wallet WeChat Pay
have more than one billion daily active users.
And sooner or later, the results from all these R&D programs
will reach university presses and academic publishing houses for
publication and dissemination. ■
W W W . P U B L I S H E R S W E E K LY. C O M 51
 A Selection of Titles from
Chinese Academic Presses
University presses are transforming their publishing programs
to meet local market demands and increase exports
By Teri Tan

China’s 110 academic presses are branching
out. While texts for scholarly audiences
have historically been their bread and but-
ter, morphing monographs into titles that
are accessible, engaging, and interesting to
the general trade readership—without
watering down their academic rigor—is
definitely the current goal.
Others see university presses as custodians of public history,
taking seriously their mission to grow and spread knowledge
about China’s heritage. This results in extensively researched
publications on ancient cities, cultural heritage, and past civi-
lizations. Such books don’t always have mainstream appeal, but
Guangxi Normal University Press Group, for instance, man-
aged to combine academic rigor and market-friendliness with
Pivots: 3,000 Years of China, which hit the bestseller jackpot
with nearly 280,000 copies sold to date.
Meanwhile, original publications in English are growing,
especially on topics with international relevance, such as the

I
n China, academic publishers’ programs have historically
drawn on the research strengths of their parent universities
and the nation’s roughly 3,650 R&D institutions, such as
the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, and the China Academy of Aerospace
Aerodynamics. The resulting books have been predominantly
geared toward meeting the immediate needs of students and
faculty. This is a huge and lucrative market that no university
press can afford to ignore: there are roughly 27 million college
students, more than seven million graduate students, and close
to two million postgraduate students in about 2,915 higher
learning institutions in China. Nearly 60% of the country’s
book market, valued at around 89.4 billion CNY, is domi-
built environment and urban living. Having English-language
originals increases export potential (for rights or distribution)
and eases translation into other languages. More journals are
also being published in English through collaborations with
foreign STM publishers, particularly Springer Nature, Elsevier,
and Wiley.
The following pages list a selection of original publications
on offer from the five publishers featured in this coverage. The
list starts with China’s first crime scene investigator in the
1200s and ends with a contemporary poverty alleviation pro-
gram, and encompasses everything from a lighthearted retell-
ings of traditional tales to an analysis of China’s large-scale
scientific facilities. Presses have provided the descriptions. ■
© tawng /depositphoto.com

nated by textbooks and materials related to teaching and

learning.
But after the 2010 nationwide restructuring campaign that
brought about the “emancipation” of university presses from
their parent institutions, there has been a big push for them to
enter the trade market, widen their readerships, and seek their
own fortunes.
For some Chinese university presses, one way to make inroads
into the trade market and secure their bottom lines is to explore
topics such as architecture, education, urban development, and
societal issues. Titles on these topics can be illustrated nicely
and packaged beautifully for mass appeal on bricks-and-mortar
store bookshelves, online retailers’ sites, and social media
platforms.

52 P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y ■ S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 1 9
 Academic Publishing in China

China East China Guangxi

Translation & Normal Normal
Publishing University Press University
House Press Group
Final Witness The History of The City of
Wang Hongjia Chinese Shadows:
This is the story Education, Liang Sicheng
of Song Ci, 4th ed. and Guanghan
China’s first Edited by Sun in
crime scene Peiqing 1939/1941
investigator. He This book offers Xiao Yi
was a judicial a comprehen- Through a
commissioner in sive take on the batch of pho-
Guangdong dur- Chinese educa- tographs, the
ing the 13th-century Song dynasty, tion system by focusing on the culti- author “recon-
when the civil service was weighed vation of talents and expounding its structs” an ancient city and offers
down by corruption and ineptitude. policies, guidelines, management readers a glimpse of the city layout
Just when Song Ci was contemplating measures, curricula, and pedagogical in ancient China and its cultural
retirement, he became involved in a techniques as well as its experiences essence. (492p)
bizarre murder case that surpassed and lessons learned, in chapters
anything he had previously wit- divided by developmental stage. Elegant Song:
nessed. (790p) (521p) The Visible
Civilization
The Road to Wu Gou
Educational This 2018
Equality in the China Good
People’s Book award
Republic of winner, which
China has sold
Yuan Zhenguo about 80,000
et al. copies,
Prayers in the Wind This history depicts various aspects of fashion-
Tsering Nuobu recounts how, able lifestyles during the Song
This novel offers a look at the social over the past seven decades, the dynasty, including daily diet; the
and political history of modern Tibet joint efforts of the Communist Party practices of incense burning, tea
through the reminiscences of an of China and various ethnic groups savoring, and trading; and visits to
elderly monk, Jikme Wangdrak. have transformed the country’s edu- spring gardens and political partici-
Vignettes from the life of the great cation system from one that was pation. (620p)
Tibetan sage Milarepa provide a backward, barren, and weak into a
counterpoint, underscoring the perse- modern model that is high-quality, Pivots: 3,000
verance, humility, and sacrifice of inclusive, and extensive. (353p) Years of
Tibetans. (586p) China
Tales of China Shi Zhan
Qi Baishi: Series This 2018
From Edited by bestseller,
Carpenter Melinda Lilly which has
to Painting Thompson sold nearly
Master Retold for mod- 280,000 cop-
Ni Na ern readers of ies, follows
Qi Baishi is all ages, each China’s his-
known for of these 74 tory over a 3,000-year period and
his water- beautifully illus- explains the country’s unique posi-
color mas- trated Chinese tales is accompanied tion in the world today. (720p)
terpieces, by audio with vivid sound effects and
which focused on everyday subjects. music. Lexile measurements for each
The author, who spent nearly 20 title vary between 420L and 660L,
years studying Qi’s life and art, offers making these engaging tales a sure
a complete biography of the man and favorite for kindergartners and adults
his works. (295p) alike, especially English language
learners. (16 titles; 64-148p each)

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Get the insights from Chinese Tongji Zhejiang
publishers and industry players
of different segments on their University Publishing
book market. Press United Group
Little Known
The Ancient
Facts:
City of Liangzhu
Shanghai
Liu Bin and Yu
Tower
Jingjing
Edited by
In July 2019,
Gu Jianping
the archaeologi-
This book
cal ruins of the
compiles and
ancient city of
explains the
Liangzhu were
engineering
added to the
data for
UNESCO World Heritage list. Five
Shanghai Tower, the world’s second
thousand years ago, ancient cul-
largest building, which rises 632
tures in different parts of China
meters, weighs 850,000 tons, contains
became civilizations, and Liangzhu
five underground floors, and operates
city is one of the best known in
the world’s fastest elevator. (232p)
archaeology. This book for children,
written by archaeologists, examines
Practice of
the ancient civilization. (100p)
Optimization
Theory in
China’s Big
Geotechnical
Scientific
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Facilities
Yin Zhenyu and
Projects Series
Jin Yinfu
Edited by Wang
This book dis-
Yifang et al.
cusses the
Big scientific
development of
facilities, a fron-
an optimization
tier for interna-
platform for geotechnical engineering.
tional science
It is intended for both undergraduate-
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and graduate-level teaching in soil
opment, are about meeting the
mechanics and geotechnical engi-
demands of a country. Each of this
neering, as well as for use by industry
series’ 13 volumes focuses on one
practitioners. (Original English edition,
achievement of the Chinese
356p)
Academy of Sciences in building
and operating large-scale scientific
Robotic Force
facilities in the past decade.
Printing: A
(13 volumes; 2,210p)
Joint Workshop
of MIT/ETH/
Don’t Be Cadres
Tongji
Without People
Philip F. Yuan
in Mind
and Philippe
Wang Huimin
Block
This journalistic
This book doc-
investigation by
uments a joint
Wang Huimin, a
workshop held
well-known
by the Massachusetts Institute of
reporter from
Technology (MIT), ETH Zurich, and
the People’s
Tongji University in January 2019.
Daily, focuses on the poverty allevia-
Participants learned the fundamental
tion program in Xiajiang village in
concepts of COMPAS (an open-source
Zhejiang province. (227p)
We will bring you the news, computational and design framework)
and FURobotic to explore integrating
updates, and stories from China novel structural designs and advances
prior to the annual Bologna and in additive manufacturing and robotic
Frankfurt international book fairs. fabrication. (180p)

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