An important project for China’s publishing industry was recently launched, the “Chinese Character Bank”. This database will include many traditional Chinese characters for the first time, thus meeting the needs of expression, transmission and storage on computers. The project is already in R&D and will be finished in five years. Experts state that the scope [...]
Archive for the ‘culture’ category
“Chinese Character Bank” project launched
08/09/201118th Beijing International Book Fair wrapped up, copyright trade with China increasing
07/09/2011The 18th Beijing International Book Fair lowered its curtain on September 4th. A total of 2,953 copyright trade agreements were signed between China and foreign countries (+574 y-o-y) [see post "Copyright export breakthrough on 17th Beijing International Book Fair"]. Among them, 1,412 copyrights were sold or sought cooperation with foreign publishers, a 17 percent rise [...]
The winners of the 5th “Special Book Award of China”
01/09/2011The award ceremony for the 5th “Special Book Award of China” was held in Beijing’s National Grand Theater on August 30. Liu Yandong, member of the state council, gave prize to five persons who made outstanding contributions to introducing China’s culture abroard and by translating & publishing Chinese works. They are Kristofer Schipper (Professor at [...]
Mao Dun Literature Prize – a writer-official reward? (China)
30/08/2011The article “2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize: Recognizing Fine Literature or Rewarding Writer-Officials?” in Paper Republic’s newsletter provides more detail concerning the underlying controversy. Also see previous post: 8th Mao Dun Literature Prize in China: List of the five winners
8th Mao Dun Literature Prize in China: List of the five winners
26/08/2011On August 20th, the list of the 8th Mao Dun Literature Prize winners was released [also see "Mao Dun Literature Prize: China’s publishing houses cautious about reprinting award winners"]. The prize goes to 5 works (Update: In parentheses I’ve added the English titles as provided by Paper Republic – as professional translators, they’re more qualified [...]
Mao Dun Literature Prize: China’s publishing houses cautious about reprinting award winners
25/08/2011Although bestsellers like Bi Feiyu’s “Massage” and Mo Yan’s “Frog” were awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize, most publishing houses said they will decide whether to reprint these prize winners according to the market situation. Pan Kaixiong, the president of People’s Literature Publishing House, said “If readers have a new demand for “Massage”, we will [...]
Shortlist for China’s Mao Dun Literature Prize published
19/08/2011Yesterday, the shortlist of ten works for China’s prestigious Mao Dun Literature Prize was released in Beijing, as reported in Guangming Daily‘s “ ‘Short Ten’ decided for Mao Dun Prize for Literature” (in Chinese). Translating literary titles is always a minefield, so all corrections are welcome. Liu Xinglong: “Skywalker”, Zhang Wei: “You in the highlands”, [...]
Guangzhou Book Festival opening today (China)
19/08/2011With the slogan “Happy reading, happy Guangdong”, this year’s Book Festival in Guangzhou will be held August 19-25. Major highlights: Larger scale: A record 27 topic areas and more than 300,000 book titles will be displayed in the exhibition. Emphasize current subjects: The book fair will highlight the CPC’s 90th anniversary and commemorate the 100th [...]
Nation-wide “civilized websites” campaign begun in China
18/08/2011The official website www.wenmingwangzhan.cn for the nation-wide campaign to establish “civilized websites” went online on August 16. Columns include topics such as microblogging and “uncivilized websites exposure”. The campaign’s goal is to promote the establishment of spiritual civilization on the Internet and to create a civilized & harmonious network environment. Source: Official website for nation-wide [...]
Events during the “Shanghai International Literary Week”
18/08/2011In response to my brief post “Shanghai Book Fair opened today”, Bruce Humes pointed out his list of events which he culled from online Chinese media and translated into English. Take a look at the posting Shanghai Aug 17-23 Event: “Shanghai International Literary Week” on his Ethnic ChinaLit blog. Thanks, Bruce, for your comment and your [...]
Database to collect data on overseas Chinese culture academic works
05/08/2011On July 22nd, the launch of the Chinese Culture Overseas Distribution Dynamic Database Program was announced at a seminar hosted by Beijing Foreign Studies University. This program aims to collect and analyze overseas distribution data of Chinese culture academic works to support governmental policy-making and the “go out” strategy. During the program’s first stage until [...]
Reform of China’s news and publishing industry: more hard work and central guidance needed
02/08/2011China’s system reform of its news and publishing industry was at the center of attention at the recently held 2011 National Press and Publication Bureau Secretary Forum [Note: a conference of heads of province and city Administrations of Press and Publication]. Three “key phrases” illustrate the current situation: Key Phrase One: Deepening the system reform [...]
East Europe: a new market opportunity for the “going out” of Chinese publishing houses?
28/07/2011Last month, Time Publishing and Media Co. – belonging to Anhui Publishing Group – signed an agreement with Marszalek Publishing, becoming the first Chinese publishing house to enter the Polish market. The group intends to establish a network which covers the whole East European market in the future. As a non-mainstream market, Eastern Europe offers differentiation [...]
Review for China Precious Ancient Books List started
25/07/2011On July 18th, the review for the 4th edition of the China Precious Ancient Books List and the National Key Unit for Ancient Book Protection started. This year, experts need to review 9,665 ancient books – most of which are damaged – and 24 units applying for the status of National Key Unit for Ancient [...]
Criticism of Xinhua Dictionary’s new edition: more popular doesn’t mean better (China)
22/07/2011Xinhua Dictionary launched its latest edition two weeks ago [see post "New edition of Xinhua Dictionary on sale"], with over 13,000 single-character entries of which 800 were newly added. As an important tool, it is reasonable to keep up with the times, but this doesn’t mean “the more popular, the better”. First, Xinhua Dictionary should [...]
China sets up 20 bln RMB Cultural Industry Investment Fund
07/07/2011China’s first state-level Cultural Industry Investment Fund was established in Beijing yesterday with a goal volume of 20 billion RMB. News and publishing is a major investment sector targeted within the cultural industry, which is to be developed into a pillar industry of the national economy according to the 12th Five-year plan. Source: First state-level [...]
A look at China’s 2011 National Publishing Fund projects
06/07/2011In 2007, the State Council approved the National Publishing Fund for for major publishing projects. This is the third special development fund after the National Social Science Fund and the National Natural Science Foundation. [Also see previous post "“Soft” criteria for publishing projects supported by China’s National Publishing Fund".] A statistical look at supported projects [...]
Sino-Kazakhstan International Book Fair
27/06/2011Kazakhstan’s National Convention Vice President recently met with the Director of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Press and Publication Bureau in Urumchi. For the purpose of promoting communication between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan and cooperation on Silk Road culture, both sides discussed the Chinese bookstore opening in Kazakhstan and co-hosting the Sino-Kazakhstan International Book Fair and . [...]
Chinese Classics top program for “going out” of China’s publishing industry
20/06/2011During the final review meeting for the 2011 Classic China International Publishing Program, GAPP Director Liu Binjie emphasized the importance of the Chinese Classics in promoting the “going out” of the country’s press and publication industry during the 12th Five-Year Plan period [see post "2011 Classic China – International Publishing Project aims at copyright export"]. [...]
Spotlight on: Tianjin Publishing Foreign Trade Company
10/06/2011Beginning in September, Tianjin Publishing Foreign Trade Company plans to participate in several overseas Chinese book fairs, such as the Malaysia International Chinese Book Fair, Confucius Publishing Cultural American Exhibition, etc. It was awarded the “national cultural export key enterprise” by four departments including GAPP for its significant performance on promoting the “going out” of [...]
Digital popularization project for China’s public libraries
10/06/2011In order to promote the establishment of digital libraries further, the related departments intend to carry out a popularization project during the 12th Five-year Plan period. The core of the project is to establish interconnected digital library platforms and distributed resource databases, so as to provide services via mobile phone, digital TV and mobile TV. [...]
Times Publishing Media Company cooperates with China National Museum
07/06/2011On May 31st, Times Publishing Media Company and China National Museum signed a strategic cooperation agreement on building an omni-media cultural industry chain. According to the agreement, Times Publishing will develop a variety of publications on the Museum’s collections and exhibitions, including print, digital and online publications, electronic audio & video as well as other [...]
How China’s literary newspapers and periodicals celebrate the Party’s 90th birthday
03/06/2011With the upcoming 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, many literature newspapers and periodicals begin to celebrate the important day in various ways, including soliciting essays, establishing special columns and issues, etc. As examples, Literature and Art News and China Modern Literature Museum jointly launch the new column “Party members among [...]
GAPP recommends 100 books to teenagers (China)
02/06/2011Ahead of yesterday’s Children’s Day, the General Administration of Press and Publication recommended 100 excellent books to China’s teenagers. The selected books cover various categories such as History & Culture and Popular Science. 84% of the books on the list are Chinese books, e.g. “Story of Qian Xuesen” and “Beijing Opera is So Beautiful”. See [...]
A brief summary of the China Publishing (Copyright) Development Forum
31/05/2011With the subject of “Integration and improvement: Realizing win-win in traditional & digital publishing”, the China Publishing (Copyright) Development Forum was held on May 28 in Heilongjiang, consisting of two parts. Yan Xiaohong, Vice-Director of GAPP, hosted the first part, in which policy speeches were given: Liu Binjie, GAPP’s Director, gave a speech on “Speeding [...]
China establishes first Culture Publishing Center in Africa
30/05/2011The first Chinese Culture Publishing Center in Africa, co-founded by Zhejiang Publishing United Group and Nairobi University, held its opening ceremony in Nairobi (Kenya) on May 25th. The publishing center is expected to promote the cooperation between Zhejiang Province and East Africa in the publishing industry and expand the former’s business there. Source: First Chinese [...]
Survey on attitudes towards China’s literature awards
25/05/2011Recently, a survey on the attitudes to literature awards was undertaken among postgraduates of People’s University of China: Most interviewees had doubts on the selection of literature awards, and 73% of them thought that a basic common consensus can hardly be formed. National-class awards such as the Maodun Literature Award have high popularity and big [...]
Chongqing invests 3 billion RMB for National Publishing & Media Creative Center (China)
25/05/2011The foundation stone laying ceremony of Chongqing Tianjian Creative (Animation) Industry Base, jointly invested by Chongqing Publishing Group and a Singapore investment consulting company, was held on May 21st. The project is a key cultural industry project in Chongqing, approved by GAPP as National Publishing & Media Creative Area (Center) with a total area of [...]
China Encyclopedia digital database completed
25/05/2011On the basis of its first and second editions, the database for China Encyclopedia was completed by China Encyclopedia Press. This is the only updatable encyclopedia database in China, its online edition includes 200,000 entries and 100,000 images covering one million items on 80 subjects. Source: China Encyclopedia database completed (in Chinese)
New York TV station to promote Chinese books and English publications on China
24/05/2011China National Publication Import and Export Corporation will sign a strategic cooperation agreement with New York’s ICN TV Network on May 25, constituting an important measure to promote the “going out” of Chinese culture. The cooperation will enhance the propaganda and popularization of Chinese culture in the US in the following aspects: Expanding channels for [...]
Fujian Overseas Chinese Bookstore Project – a new road to “go out”
20/05/2011On May 17th, the signing ceremony for the Fujian Overseas Chinese Bookstore Project, sponsored by the Fujian Foreign Cultural Exchange Association and Fujian Press & Publication Bureau, was held in Fuzhou. General Administration of Press and Publication Deputy Director Wu Shulin attended the ceremony and indicated that the project is an effective way for Chinese [...]
The third batch of 81 transformed culture enterprises announced (China)
17/05/2011According to the website of China’s Finance Ministry, on May 12th the third batch of 81 culture enterprises centrally affiliated to the Chinese Communist Party has been identified as transformed culture enterprise. The 81 enterprises, such as People’s Daily Online, Higher Education Press, China International Book Trade Group, etc., will receive preferential tax policy. So [...]
China’s first “100 Excellent Ethnic Books Recommendation” campaign launched
16/05/2011The General Administration of Press and Publication issued a notice concerning the first “100 Excellent Ethnic Books Recommendation” activity, for which application materials should be submitted to nationalities’ publishing houses before May 20th. Eligible books must either have a print-run of more than 2.000 copies if published in one of China’s Ethnic languages or of [...]
The four maladies of Chinese readers
13/05/2011How to improve the reading habits of Chinese became a hot topic around World Reading Day. Shi Zhongwen, Director of the Quality Education Research Institute of Beijing Industrial University, expressed his viewpoints, listing four maladies in reading: Passive obsessive-compulsive disorder: China’s exam-education system makes the reading experience to be tough and inefficient. Eager for quick [...]
GAPP delegation visits Mumbai
12/05/2011A GAPP delegation headed by Vice Director Wu Shulin visited Mumbai, India. On the agenda were a government agreement on cultural cooperation, book publishing exchange and a meeting with the Cambridge University Press branch in India. Source: GAPP delegation visits Mumbai, India (in Chinese)
China’s newspaper circulation increased by eight billion copies in five years
03/05/2011According to the National Culture System Reform Working Meeting, Chinese newspapers developed rapidly during the 11th five-year period (2006-2010) despite the global newspaper industry downturn, with circulation increasing by eight billion copies and advertising revenue ranking first in domestic media. General Administration of Press and Publication Director Liu Binjie said that compared with 2005, the [...]
China’s Development Plan for the Press and Publication Industry: background and trends
28/04/2011Fan Weiping, head of the Publishing Industry Development Division and responsible for drafting the 12th Five-Year Development Plan, provided background information on the plan. The 12th Five-Year Development Plan is based on the press & publication industry’s achievements during the 11th five-year period. The Outline of the 12th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development, [...]
China’s Development Plan for the Press and Publication Industry
26/04/2011In an interview, a GAPP official explained the main content of the newly released 12th Five-Year Development Plan: Accelerating transformation of economic development. The transformation of press & publication industry’s development is to be basically completed. The strategic emerging industries such as digital publishing are to reach advanced world levels. More variety of press & [...]
China’s media cooperation with Africa to break Western news monopoly
24/04/2011During the China-Africa Media Conference, a seminar with Chinese and African journalists based in Nairobi, Kenya, the head of the CPC’s Publicity Department Li Changchun called out for direct links between the Chinese and African media communities, so that social and economic developments are covered in a truthful way by breaking the Western information monopoly, [...]
China’s global media expansion: control instead of credibility – and maybe still welcome?
21/04/2011In the article “China Makes Global Media Push, But Skeptics Abound“, MediaShift takes a closer look at the spreading of Chinese media abroad as a key part of China’s soft power strategy, stating that in spite of the huge investments, the “problem with China’s increasingly international media giants is that they suffer from a lack of [...]
China launches 2011 Nationwide IPR Awareness Week
20/04/2011The 2011 China Nationwide Interlectual Property Rights Publicity Week, sponsored by 25 departments such as the State Intellectual Property Office and the State Copyright Bureau, will take place April 20-26th, with “Intellectual Property Promoting the Economic Transformation” as theme. The activity aims to raise awareness of the supporting role that intellctual property plays in the [...]
Fuzhou Strait Creative Industry Copyright Fair held (China)
12/04/2011The 2nd Fuzhou Strait Copyright Creative Industry Fair will be held May 18-22 with three sections: Show area for excellent copyright works, including animation, woodcarving arts, original music etc. Sales area of copyright products, selling the creative works from theMainland and Taiwan Negotiation area appraisal, copyright registration etc. Compared with the first fair, more enterprises [...]
Case: Tianjin Publishing Media Group plans for 2011 (China)
11/04/2011According to its 2011 Annual Working Meeting, Tianjin Publishing Media Group and its subsidiary companies intend to reach a 15% increase y-o-y in the major economic indicators. The focus will be on five activities in 2011: To accelerate building a large joint-stock cultural enterprise controlled by the Tianjin Publishing Media Group, with Northern United Publishing [...]
New literary magazine “Tiannan” launches with English insert (China)
01/04/2011The literary magazine “Tiannan” is being launched on April 1st, with the first issue including three pages of ads by high-end brands. The bimonthly is priced at 25 RMB per issue and targets younger readers such as college students and the age bracket above. Its Chief Editor Ou Ning hopes that more Chinese writers can [...]
WSJ interview with Susan Shirk, author of ‘Changing Media, Changing China’
31/03/2011Susan Shirk, the author of “Changing Media, Changing China“, was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal’s blog China Realtime Report. In one answer she stated that the most fundamental change to happen to media in China is “[a]llowing media to go to the market”, with competition being “a stimulus for a lot of interesting subsequent [...]
Tax reduction for brick-and-mortar bookstores in China?
31/03/2011The physical bookstore’s alarming survival condition is a topic that has concerned China’s book industry for a long time. The Business Tax Rate for bookstores in China is 13%, besides that, operators of a bookstore still need to pay Value-Added Tax, Urban Maintenance and Construction Tax, Enterprise Income Tax, Building Tax, Stamp Tax, etc., which [...]
Ancient books lost to foreign countries to “come back” to China
31/03/2011The editing & publishing of ancient books is closely related to China’s economic, political, cultural and social establishment, thus Liu Binjie, GAPP’s Director, expressed his ideas on how to carry out the related tasks during the 12th Five-year Plan period in a policy speech. Liu outlined his thoughts in seven items, the last one being [...]
