Local Publishing Houses Going Abroad Zhejiang Publishing Corporation

During the 11th Five-Year Plan （2006 to 2010）， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has been honored by GAPP （General Administration of Press and Publication） for its achievement in promoting the Going Abroad plan set for Zhejiang publishing houses by making full use of its own advantage in press and the specific cultural resource of Zhejiang province. Not only itself but its subordinate corporations， such as Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Corporation， Zhejiang Education Press， Zhejiang Children Press， Zhejiang Asustek International LTD， have been confirmed by Ministry of Commerce， Ministry of Culture， GAPP and SARFT （The State Administration of Radio Film and Television） as among this country’s most important cultural export enterprises. There are five programs known as： Oriental Press， China-Africa Cooperation Press， BoKu Bookstores， Overseas Chain Business of Network etc. included in the listing of China’s Significant Cultural Export Projects.

From 2006 to 2010， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has exported books written in English， French， Japanese， Portuguese， Arabic， Greek， Romanian， Swahili etc. and in the year of 2011， the total value of its exporting cultural products has reached $2.4 million， 60% more than that of 2010. Due to these achievements， it has been awarded Special Contribution to the promotion of Chinese Book Internationalization by GAPP andState Council Information Office. Here is a summary of its main practices：

Firstly， enhance domestic competitiveness and let it thrives overseas.

People in Zhejiang Publishing Corporation believe that in order to go abroad， they must pay extra attention to publishing itself with awareness of their share of cultural responsibility and thus enhance their core competitiveness. In the year of 2010， they have crossed the threshold of $2 million， 98% of which is from publishing that has dominated the publication of certain kinds of books in domestic market.

With dominant advantages in publishing juvenile books and picture albums， they have opened up French market by founding Oriental Press there that has published series of Xiong Liang Picture Book， Chinese Fairy Tale and Stories of Chinese Idioms， French versions of children's literature， such as Shen Shixi’s best-selling story books Dream of Being a Wolf King and My Grandpa Xiong Qinglai， and other books of fine arts， such as Contemporary Chinese Art etc.

Their exports also involve a lot of works about Chinese children illustration， actively recommending them to the world. In recent years， the teamwork between Zhejiang Publishing Corporation and Juvenile Books Committee of China Publishing Association has successfully held several exhibitions on Chinese Children Illustration in Spain， Germany and Greece etc. In April 2012， the expo of Chinese Children Illustrated Books was displayed in the British Museum and London Millennium Gallery. At the same time， a forum on Chinese and Western Children Illustrations was held at the book fair in London.

These art exhibitions and book fairs let the world get a better look at Zhejiang’s children books. History of Chinese Printing exported to the United States， South Korea by Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House effectively extends the influence of Chinese publishing culture in the world.

In 2009， China attended Frankfurt Book Fair as the guest of honor and released the English version of History of Chinese Printing for the very first time which was later donated to Germany Gutenberg Museum of Printing at the forum on Chinese Printing History held in the Chinese Pavilion.

Several books confirmed as China’s Non-Material Cultural Heritage （fifteen volumes）， the series of Contemporary Chinese Art （ten volumes） and the series of History of Sino-Japanese Cultural Exchange （twenty volumes） each of which were published by Zhejiang People Publishing House， Zhejiang People Fine Art Publishing House and the Tokyo Branch Office of Zhejiang Publishing Corporation， have been listed within Chinese Classics Translation Project， one of the programs set to promote the scheme of Chinese Books Internationalization by State Council Information Office and GAPP.

In 2010， GAPP has subsidized ninety-nine items through the Classic China International Publishing Project and Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has taken 9 out of them， almost one-tenth of the total. It also has thirteen categories of books selected in the China International Publishing Program and in the year of 2011， it has successfully sold the copyright of How CPC Govern and Rejuvenate China， a book dedicated to the eighteenth National People's Congress， to Britain's New Classical Press. These achievements are mainly due to the long-term effort it has been putting in domestic publishing market.

Secondly， seek various cooperation opportunities with Africa.

Benefiting from the preparation work done by other Zhejiang businessmen who has formed the largest Chinese business group in Africa， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has achieved the cooperation with African publishers and already published series of books， such as Prevention and Control of African Common Diseases and More Moves to Develop African Agricultural Technology etc.

Up to now， the series of Prevention and Control of African Common Diseases have been exported to African countries like Kenya， Tanzania， Namibia， Mali and Equatorial Guinea with versions in English， French， Spanish and Swahili etc. As for the series of More Moves to Develop African Agricultural Technology， it already has been published in Mali and Namibia and Kenya and Rwanda are in this year’s list. In the next two years， these two series are schemed to be published in an even higher speed and also in a larger scale.

Apart from that， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation is looking for a bigger platform of publication to dance together with other African publishers： Chinese Learning for Africans series and African Students Reading series which mainly cater to primary and middle school students. There are several books coming down the road： Chinese Calligraphy Course， Business Chinese， Children's Flip Book series， Chinese and Swahili Manual， Chinese Idiom Story etc.

Meanwhile， it also plans to publish works on African Research Literature. Zhejiang People Publishing House is going to co-publish African History of Cambridge series with CUP （Cambridge University Press）. Besides that it also has a joint project of Publication of African Research Literature with the Institute of Africa of Zhejiang Normal University， planning to publish more than one hundred categories of books which will be realized in succession this year. It is becoming China’s most authoritative publishing platform for academic works on African researches.

Thirdly， realize the localization of overseas publications multidirectionally.

Keeping to the strategy of Maintaining Overseas Publishing Local is not only a valid way for Chinese Publishing Houses to go abroad but also the necessity for those powerful publishing groups to extend overseas business. After establishing Oriental Press in France， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation set another branch office in Tokyo. In April 2012， during London Book Fair， it signed a treaty with British Propellor TV station on cooperative publishing.

One of the major programs of Zhejiang Publishing Corporation in recent years is to seek the help from Confucius Institutes overseas to practice the strategy of Maintaining Overseas Publishing Local. For instance， it has signed Collaboration Agreements with Romania Cluj University， University of Nairobi， Kenya in 2011 and signed it again with University of Uister during London Book Fair in April 2012.

BoKu Bookmall’s network bookstores have dominant advantages in technology and stock which， in recent years， have been helping to extend the overseas marketing network. The settle of BoKu Bookmall and its website overseas is a big step for promoting the strategy of localizing Chinese book exports.

In order to pace with the 11th Five-Year Plan of China， Boku Bookmall has successively established chain bookstores and built its own websites in the United States and Taiwan. Zhejiang Xinhua Bookstore Corporation provides information， supplies and physical distribution for both CIPG （China International Publishing Group） and the Chinese Branch Office of the Amazon Website， playing a significant role in business development of the Amazon Website in China.

Tried as a new idea of promoting foreign publicity and localization of publications， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation’s new projects known as Zhejiang Books Go Abroad and Zhejiang in Foreigners’ Eyes have already launched with the help of other provinces.

Fourthly， seize the opportunities lay in teaching materialsexport.

The publishing of teaching materials for middle and primary schools is the advantageous area of the local publishing houses. In recent years， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has been importing science teaching materials for overseas primary and secondary schools from the first-class international publishing companies， such as Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill etc. With the acquisition of their features and development tendency in these years， it has made official trials to write science and mathematics text books for overseas use， setting a first step into overseas publishing network of teaching materials.

The first batch of fifty thousand science text books for the use of middle schools are about to be exported to Malaysia and the Hong Kong version of mathematics teaching materials which are still under compiling will also be put into the overseas market. As science teaching materials are more universal than those of liberal arts， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation is planning to enhance their share of exports by adding America and Africa into the project.

The increasing international influence of the improvement of China's scientific and technological strength， as well as the achievement of basic education has made it possible for China to output its science teaching materials to other developing countries. On some level， it speaks more for China's comprehensive national strength than to simply export conventional Chinese teaching materials. Meanwhile， Zhejiang Education Press and McGraw-Hill’s new joint project： Business Chinese， an Americanized Chinese-teaching course will also be published in a near future.

Fifthly， make the transition from traditional publishing to digital publishing.

Since 2011， digital publishing has been set as the main development direction for Zhejiang Publishing Corporation and also the key point of its transition from traditional publishing. The industry chain of digital publishing will be carefully studied and the corporation’s original strength in its resources and network also won’t be overlooked， which will make assure a success of the integration of publication and technology and thus accelerate the development of digital publishing to make it a new gateway for Chinese books going abroad.

At the second half of 2011， its subordinate digital publishing company made a deal with NTT， Japan's largest mobile communications company， in the cooperation of the publication of mobile phone comics. They has compiled their original cartoons into different versions of English and Japanese which， through NTT’s solmare， are accessible to mobile phone users in Japan， Singapore， Malaysia， the United States and other 31 countries.

They also have plans to combine mobile phone reading and traditional paper reading by publishing paper versions of online books in Japan. Besides， the Electronic Audio and Video Publishing House of Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has developed digital publications about tourism， culture and children's books that are compatible with Apple’s mobile devices. There are 47 categories accessible through IPAD APP and IPHONE APP. The corporation itself is also exploring the field of digital publishing by cooperating with quite a few overseas publishing companies.

Sixthly， break into the Eastern European market.

Since 2009， GAPP has been authorizing Zhejiang Publishing Corporation to organize other publishing houses to take part in Warsaw International Book Fair. Polish and Chinese Classification Dictionary published by Zhejiang Education Press and Warsaw Chinese School was given as a gift by Jia Qinglin， Chairman of the CPPCC national committee， to the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and other ministers in Warsaw-Chinese Entrepreneurs Breakfast ， Nov. 2010.

In April 2011， Zhejiang Publishing Corporation went on a visit of Romania with Ministry of Commerce and signed a cooperation agreement and a contract for publishing Romanian-Chinese Classification Dictionary in the Premier House. Its Hungarian version of Selected Stories of Luxun co-published by Hungary Press has been released in 2011， and other Chinese literary classics will also be available in Hungary， 2012.

Lastly， hold diverse book fairs overseas for publicity.

Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has undertaken the mission delivered by GAPP of organizing China’s exhibitions in Warsaw International Book Fair and Nairobi International Book Fair which have turned out to be big successes. A lot of people have participated in them who are mainly from China Publishing Company， Phoenix Publishing Company and Han Wang Technology etc. For China's publishing industry， its participation in Warsaw Book Fair was a long-awaited return and it was also really exciting to attend Nairobi International Book Fair for the very first time.

Zhejiang Publishing Corporation has been holding various book fairs and exhibitions overseas， such as the Chinese book fairs in the headquarters of Joint New York and Portugal， Zhejiang Customs Photo Exhibition in UN-HABITAT （United Nations Human Settlements Programme）， the Zhejiang book fairs in Taipei and Kaohsiung of Taiwan， 2009 Focus of Chinese Culture in Mali etc. Meanwhile， it also has given away four hundred thousand values of books to Taiwan Sinology Center and Kaohsiung Municipal library.

These overseas book fairs have served well for the purpose of letting foreigners get close to Chinese， especially Zhejiang’s books and cultures. In this case， Zhao HongZhu， the Secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee， has repeatedly praised Zhejiang Publishing Corporation for doing so.