Publication of The Way of Confucius: A Successful Attempt of "Going out"

The Way of Confucius (English edition) is designed and published by Shandong Publishing Group and Qilu Press (its affiliation) together with Compendium Publishing Ltd, which is a successful attempt of “going out" for book publishing. In October, 2010, The Way of Confucius was displayed in Frankfurt Book Fair and got concerns and praises from domestic and overseas readers.

I

Confucius is a symbol of Chinese traditional culture; Shandong, Confucius’s hometown, takes Confucius as a brand to promote the traditional culture to the world with unique advantages; however, the world is also very eager to know Chinese traditional culture and Confucius. On 57th Frankfurt Book Fair in 2005, The Sage's Traces Pictures of Confucius published by Shandong Publishing Group Qilu Press caused a considerable repercussion. Over the years, Qilu Press has published many books on introducing Confucius’s thoughts, including The Life of Confucius, Confucius, etc. But they do not achieve the copyright export, because their contents and overall designs are not complied with overseas readers’ reading habits. China emphasizes concepts on the book content while the foreign counties mainly show ideas through story and case one by one. There are differences between Chinese and overseas readers’ culture background and reading habits. Furthermore, the expression approaches of books are quite different, which restrict the “going-out” copyright export strategy. “Going out” of books, we usually refer to, means to export copyright of Chinese books and translate the books into foreign language for entering overseas book markets. For existing books on introducing Confucius’s thoughts by domestic authors, it is difficult to take simple copyright export to achieve the desirable effect; to make the real “going out” of books on introducing Confucius, it is necessary to address the problem that Chinese books are not suitable for foreigners' reading habits and seek for a new way of "going out”.

II

On Frankfurt Book Fair 2006, Shandong Publishing Group and Qilu Press (its affiliation) and Compendium Publishing Ltd reached a Collaboration Agreement on collaborative design and publication of The way of confucius. They signed the formal contract in Beijing International Book Fair in 2007 after one-year consultation and preparation. The parties agreed that Chinese party organized the manuscript and pictures of The way of Confucius and British party undertook the format and bookbinding & layout design and market extension according to the European and American market demands. The book is written by Jonathan (British writer) who is fascinated by Chinese cultures, loves Confucius very much and is familiar with Confucius’s thoughts and life experience; he introduces Confucius from the European perspective and idiomatic English to avoid bring obstacles caused by different culture background and reading habits, so as to let more foreigners understand Confucius. After three-year elaborate design, the book, fully introduces Confucius’s life in excellent picture and essay, shows extensive and profound ideological essence of Confucius and has impacts on human society and culture is formally published. On Frankfurt Book Fair (in October, 2010), the publication ceremony of The way of Confucius was held in Frankfurt Exhibition Center, as the fist activity held by Chinese exhibition delegation.

III

The way of Confucius is a fully custom-made publication for European and American readers and a crystallization of cooperation between Chinese and foreign publishing units. As a new and successful attempt, the mode of co-publishing has three obvious characteristics as follows:

Chinese and overseas publishing units discuss the publishing operation modes, develop the modes together and take a deep collaboration. According to the cooperation agreement, Qilu Press is responsible for organizing manuscripts and proving pictures; Compendium Company designs the format as per demands of European and American book market and solicits for subscriptions, issuance and marketing in English regional markets.

On the selection of the author, the book creates a new mode―a western author introduce an important figure in the history of China to western readers. To meet contemporary European and American readers, the publishing unit especially invited (British author) Jonathan for contribution. Jonathan is familiar with Chinese culture, has special reverence of love to Confucius and applies an easy flowing style to vividly introduce Confucius's life story to western readers and evaluate Confucius's strong impacts on Chinese culture, even on world culture and important contributions to human civilization. He makes western readers know Confucius and understand Confucius’s thoughts and basic connotation of Chinese traditional culture during pleasing reading through brief statement.

For works form, Qilu Press provides a large number of illustrations to perfectly match the words for excellent combination of picture and texts. Bookbinding & layout designed by Compendium Company satisfy the aesthetic habits of European and American readers as well.

After the direct promotion of The way of Confucius to British and American markets, the publication has get an initial success in European and American markets and attracted the attentions of the French and Russian book markets, from the current feedback. Professor Paul ? Richardson, a well-known publisher in the United Kingdom thinks that it is a successful example of Sino-foreign cooperation in “going out” of Chinese culture and believes that the book will seek for a way with demonstration significance for “going out” of Chinese publication.