Chinese writers take work to world

Rosalia Da Garcia, managing director of the Asia Pacific Region of SAGE Publishing, said the number of works published by Chinese authors has increased sharply in recent years from "a small part" to major contributor.

The global publisher of academic titles and journals has been seeking wider cooperation with many Chinese academic publishers. Da Garcia said "quality matters" to her group, and China is the place to find quality, including a book about Huawei, the technology company.

Da Garcia was among the four foreign experts honored by the China Book International project at a seminar on Monday in Beijing. The seminar addressed international academic publishing, with a focus on "sharing the experience and wisdom of China's reform and development".

The project was initiated in 2006 by the State Council Information Office and the former General Administration of Press and Publication, to pay translation and promotional fees so that Chinese titles could reach a global audience.

By the end of 2017, CBI had signed 2,870 publishing contracts - 3,235 titles in 50 languages with 603 publishing organizations from 75 countries. Its update, China Masterwork International, has nailed an extra 1,089 titles with 63 international publishers.

Niels Peter Thomas, Springer Nature's vice-president and chief book strategist, was another of the foreign consultants honored. Thomas was once based in the group's Beijing office, and said Springer had found many academic authors worth publishing in China and was seeking wider cooperation not only with scholars in the first-tier cities but with those from universities and research organizations in smaller cities.

Springer's China Insights series is one of the key titles co-published with China Social Sciences Press to address Chinese wisdom and experience in taking up an inspiring path of development.

Jiang Jianguo, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, delivered the keynote speech at the seminar.

"China's reform and opening-up has been a hot topic for publishers at home and abroad," Jiang said. "We hope to see more books addressing its significance from an international perspective."

To Jiang, the central value that guides reform and opening-up is people's welfare.

From 1978 to 2017, the average annual income per capita in cities increased from 343 yuan ($50) to 36,000 yuan. In rural areas it rose from 134 yuan to 13,400 yuan, he said.

"Our experience offers new choices for the world, especially for those countries that want to step up their development while keeping their independence. China offers another precious mode of modernization," he said.