Books without borders
Two years ago, Zhu Jiangang was having dinner with a bunch of publishers who had flown in from all over the world to attend a forum. A classical pianist was playing in the dining hall. "I bet the score was published in Hunan," Zhu blurted out.
Zhu's chutzpah was not unfounded. He is director of Hunan News and Publishing Bureau, the government agency that administers the business.
Publishing of printed music is a forte for Hunan, and publishing in general is a significant component in the culture and entertainment business for the province. In 2006, Hunan Publishing Group, which turned out 4,163 titles with 279 million copies, was ranked among the top 500 businesses in the nation for the sixth consecutive year, and No.5 of all 50-plus publishing groups.
"We were staring at Beethoven's nine symphonies, the complete score. We thought we should buy the rights to build up our reputation," recalls Sun Jia, deputy publisher of Hunan Arts. That was in 1999, during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
"The first print run was 5,000 copies. We didn't know it would set off an atomic bomb in the field of classical music publishing as big-name musicians applauded our move," Sun says. Nowadays, Hunan Arts has secured its status as a prominent publisher of serious music.
In the same vein, the Chinese version of Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat "will reach a market value" of 50-60 million yuan, with profit in the millions, says Zhu, the bureau chief.
Hunan publishing follows the conventional borrow-localize-brand build course typical of most emerging economies. "In 2000, we gained an acute sense of branding while the rest of the country was still oblivious to it," says Zhu. "We invested eight million yuan in Qi Baishi's Complete Works, and unexpectedly it turned a profit." Now, it is spending 10 times that much to develop a 600-title, 1,000-volume set on Hunan literature, a move that will further cement its name as a formidable player in China's publishing industry.
Reform came late to publishing. It took a while to separate government administration from the business function. "Once we realized publishing is fundamentally a business, we overcame the constraints of the planned economy," notes Zhu.
Hunan publishing began to target niches. Besides music sheets, it conquered avant-garde fine arts, ancient Chinese archives and, most profitably, textbooks. With such achievements, Hunan publishing is looking beyond books for growth. "Look around you. The number of titles published has not decreased, but readership has," notes Gong Shuguang, president of Hunan Publishing Group.
"Reading has evolved from compulsory to optional. So, we need to reevaluate our business and customize for those who read for essential knowledge and those who browse," says Gong, who predicts that professional books will be the first to embrace a digital format.
Right now books account for three quarters of the group's revenues, but Gong foresees a future when print and digital will each hold up half the sky.
"We're ready for the digital revolution. Last year, not only did every one of our publishing houses show a profit but our online operation made 4 million yuan in profits, the only province-level website to be commercially viable," Gong says proudly.
In the flattened world, Hunan publishing is galloping ahead as if hurdles are stepping stones. That must be music to the ears of anyone who admires the "Hunanese army" of culture, classical or popular.
(China Daily 10/17/2007 page21)
