Encyclopedia of China update to go online in 2018

The online version of Encyclopedia of China (third edition), which will be released next year, is not aimed at Wikipedia, as many people assume, says Yang Muzhi, executive editor-in-chief of the encyclopedia.

"Actually, we learned from Wikipedia's advanced experience, such as giving links of the references at the bottom of the web page of an entry. But as an authoritative encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of China is not an open platform on which any person online can add or delete content," he says.

Yang says in the digital era, readers prefer online versions of printed books because of convenience. The encyclopedia is divided into many volumes and heavy to carry around.