China's publishing industry is enjoying unparalleled growth, 30 years after the implementation of the Reform and Opening up policy. The numbers alone reflect the industry buoyancy. Twenty-four publishing groups have been reformed. And annual publication of new books has risen to 130,000.
Lu Jiande is a reacher fellow of the China Academy of Sciences. His study holds a 30 year old collection, "Walking to the World". It's a serial volume published by Yuelu Publishing House in 1980. The books gathered bits and pieces of China's understanding of the outside over 120-years. Eighty-year-old Zhong Shuhe was the editor of this 36-volume eight million word set.
Wu Shangzhi, general administration of Press and Publication, said, "The books advanced an important idea - that the Chinese publishing industry should face the world. That idea was later incorporated into a government circular to strengthen and improve publishing in China."
Under the planned economy, a hundred publishing houses around the country had little to show in the way of actual publication.
A cultural reform was initiated in 2003. Liaoning, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hunan and 17 other publishers took part in the pilot project. The effect of the reform is evident at the Xinhua bookstore in south China's Hunan province. Once, the shelves contained a limited selection comprised of several hundred books. Now there are thirty thousand. The total stock amounts to around 300 thousand titles.
The country's copyright trade has shown a vast increase. Over seven million books have been exported on subjects extending from acupuncture and martial arts to science, culture and philosophy.
(CCTV October 9, 2008)