The Frankfurt Book Fair held every October is considered the biggest and most influential international trade fair for publishing. Having participated in all the previous fairs, China is represented this year in Germany by a large delegation, including China International Publishing Group in Beijing which will exhibit over 400 titles – most of them in English but some also in Chinese, German, French, Spanish and Esperanto.
The books that China International Publishing Group is displaying in Frankfurt feature some of the 1,000-1,200 titles it publishes each year on China and its reform and opening-up. Subjects covered include traditional Chinese culture, economics, law, history, geography, medical science, health care, as well as Chinese language textbooks. With some 60 percent of its works published in foreign languages, the China International Publishing Group sells books in more than 100 countries in North America, East and West Europe, and Latin America.
Over its 50-year history, China International Publishing Group has translated and published numerous government documents, books of political theory, Chinese classical and contemporary literary works, art albums, children's books – all aimed at improving foreigners' understanding of China and promoting cultural communication.
China International Publishing Group also participates each year in all sorts of international book exhibitions while doing business in copyright transfers and cooperative publications. One of its seven affiliated presses, The Foreign Languages Press in Beijing, in 1992 made Chinese publishing history when it sold over 100 publication topics at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
To cope with the changing market, this year China International Publishing Group merged 12 presses into seven and reorganized and reinforced its Foreign Languages Press. It also began to publish more books in Chinese as well as many excellent books on learning of English that have attracted wide readership in China.
Some of the books published by China International Publishing Group include such classics as A Dream of Red Mansions, Annals of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, Sun-tzu's Art of War, The Scholars, Confucius, Mencius, The Book of Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi. Popular titles include Acupuncture and Classic of Internal Medicine on traditional Chinese medicine, Tourism in China, Old Peking, Old Shanghai, Old Xi'an, Chinese Dishes for foreign tourists, Classical Chinese Love Stories, Studying Chinese, Teaching Chinese, Teaching Overseas Students Chinese in both English and Chinese for foreign students of the language. The range of publications by China International Publishing Group extends to include a Chinese-German Dictionary of interest to Chinese and German linguistic and literary academic circles, collections of political speeches such as the recent "On Three Represents" by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, as well as books of Chinese laws, regulations and policies.
(china.org.cn by Liu Pai 10/10/2001)