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Century Old, Forever Young

Check the carrying bags of any serious student of the Chinese language and you will likely find a copy of the Xinhua Dictionary (Xinhua zidian), China's most influential dictionary. Its publisher, the Commercial Press, the first modern publishing enterprise in China, will celebrate the 109^th anniversary of its founding in 2006.

On average, one in three Chinese own a copy of the Xinhua Dictionary. The dictionary, which has influenced several generations of Chinese people since its first publication in 1953, was the first standard dictionary that used simplified Chinese characters in modern times. It has become the world's best-selling dictionary, with a circulation of 400 million since it was first launched.

"The dictionary is a pride for us," said The Commercial Press General Manager Yang Deyan, "But our rich history is our greatest treasure."

Just like other laozihao (Time Honoured Brand) in China, the Commercial Press has played a role in history, in this case the development of the printing industry.

The Chinese have a saying: "from chaos comes opportunity," which may explain why Xia Ruifang and three of his friends decided to set up a small printing company in Shanghai at a time when China was being torn apart by internal strife and external aggression in 1897.

It was a time when reforms, coups, revolutions and aggression from foreign forces were all part of China's day-to-day business.

Around the turn of the century, Xia became the first in Chinese history to absorb foreign investment into his company's operations, along with backing from several elite scholars: Zhang Yuanji, Cai Yuanpei and Gao Mengdan. Their investment and connections paved the way for The Commercial Press to enter into the book publishing business.

Things could hardly have been better for Xia, and in 1914 he tried to buy back The Commercial Press's shares from a Japanese company that had invested in the firm some years earlier.

At the turn of the 20th century, demand for new books in China hit a fevered-pitch. The mind-opening revolution, westernization and an explosion in the number of Chinese citizens enrolling in new schools teaching both western and Chinese curricula meant that the demand for books outstripped supply. Commercial Press played a central role in helping to educate the masses and in substantially expanding its publishing empire.

Commercial Press soon branched out; before long, it was running schools and libraries, in addition to printing textbooks.

"It's fair to say that Commercial Press made significant contributions to shaping the culture and modern Chinese history," said Chan Man-hung, managing director and chief editor, The Commercial Press (H.K.) Limited.

After 1949, for historical reasons, the branch presses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Taiwan began to operate independently.

In 1954, the Commercial Press moved to Beijing. It focused on compiling and translating academic works on world philosophy and social science, books that introduced the development of schools of philosophy, politics, economy, history and geography in other countries. It also compiled reference books in Chinese as well as foreign languages, including research works, textbooks, and popular books. In the last 100 years, the Commercial Press has published more than 30,000 book titles.

Commercial Press was the first to publish classical ancient Chinese texts and dictionaries, which other publishers subsequently followed. But that doesn't mean everything has been clear sailing for the company.

"In the past, it was easy to gauge the risk of launching a new book. All you needed was global vision and insight. But with the IT (information technology) revolution, it is now very hard to precisely assess what will succeed and what will fail. We can't even figure out where our competitors will come from next with the Internet," Chan said.

In 1995, the Commercial Press drafted a ten-year business plan to capitalize on technological developments in the publishing and business world. During the first five-year period, the company invested heavily in technology to fully computerize its operations and to automate distribution and warehousing.

"Chinese publishers should pay more attention to factors that affect the market, such as consumer preferences," said Yang.

Despite globalization and a growing number of e-publishers and e-book merchants, the Commercial Press is joining the IT revolution and is poised to make a name for itself in the electronic publishing and e-commerce world.

What's more, the Commercial Press also aims to go abroad.

The Commercial Press signed a three-year, exclusive publishing deal on June 18, 2004, with The Harvard Business School (HBS) Press to publish HBS Press titles in the Chinese language.

Under this agreement, The Commercial Press will translate and publish up to 150 HBS Press titles. The two publishers will jointly create a special advisory board of Chinese-English experts in management and business to oversee the translation process. In addition, an important and unusual element of this partnership is the creation of a training programme whereby each house will learn about editing, production, marketing, publicity, and distribution in the other's market. Staff from The Commercial Press will visit the United States to learn the specifics of publishing in there, and staff from the HBS Press will visit China to learn about the intricacies of publishing in the Chinese market.

"We treasure this opportunity to work with Harvard," said Yang. "Throughout our 107 years, The Commercial Press has been a pioneer in the modern Chinese publishing industry, in advancing foreign cultures and in introducing translations of foreign classics to generations of readers in China. With the creation of this strategic alliance, The Commercial Press will build on that tradition by contributing to the training and cultivation of professional managers. It is our belief that these books from Harvard Business School Press will help China understand western-style management thinking and broaden our views."

Book-reading, one of the oldest and most rewarding of human pastimes has not changed much in this age of high-tech entertainment options. As a publishing organization with the longest history in China's modern publishing undertakings, the Commercial Press has a keen nose for trends and a sharp understanding of current affairs. This will enable it to give people what they want, thus, standing out in this new century.