Publishing house marks 60 years

China's Foreign Language Press celebrated its 60th anniversary on Friday.

The publisher of the most authoritative and complete collection of Chairman Mao Zedong's books in multiple languages was the first in the country to introduce Chinese books to a global audience.

As it moves into its 70th decade, the press is hoping to tap into the increasing desire from outside to know more about China, expand the country's influence, and to tell the China story better.

Senior Party leaders Li Changchun and Liu Yunshan sent congratulation letters to praise the publisher's achievements and said that they have high expectations.

"The Foreign Language Press has played its leading role well," said Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office, at the Friday celebration. "The publisher contributes a lot to build a positive China image, to promote Chinese culture, and to connect hearts in international exchanges."

From a humble beginning, it gradually made a name for itself as an influential and multilingual publishing house, known for accuracy and quality, said foreign expert Paul White, senior British translator and editor.

It published about 30,000 titles in 43 foreign languages. The total prints were 400 million copies, which were distributed in 200 countries and regions.

Formerly a nonprofit governmental organization, the publisher now operates according to market rules after a reform in recent years.

Wang said that he hoped that the publisher would keep on innovating in management and resource integration.

Zhou Mingwei, head of the China International Publishing Group, said that one notable innovation of the publishing house is that it's doing more projects about the situation in contemporary China to cater to the rising need of information about the country, in addition to classic culture books, for which the press is proud to be the leading authority.

As the publisher of Yang Xianyi and wife Gladys Yang's English translation of A Dream of Red Mansions and other classics, the press is opening up new ways and new channels to better "present China to the world", as its slogan says.

The press' deputy editor-in-chief, Hu Kaimin, agreed, and said that in periods like this - with other Chinese publishing groups joining the international publishing sphere - he felt the pressure to keep the lead, but also senses bigger opportunities coming up.

"The market and the cake will get bigger, as Western readers and publishers get more interested and want to read more about China," Hu said.

"We'll keep and extend our advantage, which we built over 60 years, and publish more international co-publishing editions, as well as selective buying of foreign companies, in addition to our traditional businesses of physical book exports and copyright trade," Hu added.