Throughout the first half of the 20th Century, the publishing industry followed the same patterns established during the years of the Empress Dowager, with the majority of the books and periodicals generally looking inward rather than toward internationalization of their content. In recent decades on Taiwan, there has been an expansion in the number of presses in the marketplace, but oftentimes they have drawn criticism for low standards and a narrow vision that emphasizes "pulp novels" rather than higher quality subjects.
But the Commercial Press Limited and Linking Publishing Company, though they differ in experience and approach, are model exceptions to any trends toward mediocrity. Both firms adhere to common principles of social responsibility. In the face of sharp competition, they have built honorable reputations for themselves, while exhibiting qualities representative of China's lengthy tradition of scholarship and respect for the printed word.
Born in a crucible of social upheaval, the Commercial Press Limited has come to be identified today with the most distinguished scholarly publications in the ROC. Throughout its nine decades of operation, the company's fate has been closely tied to the vicissitudes of modern Chinese history. It has survived all challenges, and in the process has helped mold generations of intellectual viewpoints through its printing of Chinese classics and modern textbooks.
Editor-in-Chief Chu Chien-ming, formerly a professor at National Chengchi University, says his company has always been one of the largest and most respected publishers of its kind in the ROC. "The Commercial Press publishes two to three new titles every week, and has done so since 1964," he says. "In the last two-and-a-half decades we produced more than 12,800 different books, many of which were multivolume sets." Even though the majority of these are specialized academic studies, the company has little difficulty in marketing the often esoteric publications because of its long-standing reputation for quality.
The Commercial Press has a long and dramatic history beginning in 1897, just two years after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The treaty forced the Manchu Dynasty to cede Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan, exposing the weakness of the Chinese imperial government and ushering in a tumultuous period of struggle between entrenched bureaucrats holding to the status quo and small but vocal groups of reformers.
The culmination of the struggle between these two forces within the ruling edifice came with the 100-Day Reform, which was subsequently crushed by the Empress Dowager in 1898. Her victory brought a decade of continued conservatism, inward-looking policies, and disenchantment with the idea of social change from above. But a few of the reforms promoted during the preceding years did survive, notably the establishment of modern schools.
Treasured resource for Sinologists—part of the 1,500 volume Imperial Encyclopedia fills a complete row of bookstore shelves.
Attitudes in China—particularly in major coastal cities—underwent a rapid change, with Western thought suddenly valued for more than its mere technological or military applications. A command of foreign languages became essential, and the word "modern" came to be synonymous with "Western." Academies for Western studies opened, new textbooks were printed, and journals and newspapers appeared—all promised some form of modernization.
It was in the midst of this ferment that the Commercial Press opened for business in Shanghai in 1897. The name of the company, "Commercial," reflected a universal preoccupation with open trade during the late Ching Dynasty. The minuscule publishing firm was one of the many by-products of the demand in China for educational reform. Education in the past had been devoted exclusively to the Confucian classics, which aspiring bureaucrats studied to pass the imperial examination for entry into government service. But with the discrediting of the traditional system, people began turning to foreign concepts of social order, such as democracy and freedom of expression.
The first book produced by the Commercial Press was the English Reader. Printed in English, the educational work contained detailed footnotes in Chinese and became an instant best seller the moment it rolled off the presses. The owners of the Commercial Press were suddenly blessed with money to spend. They invested in publishing textbooks of every sort, as well as translations of foreign works. In addition to books, the company launched a number of periodicals, including Oriental Monthly, Juvenile Journal, Children's Magazine, and the Journal of Education.
After the 1911 "Wuchang Revolution" led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen ended the Manchu Dynasty, the Commercial Press bloomed and soon became the most powerful publishing company in China. Its periodicals documented the intellectual and political ferment of the times, covering for example the important May 4th Movement of 1919. As the nation experienced a modernizing political education, the company grew and established its own institutions based on the concepts of equality and political liberty. In 1925, the Commercial Press founded the "Oriental Library" as a resource for internal company use, as well as a place where all people, rich or poor, could have free access to books and periodicals.
Linden Lin of Linking Publishing Company—"It's our mission to raise standards."
With an expanded system of public education in China beginning to take root, textbooks assumed overwhelming importance. Publishing houses mushroomed, but none could approach the success of the Commercial Press. By 1930 the company had printed more than 8,000 titles. During the succeeding years of economic hardship, war, and even the bombing of Shanghai in 1932, the Commercial Press remained the front-runner in the literary market, right up until the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
During the early years of the Chinese Republic, branch offices were established throughout the country. But the war forced continual changes, even forcing frequent moves of the company's headquarters. The Hong Kong office was paralyzed during the Japanese occupation, and the war raging throughout China after 1937 especially squeezed the Commercial Press financially.
The growing Communist movement at this time attracted many people disillusioned with the promises of democracy, and one of the old brass at the Press took up the cause. An inevitable rift developed, and the company suffered as hostilities sharpened. The defeat of the Japanese and the beginning of the conflict between the Nationalists and Communists marked a painful turning point for the Commercial Press. In 1949, the old guard of the company sympathetic to the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, while those who remained behind began a separate operation.
Director Wang Yun-wu, who came to Taiwan when the central government moved to Taipei, was a manager in the firm from the early 1920s to 1979, when he died at the age of 92. Wang helped re-establish the Commercial Press in Taiwan, and concentrated on maintaining company tradition by producing reference books on art, history, classical literature, and social science. His schemes included reprinting Chinese classics, miscellanea, scholia, and chronicles.
Chu Chien-ming explains that the Commercial Press has maintained its reputation over the years by constantly tackling projects other publishers were unprepared to handle. "For example, no one in the ROC had ever tried to produce a Chinese equivalent of the American New International Encyclopedia," he says. "But we decided to do it ourselves and published the Yun-wu Dictionary of Social Sciences during the years from 1970 to 1974. The set consists of 12 volumes, and was named after our late director Wang Yun-wu."
The heart of the action for buying Chinese-language books—Chungching South Road in downtown Taipei.
Another project is production of inexpensive, short paperbacks on a variety of subjects, similar in intent to the British series Everyman's Library. Just as the Chinese-language Everyman's Library aims at enthusiastic readers with little spending money, the Commercial Press targeted a similar market in Taiwan. It began distributing its own Chinese paperbacks in 1966, and the small books have proved exceptionally popular.
The general manager of the Commercial Press, Chang Lien-sheng, admits he was troubled at first by the idea of marketing plain-looking books at low prices. The approach did indeed lose some money for the company, but the prestige it gained helped sales of other publications. "Those other sales didn't just balance our budget, they earned us substantial profits," he says.
Chang points to another special project his company undertook in a similar vein in 1983, and completed in 1986. This was the publication of the Imperial Encyclopedia, also known as the Imperial Collection of Four Divisions, or Ssu Ku Chuan Shu. The set is a collection of 3,460 works of important classical Chinese literature in their complete forms, plus a list of 6,819 titles of lesser works.
The Imperial Encyclopedia was so treasured during the Ching Dynasty that Emperor Chienlung appointed 3,000 people to compile and copy it over a 10-year period. The project was completed in 1783. The original seven manuscripts were held by the imperial government, but five of them were lost due to looting and war. Today the National Palace Museum in Taipei possesses one of the only two remaining manuscripts. The Commercial Press had planned to print the Imperial Encyclopedia for more than 50 years, but the project was always frustrated by warfare.
The National Palace Museum spent years re-editing the collection before finally authorizing the Commercial Press to publish it in 1982. The first volume came out in the next year, and the last volume was completed in 1986, marking a literary milestone for Sinologists. The complete set consists of 1,500 volumes, and sells for about US$40,000.
"The collection is for a minuscule market, specifically libraries," Chang says. "Surprisingly, other buyers rarely have trouble with the price of the set. But they usually don't have the space in their homes for all 1,500 volumes!"
The publishing industry is far different today from a century ago, when the Commercial Press began operation. If magazines are excluded, Taiwan now has more than 3,200 registered publishing houses. But the Commercial Press remains the biggest and most successful producer of classical works.
"Our trademark has become an enduring symbol of quality," Chu says. "The Commercial Press would never betray the tradition it created, and we all make it our responsibility to see that our original goals are maintained. Publishing is an activity of conscience." Clearly, the Commercial Press is continuing to live up to its reputation, and proving that the business of books is more than just a business.
Linking Publishing Company is a mere child compared to the Commercial Press. Established in 1974, Linking has developed in the midst of a communications revolution that permits no single publication to stand alone. As the name of the company implies, Linking is part of a communications conglomerate—as an affiliate of the United Daily News Group (UDN), it enjoys the backup of five newspapers, a news agency, and a computerized information center.
Rising quality of life—the book market is awash in everything from classical art and literature to modern biographies, essays, and love stories.
When the directors of UDN decided to expand operations beyond news coverage, they founded Linking in order to give readers more substantial fare. Its goals were to publish the latest academic research and thereby "expand public knowledge, promote Chinese culture, and encourage modernization."
In just over a decade, the company has published around 1,600 titles in the fields of arts, culture, natural science, economics, business administration, international trade, industry, commerce, leisure, and sports. Traditional scholarly treatises are also part of their publication program. Plans are currently afoot to reprint various Chinese classics, including a collection entitled Records and Documents of the Ming and Ching Dynasties. This particular set comprises firsthand accounts and records written by officials in the imperial government. The documents are vital to the study of government and bureaucratic rule in China over the last 600 years.
The company staff is justly proud of its work in making both modern and traditional classics available to local readers. "My company lives up to its ideals," says Editorial Director Linden Lin, a senior lecturer at Tunghai University who has been working with Linking more than 11 years. "Linking has won 16 annual book awards since 1974, an accomplishment that far surpasses any other publisher in the country."
But Lin complains that the cash-saturated economy of the past few years has produced a popular culture that is garish and excessively secular. In many cases, publications are nothing more than a pastiche of other newspapers or magazines.
"If a publisher's only purpose is to shake up the media kaleidoscope by creating a new gimmick, he is evading his responsibilities," Lin says. "My competitors are not necessarily pushing gossip magazines and thrillers down readers' throats. Demand frequently forces them, and myself, to produce lower quality materials than any of us would like. But it's our mission to raise standards, and that sometimes means making a little less money. A portion of our budget is regularly devoted to scholarly publications, and we don't intend to give that up."
Linking is more market-oriented than the Commercial Press. Its popular books include travelogues and light works on medicine, trade, and financial management, as well as cartoon books for children. "We don't live in a perfect world," he sighs. "But we can certainly try to balance our publication policy, and that will help raise the cultural level for everybody."
Part of the important task of modernizing Taiwan involves translating foreign works into Chinese. "To think the nation can advance through simple economic development alone is naive," Lin declares. "The advanced concepts and outlooks of countries that have long traveled the road of industrialization were formulated on hard-won experience. In this respect, foreign works translated into the vernacular are essential for public thinking to adjust to modern realities. If social up-grading is to occur, translation is an indispensable task, especially when the country is in the process of an economic take-off."
Linking has already published numerous translated works in history, literature, and philosophy. Lin looks to Japan as a model to emulate in translation policies: "That country prospers because it transfers knowledge from abroad quickly and efficiently. Publishers in Japan support translation, and the public respects translating as a legitimate profession. But in Taiwan, this job needs real missionaries, devotees who don't mind working for low pay and little appreciation from their employers or the readers. They must resign themselves to getting no credit for their work, especially when they work for the educational network. Such conditions generate a vicious circle of shortage in quality translations, and plummeting standards in the publishing business. A skyrocketing GNP under these circumstances becomes little more than grand fetishism."
Linking also publishes house organs for companies, public organizations, and the government. Included among these materials is a publication for the National Palace Museum. The companies affiliated with Linking each provide specialized data to one another to strengthen the company's service to customers. For example, the Economic Daily News provides financial and economic information, and the Min Sheng Pao gives information on travel and health tips. The company is thus better able to serve an extensive readership. As a result of its successful sales, Linking is currently expanding its production of academic works. The investment is likely to yield far greater returns than mere money.
Emphasizing diversity—Premier Yu Kuo-hwa (center) visits foreign book displays at the First Taipei International Book Exhibition.
Books To Break Barriers
The "Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation" of 1903, signed between the United States and China, granted Chinese subjects the privilege of printing and selling original translations in Chinese of any written works or maps produced by American citizens.
The agreement originally aimed at boosting China's development, which it admirably helped accomplish. But it also brought on an unforeseen side-effect several decades later: blatant disregard for copyright rules.
The ROC eventually earned the unenviable reputation for being a "publication pirate" as mass reprinting of foreign materials violated the original spirit of the Treaty. Moreover, the growing prosperity of the ROC rendered unconvincing any excuse of underdevelopment. The U.S. eventually moved to terminate the 84-year-old free-translation grace period, and the ROC and U.S. are currently negotiating a new treaty on copyrights in an effort to preserve mutual interests.
Those interests are pervasive. Translations of foreign works are essential to Taiwan's continuing development. A nine-year compulsory educational system has produced 92.2 percent literacy, which in turn creates more demand for books. Commercial publications have also skyrocketed. As society progresses economically, people find they must accelerate their assimilation of cultural and scientific knowledge. All parties, governmental and publishing, desire fair, mutually beneficial results from the negotiations.
Local publishers are becoming more internationally oriented in the realm of sales as well. One recent event that has helped educate the reading public about the world of published materials, and provide foreign and local publishers more market information, was the First Taipei International Book Exhibition held in December 1987 [see FCR, March 1988]. Though the exhibition was the first of its kind in Taiwan, publishers from the ROC have often held similar shows for their own books abroad.
The ROC enjoys a reputation for well-qualified writers and editors, and currently has about 3,200 registered publishers. With support and encouragement from the Government Information Office (GIO), local publishers displayed more than 10,000 of their books at eight overseas Chinese exhibitions in 1988. The U.S. and Singapore hosted two exhibitions each, while Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, and the Philippines each hosted one.
The four biggest markets for Chinese books are the mainland, the ROC, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Hong Kong has hosted book exhibitions for more than 10 years, and last year the books from the ROC attracted attention there from mainland as well as Hong Kong buyers. The ROC and Hong Kong use conventional Chinese characters, while the mainland and Singapore use simplified forms, so the market roughly divides into two sections, though the distinction is hardly strict and transfer of knowledge is massive.
Real progress in internationalizing publishing will require an effort by the industry as a whole. One local publisher has already participated in the long-established annual Frankfurt Book Fair in 1988. Modest as that presence may have been, it was an important first step in approaching the Western market.
If translations of foreign works are promoted in the ROC, it will encourage other countries to acknowledge Chinese literature. A bellwether on the European side has been Kegan Paul International (KPI), a British company established in 1868. KPI was among the first European firms to recognize the importance of Asian publications. Out of 50 new publications from KPI each year, 50 are translated from non-Western languages, and 80 percent of these are exported.
In 1987, Vice General Manager of KPI Jonathan McConnell visited Taiwan to hunt for valuable Chinese classics and rare books to translate into English. He selected The Confucian Way by Chen Li-fu, chairman of the Confucius and Mencius Society. The book has enjoyed a good response so far.
Publishers in the ROC may be wise to follow the KPI example. To select books from abroad for translation into Chinese at home demands a degree of professionalism the few remaining local pirates have been unable to attain. Moreover, with copyright piracy now under international fire, simple reprinting of foreign works can no longer be a mainstay of the publishing industry in Taiwan. Government and private sector observers alike want the domestic industry to gain a position of honor in the international publishing market, thus adding much-needed vitality to the business—and knocking down yet another barrier to understanding between East and West.