Umbrella
cise Encyclopaedia Britannica, along
with a 20-volume international Chinese
edition; the China Children’s Encyclopedia series; and Encyclopedia of China
(second edition, 32 volumes). The house
has also published almost a number of
professional and regional encyclopedias,
a wide range of reference book series, and
nearly 10,000 popular books.
Joint Publishing
Founded in 1932, Joint Publishing is the
most prominent academic publishing
house in China. It runs Joint Publishing
Lifeweek, Reading, Competitiveness, Love
Music, and other journals. Reading and
the books Fu Lei’s Letters Home, Essays from
Memory, and Theory of Love have been particularly influential, as have recently
published titles such as Works of Chen
Yinke, Works of Qian Zhongshu, and
JinYong’s Works. In addition, Joint
Publishing has published several series,
including the SDX and HYI academic
series, the Joint Publishing Forum, Modern Western Academic Classics, Books &
Reading, and others.
People’s Literature
Publishing House
Founded in 1951, People’s Literature
Publishing House (PLPH) is the oldest,
largest, and most influential literary
publishing house in China. It primarily
publishes modern and contemporary
Chinese works, along with classic Chi-
nese literature, classic foreign literature,
and modern foreign literary works.
PLPH has many wholly owned subsidiar-
ies, including Daylight Publishing
House (children’s books), and it runs
Contemporary Era, Selected Chinese Lit-
erature, Historical Materials on New
Literature, Chinese Learner’s Companion,
Literary Stories, and other newspapers
and periodicals. PLPH has published tens
of thousands of books, with a circulation
of over 800 million volumes, including
such classics as Water Margin, Romance of
the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West;
the more recent White Deer Plain, Red
Poppies, and Harry Potter series; and col-
lections including the selected works of
Lu Xun, the complete plays of the Yuan
Dynasty, and the complete works of Wil-
liam Shakespeare
People’s Music
Publishing House
The People’s Music Publishing House,
founded in 1954, is the largest professional music publishing house in China,
and the most influential internationally.
It has published nearly 10,000 books of
music and works about folk art and
dance. Key titles include A Draft for
History of Chinese Ancient Music, A Music
History of Pre-Qin Dynasty, A Pictorial
Handbook of the History of Chinese Drama,
The Facts on File Dictionary of Music, An
Overview of Chinese Symphonic Music, and
An Image Collection of Music-Dance Artistry in China’s Grotto Temples, as well as
series such as the Collection of Works
by Contemporary Chinese Composers,
the Collection of Chinese Musical
Works in the 21st Century, the Collection of Classic Translations of Foreign
Musical Works, and Great Music: Traditional Music from a Brilliant Land.
The People’s Music Publishing House
runs such journals as Music Research,
China Music Education, and The Art of
Piano. Its electronic and audio-visual
publications include Chinese Music Collection (Karaoke), Happy Sunshine, and 60
Years of Children’s Music—Children’s
Songs in New China..
Rongbaozhai
Founded in 1672, Rongbaozhai is a
renowned brand in China and abroad. Its
aim is to popularize and disseminate
Chinese culture, including traditional
Chinese painting and calligraphy. Rong-
baozhai primarily publishes works of cal-
ligraphy and painting by ancient and
modern masters, as well as titles about
inscription and seal cutting, bookbind-
ing, layout and remounting, calligraphy
and painting repair, woodblock printing,
and other crafts. Titles include Rong-
baozhai Painting Annual, Complete Works
of Chinese Calligraphy, Selected Works of
Epitaph Calligraphy, Selected Works of
Statue Inscription Calligraphy, and Precious
Collection from Rongbaozhai. Rongbaozhai
has won two national intangible cultural
heritage awards from Unesco, one Bei-
jing intangible cultural heritage award,
one first-place Chinese government
award for publishing, four national book
awards, and more than 100 other impor-
tant awards. In 2006, Rongbaozhai was
recognized as a famous trademark of
China by the Trademark Review and
Adjudication Board and re-accredited as
a “time-honored brand” by the Chinese
Commerce Ministry.
Zhonghua Book Co.
Zhonghua Book Co. was founded
in 1912 and primarily engages in the
collation and publication of ancient
Chinese books and the publication of
relevant academic works, as well as popular books and reference titles. It has
published Chinese Heritage, Chinese Literature and History, the Journal of Literature
and History, and Calligraphy Review, as
well as such books as History as a Mirror,
The Collection of Research on Bone Shell
Inscriptions, The Collection of Inscriptions on
Bronzes in Yin & Zhou, The Tibetan-Lan-guage Chinese Tripitaka (Chinese edition),
and The Commentary on Records on the Western Regions of the Great Tang Empire. The
revised editions of The Twenty-Fourth
History and The Manuscript of the History
of Qing Dynasty are among Zhonghua’s
critically acclaimed works, as are A Year
of No Significance and Professor Yu Dan’s
Thinking of the Analects.
