近日，《美國出版商周刊》刊發(fā)《Checking on theAcademic Book Market in China》《Guangxi Normal University Press Group》兩篇文章。文章聚焦集團公司自成立以來的各項發(fā)展情況，對集團公司的精品圖書、文化品牌運營、數字轉型升級、國際化發(fā)展等方面工作做了重點介紹。
報道原文（英文）：
《Checking on theAcademic Book Market in China》
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China’s growing influence, especially in the global economy, is going to draw attention to its domestic initiatives and development, observes chairman Zhang Yibing of Guangxi Normal University Press Group Co.,Ltd. “Chinese academia and readers will want to understand the role that China plays, and what is happening outside the country, and vice versa. Such interest will promote more research and understanding, and increase publication on wide-ranging subjects. We will see more collaboration between Chinese publishers and partners from other parts of the world for co-publishing and rights trading—and this will benefit the book industry as a whole.”
In the meantime, Zhang notices that while the number of academic books in China continues to increase, the quality and influence has not reached the level of improvement that one would expect given the amount of research and funding. “We still have a long way to go. But any research is tedious, and forming a cumulative body of research and results before it can be published takes time. The process simply cannot be rushed or we will have subpar results and publications.”
The Chinese book market for academic titles remains stable and positive, notes Zhang of GNUP, who places more emphasis on publishing essential and important titles with the potential to become classics than on sales numbers. However, his team has been putting in a lot of efforts to make serious academic titles as accessible and attractive as possible to appeal to general readers.
For now, the academic publishing industry needs to adapt to digital realities and meet the needs of readers in a timely manner. “How we assimilate, take advantage, and adopt digital publishing in different formats and to varying degrees will determine our success in the near future. But the value being delivered to the reader should be the driving force.” Zhang views digital publishing as an integral development within his publishing program, blending the old format and the new to offer value-added products. “Ultimately, it is the product that sells, and so instead of focusing on print or digital, our eyes should be on the content itself and the value it provides.”
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With nearly 45,000, titles in its catalogue, and about 1,000 new ones added annually, Zhang Yibing, chairman of Guangxi Normal University Press Group(GNUP), is aware that he and his team are sitting on a treasure trove of content waiting to be transformed, (re)discovered, and monetized. “The past couple of years have seen us laying the groundwork for a digital content transformation to bring about an integrated publishing program. An ERP management system is now driving our new and more efficient production and publishing processes while the projects we marked for digital transformation are going through the paces. What we want is to create a whole digital learning ecosystem that will add value to, and blend with, our existing print products.”
By utilizing new tools such as collaborative editing platforms, the GNUPG team is working to further enhance existing content and enrich author resources. “Additionally, by using cognitive technologies and discoverability tools, we are working on personalizing content and increasing consumer engagement. With these, we want to offer adaptive online courses, micro-lectures, virtual study tours, and other new models of learning and teaching that will take advantage of the digital era that we are in.”
With textbooks, teaching materials, and academic titles (specifically in the humanities) forming the core of GNUP’s publishing program, there is definitely a lot of opportunities to dechunk, dice, and splice content to fit a new generation of learners and teachers. Then there are the group’s rare books and archival tomes spanning years of research and collection—such as the 50 volumes on the archaeological and historical findings of Dunhuang, and the 283 volume Chinese Maritime Customs Service series—that can be digitized into specialized databases for export to libraries and research institutions, or integrated into specific academic courses at local universities.
At the same time, efforts are being made to cultivate new talents that will have a better understanding of the need for hybrid print/digital publishing ecosystem. GNUPG’s parent university Guangxi Normal University, for instance, has joined hands with Lijiang College of Guangxi Normal University to jointly offer a digital publishing course. Speaking of Guangxi Normal University, it successfully launched an app(Duxiu School digital publishing teaching platform) in September 2017. The app, which makes full use of the ubiquity of mobile devices and QR codes in China to go beyond the traditional classroom, is also enhanced with artificial intelligence, Intelligent Voice,Big Data, and internet technologies to provide high-quality education content and services for education users (teachers, students, parents, schools).It now has more than 200,000 registered users and an average of 12,000 active users per month.
“Digitization affords us the opportunity to collect and preserve historical and valuable content for future generations. It also gives us the ability to repurpose existing content to meet emerging market needs,” Zhang says, adding that “the value of the content to the end user both guides and propels GNUPG’s digitization efforts.”
《Guangxi Normal University Press Group》
Leveraging GNUP’s collective strengths (of more than 30 companies and divisions) and major acquisitions to enhance company brand and influence is keeping chairman Zhang Yibing busy and energized. Several major partnerships and overseas brances have been established following the acquisitions of Australian company Images Publishing and U.K.-based ACC Publishing in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
The Arts Bridge—the brand that combines the experience, resources, and talents of Images and ACC, and supported by editorial offices in Australia, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.—presents an even bigger platform for GNUPG. “It gives us the opportunity, and space to promote Chinese art, artists, creativity, and design on the international stage, thereby assisting in the ‘going out’ and ‘going into’ market strategies,” Zhang explains, adding that Arts Bridge had held the “Annual Series” events at the 2017 Frankfurt and 2019 London book fairs. “We introduced to the world the exceptional arts of designer Zhu Yingchun, including his award-winning book The Language of Bugs, and selected ceramic works from Bai Ming. Now, Zhu’s book and Bai’s ceramics are, respectively, found in the British Library and British Museum permanent collections.”
The 2017 publication of Beauty of B&Bs, featuring more than 100 outstanding architectural designs, further showcased Arts Bridge’s reach in putting together an international group of editors and publishers with a shared agenda in promoting art and design.
May 2018 saw GNUP launching the first issue of Architecture China at the Venice Architecture Biennale. “This will become a quarterly journal jointly published by ACC, Images, and GNUP, and edited by Li Xiangning, deputy dean and professor of architecture and urban planning at Tongji University,” says Zhang, whose academic publishing program, predominantly steeped in history and culture, has continued to produce outstanding titles.
Pivots: 3,000 Years of China, for instance, was launched during a popular talkshow and sold more than 50,000 copies within 48 hours. “Its current sales of 280,000 copies are indicative of an audience curious to know the changes within China of the old and new, and its current position in the world stage,” says Zhang, whose team also published Wu Gou’s Elegant Song: The Visible Civilization, which narrates the elegant life during the Song dynasty; the book won the 2018 China Best Book award and has sold 80,000 copies.
Then there are The City of Shadows: Liang Sicheng and Guanghan in 1939/1941, which spotlights Chinese historical sites and cultural heritage, and translations of Bob Dylan’s The Lyrics: 1961–2012 and David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America. These are all typical good book of the GNUP.
Recent years have seen a surge in collaborations between GNUPG and participants in China’s Belt-and-Road initiative. “Our group has invested nearly 10 million CNY in 20 publishing programs to foster cultural and information exchanges,” says Zhang, naming Oriental Wisdom as one of the programs. The 100-plus series with key Chinese classics will be initially translated into eight languages (Burmese, Cambodian, English, Indonesian, Lao, Malay, Thai, and Vietnamese). Other titles include one on King Sulu’s visit to China 600 years ago (that explores the historical friendship between the Chinese and Philippine people), , a cultural tourist series on Maritime Silk Road. And a series on Hepu County (where heritage sites indicated a major ancient trading hub)
“Chinese publishers, including GNUPG, have copublishing and rights trading with the West going back several decades. The same, however, cannot be said about our exchanges with neighboring countries—and we are going to ride on the Belt-and-Road initiative to rectify this,” says Zhang, reiterating that “sharing knowledge while exploring different perspectives is what publishing is all about—and it transcends culture, history, language, and geographical barriers.”
報道原文（中文）：
《Checking on theAcademic Book Market in China》
擁有圖書近45000種，每年出版新書約1000種，廣西師范大學出版社集團（以下簡稱“廣西師大社”）坐擁一個有待轉化、重新發(fā)現和變現的內容寶庫。集團黨委書記、董事長張藝兵說：“過去數年間，我們已為數字內容轉型奠定基礎，ERP管理系統(tǒng)使生產和出版流程更高效，數字化轉型項目也在穩(wěn)步推進。我們希望創(chuàng)建一個完整的數字學習生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，為現有的印刷產品增值并與之融合?！?br/>
通過運用協(xié)同編輯平臺之類的新工具，廣西師大社力圖進一步增加現有內容、豐富作者資源。張藝兵介紹，“我們正在運用認知技術和可發(fā)現性工具制作個性化內容，提升消費者參與度。希望在此基礎上借助當下數字時代的便利條件，提供適配的在線課程、微型講座、虛擬學習和其他新的學習與教學模式?！?/span>
教材、教參和學術著作（尤其是人文學科）是廣西師大社的出版核心，他們有很多機會可以對這些內容進行裁切、拼接以滿足新一代學習者與教師的需求。廣西師大社多年來致力于對學術研究、原始資料的搶救、挖掘，出版了一系列珍稀文獻，如有關敦煌考古和歷史發(fā)現的《英國國家圖書館藏敦煌遺書》(50冊)，以及《美國哈佛大學圖書館藏未刊中國舊海關史料（1860—1949）》系列（283冊）。出版社也計劃為這些珍貴檔案創(chuàng)建專門的數據庫，向圖書館和研究機構輸出，或融入大學的特定學術課程。
同時，廣西師大社也在培養(yǎng)能夠更好地了解印刷/數字混合出版生態(tài)系統(tǒng)需求的新型人才。例如，廣西師大社與廣西師范大學漓江學院聯(lián)手開設數字出版課程，還在2017年9月成功推出“獨秀學堂數字出版教學平臺”，利用二維碼、移動APP、智能語音、大數據等互聯(lián)網技術，為教育用戶（教師、學生、家長、學校）提供優(yōu)質的數字教育內容和服務。目前該平臺已有超過20萬注冊用戶，月活用戶平均約1.2萬。
張藝兵表示：“數字化讓我們有機會為后代收集和保存具有歷史價值的內容，也讓我們能重新開發(fā)現有內容，滿足新興市場需求?！痹谒磥恚爸敢屯苿訌V西師大社數字化工作的是內容對于終端用戶的價值。
《Guangxi Normal University Press Group》
廣西師范大學出版社集團（以下簡稱“廣西師大社”）董事長張藝兵一直積極利用出版社集團30多家公司和機構的集群優(yōu)勢以及收并購來提升公司的品牌和影響力。繼2014年收購澳大利亞視覺出版集團，2016年收購英國ACC出版集團之后，廣西師大社又與數家海外公司達成了重大合作，拓展海外分支。
2018年11月和2019年4月，廣西師大社分別與馬來西亞亞洲智庫有限公司、日本株式會社樹立社簽署戰(zhàn)略合作協(xié)議，旨在與東盟國家建立溝通橋梁，為東北亞地區(qū)的童書出版搭建平臺。張藝兵表示，“加上與克羅地亞童書出版商Djecja Knjiga的合作，我們希望可以建立一個橫跨歐洲和亞洲的網絡?！苯衲?月，廣西師大社澳門分社揭牌成立，寄望構建一個聯(lián)系港澳臺地區(qū)和全球葡語國家的文化發(fā)展平臺。此外，廣西師大社還與馬來西亞出版公司達成版權協(xié)議，用馬來語出版10種中國經典文學作品，同時也反向引進馬來語作品到國內。張藝兵指出：“首次有這么多的馬來文學作品進入中國，于我們而言，這開啟了跨地區(qū)交流和理解的新篇章?！?/span>
相比之下，“藝術之橋”鋪設的是一個更大的國際交流平臺。平臺融合了視覺出版集團、ACC出版集團的經驗、資源和人才，擁有澳大利亞、新加坡、英國和美國編輯分部的支持。張藝兵認為，“它（藝術之橋）為我們提供了在國際舞臺上推廣中國藝術、藝術家、創(chuàng)意和設計的機會和空間，服務于我們‘走出去’和‘走進去’的市場戰(zhàn)略?！?2017-2019年，“藝術之橋”在法蘭克福書展和2019年英國倫敦書展上舉辦了“年度系列”活動?！拔覀兿蚴澜缃榻B了設計師朱贏椿的非凡藝術，包括其獲獎作品《蟲子書》，以及白明的陶瓷藝術作品精選。如今，朱先生的書和白先生的陶瓷已分別被大英圖書館和大英博物館永久收藏?！?/span>
2017年出版的《民宿之美》甄選100多個杰出的建筑設計案例，“全球組稿、國際發(fā)行”，進一步展示了“藝術之橋”在推廣藝術和設計方面整合國際編輯和發(fā)行團隊的實力。
2018年5月，廣西師大社在威尼斯國際建筑雙年展上推出了第一期《建筑中國》季刊。該刊由ACC出版集團、視覺出版集團聯(lián)合出版，由同濟大學建筑與城市規(guī)劃學院副院長、教授李翔寧主編。
廣西師大出版社同時也在持續(xù)產出優(yōu)秀的歷史、文化學術著作?！稑屑~：3000年的中國》在羅振宇2018年“時間的朋友”跨年演講現場發(fā)布，上線48小時內售出5萬多冊。張藝兵提到，“到現在這本書銷量28萬冊，表明觀眾對新舊中國的變遷，以及中國在世界舞臺上地位充滿好奇?！贝送?，吳鉤的《風雅宋:看得見的大宋文明》，講述宋朝的“風雅”生活，獲2018年度“中國好書”獎，銷量達8萬冊。
再如聚焦中國歷史遺址和文化遺產的《影子之城――梁思成與1939/1941年的廣漢》，以及翻譯引進的《鮑勃·迪倫詩歌集 (1961-2012)》、大衛(wèi)·哈克特·費舍爾的《阿爾比恩的種子:美國文化的源與流》都是廣西師大社出版的好書代表。
近年來，廣西師大社與中國“一帶一路”倡議參與國之間的合作激增。張藝兵透露，集團在20個出版項目上投資近一千萬元人民幣，以促進文化和信息交流。以《東方智慧叢書》為例，首次將多部中華文化經典翻譯為東盟及海上絲路國家8種主要語言（緬甸語、柬埔寨語、英語、印尼語、老撾語、馬來語、泰語和越南語）。該叢書首批計劃出版100種。還有記錄蘇祿王訪華、探討中菲歷史友誼的《奎章——紀念蘇祿王訪華六百周年》、“海上之路”文化旅游系列及“千年合浦郡”系列等。
張藝兵說，“中國出版商，包括廣西師大社，早在幾十年前就開啟了與西方的合作出版和版權貿易。然而，與鄰邦的版權交流卻未同步進行，我們將借’一帶一路’倡議彌補這一短板?！彼厣?，“分享知識、探索不同觀點是出版意義所在，它超越文化、歷史、語言和地理的障礙?！?/span>
