Five CUHK Press Books Lauded at International Design Show

Five books published by The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press (CUHK Press) have been selected for the Association of University Presses’ (AUPresses) 2021 ‘Book, Jacket, and Journal Show’. This is the first time multiple books from a Hong Kong publisher have been selected for the Show at the same time, and the CUHK Press is among the few Asian publishers recognized by the Show since the Show’s inception. Out of the 523 admitted entries, 101 have been selected and are now on display on the Show’s official website.

Established in 1937, the AUPresses comprises more than 150 international nonprofit scholarly publishers with an aim to promote the essential role of a global community of university presses in fostering academic excellence and knowledge. For more than 50 years, the AUPresses has been holding ‘The Book, Jacket, and Journal Show’ annually. With esteemed designers reviewing hundreds of submissions and selecting the very best of them, the Show is a definitive celebration of the craft of book design and production.

The five selected works include four titles in the ‘Hong Kong Literature Series’, namely the poetry collection Lotus Leaves and novel Dragons by Leung Ping-kwan, The Drunkard by Liu Yichang and The Best China, a prose anthology edited by Prof. John Minford. Also among the selections is So … You Have Decided to Become a Physician, written by the internationally acclaimed physician Prof. Dimitrios Linos. Lotus Leaves has been selected for its overall design under the ‘Poetry and Literature’ category while the others are recognized under the ‘Book Jackets and Covers’ category.

The ‘Hong Kong Literature Series’ represents an effort to introduce to the world literary works from Hong Kong. With this in mind, both the editor and the book designer have sought to highlight the uniqueness of Hong Kong. Professor Minford, the series editor and sinologist, said, ‘The cover design of the series as a whole reflects the creativity, individuality, and free spirit of Hong Kong literature. The selected works are a wonderful contemporary example of book production, from details of layout design and typography, to the quality of the paper binding.’ Citing the text as the soul of the book and his compass, Chan Hei-shing, the series’ designer, said he hopes to do away with the stereotypes associated with Hong and reveal the depth into which the spirit of Hong Kong goes. In contrast to the way canonical works of literature are normally presented, Chan plays with bold palettes and an array of textures to bring out the city’s diversity and modernity. Whereas the juxtaposition of pale green and pink in the cover of Lotus Leaves highlights the crossing of the boundaries between Chinese and Western cultures in the poems, the faint silhouette of a dragon in Dragons’ cover, in a tone of black, gold and silver, adds to the magical and mysterious aura of this novelistic effort of Leung’s; the liquor stain and the neon lights in the cover of The Drunkard tell of the psychedelic stream of consciousness running through the story, while the cover of The Best China, a collage of a slender, floral and avian-patterned British teapot and its round Chinese counterpart, serves as a symbol of a city at the crossroads of East and West.

Bianco Tsai, designer of So … You Have Decided to Become a Physician, is pleased that the book has received international recognition. Featuring a painting by the author, the cover evokes a tenderness that speaks to the book’s overall feeling with its use of pink and chartreuse colours. As the author himself noted, the wheat in the painting signifies his wish to cultivate excellence among future generations in the medical profession. He thinks the design aptly captures the book’s message that doctors should be creative.

Committed to facilitating cultural and academic exchanges between the East and the West, the CUHK Press is regarded as one of the world’s most renowned publishing platforms for works on China and Asia. Over the past decade, it has made tremendous achievements and won a number of local and international awards. Being selected to be a part of the AUPresses Show is yet another recognition of the CUHK Press’ efforts by the global publishing community.