Bulletin No. 1, 2015

Literacy Culture on and beyond Campus  7  The Press has entered into a co-publishing partnership with many foreign university presses before. But the launch of the Calligrams series has opened up another distribution channel for its non-scholarly titles. Dr. Lin says, ‘We hope that our high quality English books can have a wider impact beyond academia and reach the general readership in the English- speaking world by this partnership.’ How Many Years Can a Book Last? Now the CUP publishes about 60 new titles and reprint about 30 backlist titles annually. For a commercial publisher, the yardstick for measuring success of a book is its sales figures. What about the CUP? Dr. Lin says, ‘For us, the first and only criterion is its academic value. Sales figures are secondary. It’s because books with high value may not be big sellers.’ She uses The Mozi: A Complete Translation as an example. With over 1,000 pages, it is the first complete translation of Mozi . An Australian translator devoted 20 years to its translation and the CUP spent two years editing it. Dr. Lin says, ‘We’ve devoted a lot of energy and editorial resources to it. But you’d never expect that it could be a hit. What we had in mind was we had to produce the best English translation of it because the promotion of Chinese culture is our responsibility. One of our considerations when we’re reviewing a manuscript is: how many years can it last? If it will still be read 50 years from now, we’ll publish it regardless of the price.’ Meeting the Next Generation of Scholars One of the CUP’s future endeavours is finding and supporting the new generation of scholars in the field of Chinese studies, especially young Chinese scholars. The CUP plans to help them publish original works. Dr. Lin says, ‘A university press has a symbiotic relationship with the scholarly community with which it affiliates. Its future success lies in whether it has a group of new writers who are intellectually active and able to make an impact on academia in the next 20 years.’ Ch’ien Mu said, ‘Today’s world is heading towards one great union. As Chinese, we cannot close our door and lock ourselves inside. We should see things from the perspective of the world and act as a member of humanity.’ What can China contribute to the world in terms of culture besides its economic power? Striving to be the best bilingual publisher in the field of Chinese studies, the CUP can do its bit in this regard.