近日，《美国出版商周刊》刊发《Checking on theAcademic Book Market in China》《Guangxi Normal University Press Group》两篇文章。文章聚焦集团公司自成立以来的各项发展情况，对集团公司的精品图书、文化品牌运营、数字转型升级、国际化发展等方面工作做了重点介绍。
报道原文（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.”
报道原文（中文）：
《Checking on theAcademic Book Market in China》
拥有图书近45000种，每年出版新书约1000种，广西师范大学出版社集团（以下简称“广西师大社”）坐拥一个有待转化、重新发现和变现的内容宝库。集团党委书记、董事长张艺兵说：“过去数年间，我们已为数字内容转型奠定基础，ERP管理系统使生产和出版流程更高效，数字化转型项目也在稳步推进。我们希望创建一个完整的数字学习生态系统，为现有的印刷产品增值并与之融合。”
通过运用协同编辑平台之类的新工具，广西师大社力图进一步增加现有内容、丰富作者资源。张艺兵介绍，“我们正在运用认知技术和可发现性工具制作个性化内容，提升消费者参与度。希望在此基础上借助当下数字时代的便利条件，提供适配的在线课程、微型讲座、虚拟学习和其他新的学习与教学模式。”
教材、教参和学术著作（尤其是人文学科）是广西师大社的出版核心，他们有很多机会可以对这些内容进行裁切、拼接以满足新一代学习者与教师的需求。广西师大社多年来致力于对学术研究、原始资料的抢救、挖掘，出版了一系列珍稀文献，如有关敦煌考古和历史发现的《英国国家图书馆藏敦煌遗书》(50册)，以及《美国哈佛大学图书馆藏未刊中国旧海关史料（1860—1949）》系列（283册）。出版社也计划为这些珍贵档案创建专门的数据库，向图书馆和研究机构输出，或融入大学的特定学术课程。
同时，广西师大社也在培养能够更好地了解印刷/数字混合出版生态系统需求的新型人才。例如，广西师大社与广西师范大学漓江学院联手开设数字出版课程，还在2017年9月成功推出“独秀学堂数字出版教学平台”，利用二维码、移动APP、智能语音、大数据等互联网技术，为教育用户（教师、学生、家长、学校）提供优质的数字教育内容和服务。目前该平台已有超过20万注册用户，月活用户平均约1.2万。
张艺兵表示：“数字化让我们有机会为后代收集和保存具有历史价值的内容，也让我们能重新开发现有内容，满足新兴市场需求。”在他看来，“指引和推动广西师大社数字化工作的是内容对于终端用户的价值。
《Guangxi Normal University Press Group》
广西师范大学出版社集团（以下简称“广西师大社”）董事长张艺兵一直积极利用出版社集团30多家公司和机构的集群优势以及收并购来提升公司的品牌和影响力。继2014年收购澳大利亚视觉出版集团，2016年收购英国ACC出版集团之后，广西师大社又与数家海外公司达成了重大合作，拓展海外分支。
2018年11月和2019年4月，广西师大社分别与马来西亚亚洲智库有限公司、日本株式会社树立社签署战略合作协议，旨在与东盟国家建立沟通桥梁，为东北亚地区的童书出版搭建平台。张艺兵表示，“加上与克罗地亚童书出版商Djecja Knjiga的合作，我们希望可以建立一个横跨欧洲和亚洲的网络。”今年7月，广西师大社澳门分社揭牌成立，寄望构建一个联系港澳台地区和全球葡语国家的文化发展平台。此外，广西师大社还与马来西亚出版公司达成版权协议，用马来语出版10种中国经典文学作品，同时也反向引进马来语作品到国内。张艺兵指出：“首次有这么多的马来文学作品进入中国，于我们而言，这开启了跨地区交流和理解的新篇章。”
相比之下，“艺术之桥”铺设的是一个更大的国际交流平台。平台融合了视觉出版集团、ACC出版集团的经验、资源和人才，拥有澳大利亚、新加坡、英国和美国编辑分部的支持。张艺兵认为，“它（艺术之桥）为我们提供了在国际舞台上推广中国艺术、艺术家、创意和设计的机会和空间，服务于我们‘走出去’和‘走进去’的市场战略。” 2017-2019年，“艺术之桥”在法兰克福书展和2019年英国伦敦书展上举办了“年度系列”活动。“我们向世界介绍了设计师朱赢椿的非凡艺术，包括其获奖作品《虫子书》，以及白明的陶瓷艺术作品精选。如今，朱先生的书和白先生的陶瓷已分别被大英图书馆和大英博物馆永久收藏。”
2017年出版的《民宿之美》甄选100多个杰出的建筑设计案例，“全球组稿、国际发行”，进一步展示了“艺术之桥”在推广艺术和设计方面整合国际编辑和发行团队的实力。
2018年5月，广西师大社在威尼斯国际建筑双年展上推出了第一期《建筑中国》季刊。该刊由ACC出版集团、视觉出版集团联合出版，由同济大学建筑与城市规划学院副院长、教授李翔宁主编。
广西师大出版社同时也在持续产出优秀的历史、文化学术著作。《枢纽：3000年的中国》在罗振宇2018年“时间的朋友”跨年演讲现场发布，上线48小时内售出5万多册。张艺兵提到，“到现在这本书销量28万册，表明观众对新旧中国的变迁，以及中国在世界舞台上地位充满好奇。”此外，吴钩的《风雅宋:看得见的大宋文明》，讲述宋朝的“风雅”生活，获2018年度“中国好书”奖，销量达8万册。
再如聚焦中国历史遗址和文化遗产的《影子之城――梁思成与1939/1941年的广汉》，以及翻译引进的《鲍勃·迪伦诗歌集 (1961-2012)》、大卫·哈克特·费舍尔的《阿尔比恩的种子:美国文化的源与流》都是广西师大社出版的好书代表。
近年来，广西师大社与中国“一带一路”倡议参与国之间的合作激增。张艺兵透露，集团在20个出版项目上投资近一千万元人民币，以促进文化和信息交流。以《东方智慧丛书》为例，首次将多部中华文化经典翻译为东盟及海上丝路国家8种主要语言（缅甸语、柬埔寨语、英语、印尼语、老挝语、马来语、泰语和越南语）。该丛书首批计划出版100种。还有记录苏禄王访华、探讨中菲历史友谊的《奎章——纪念苏禄王访华六百周年》、“海上之路”文化旅游系列及“千年合浦郡”系列等。
张艺兵说，“中国出版商，包括广西师大社，早在几十年前就开启了与西方的合作出版和版权贸易。然而，与邻邦的版权交流却未同步进行，我们将借’一带一路’倡议弥补这一短板。”他重申，“分享知识、探索不同观点是出版意义所在，它超越文化、历史、语言和地理的障碍。”
