2) Foreigners extensively participated in Chinese publishing industry. They opened book companies in China among whom were Robert Morrison, William Milne (1785–1822) and Ernest Major and so on, or they joined into the publishing agencies established by Chinese to do edition or publishing among whom were John Fryer, Young John Allen (1836–1907), Alexander Wylie (1815–1887) and so forth. They all made great contribution to the development and transformation of Chinese modern publishing industry. According to rough statistics, nearly 60 printing agencies were set up by Christianity and more than 20 by Catholic Church. Meanwhile, lots of foreign employees worked in printing agencies set up by Chinese, such as the Beijing Translation School,the Translation Department of the Jiangnan Arsenal, Foreign Languages School and Commercial Press and so forth.
3) Part of publishing agencies began to adopt the operation model of Chinese-foreign joint. For example, Commercial Press invested jointly with Japanese companies from October 1903 with 100,000 Yuan invested by each part and 50% of the stock held by each part. Due to the jointly investment, Commercial Press became the first Chinese-foreign joint company in the history of Chinese publishing which played a significant role in the development of Commercial Press.
4) Chinese books and classics were introduced to abroad in large scale. These books were brought into Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, America, Sweden, and Holland and so on, and the main classics were translated into foreign languages and spread abroad. During the movement of “Western learning spreading to the east” taking part in China, the tread of “Eastern learning spreading to the west” was formed.
At that time, the breadth and depth of the exchange between Chinese and foreign cultures through books was unprecedented. In the process of modernization, Chinese publishing industry also presented unprecedented international features.
Copyright Trade and International Exchange in Publishing Industry in Contemporary Times
Since the founding of the new China in 1949, exchange between home and abroad in the publishing industry has become frequent, with a constantly strengthening opening-up policy and a steadily improving international level, the copyright trade developed rapidly for the past 60 years especially the 30 years of the adoption of reform and opening-up to the outside world policy. During this period, China has opened wider to the outside world and the international level increased stably. In 1992, China signed “Berne Convention” and “Universal Copyright Convention”; in 2003, matching the commitment which was made when China entered into the WTO, China opened printing industry and publication distribution service market. In 2006, distribution part of Chinese publishing industry opened in an allround way to foreign capital. Until December 2007, distribution foreign enterprises approved by General Administration of Press and Publication were 62, 24 of which were solely-invested enterprise, 38 joint ventures.
Copyright trade is the product of the establishment and improvement of socialism market economy after the adoption of the policy of reforms and opening-up to the outside world and the construction of socialism country governed by law. Since the 30 years of the adoption of the policy of reforms and opening-up to the outside world, the trade scale of Chinese copyright trade of books has changed from small to large, and publishing agencies and others major parts in the copyright trade has increased and become strong, which meant the transformation from bringing in books as the main part to introduce books to abroad actively in the trade. Besides, with the deepening of reforms and openingup to the outside world, laws and regulations of copyright has improved gradually, and the environment of copyright trade and the policies of copyright trade will be conductive to the development of the industry.
In terms of the amount, during the past 10 years, Chinese copyright trade has increased gradually on the whole. According to the statistics, in 2007, 11,101types of copyright of publications were brought into China, 10,255 of which were books, 270 sound recordings, 106 video recordings, 130 electronic publications, 337 soft wares and 1 other copyright. 2,593 kinds of copyright of publications were exported to abroad, 2,571 of which were books, 19 sound recordings, 1 electronic publication. The amount of export trade of books and periodicals, audio-visual products, electronic publications have increased by 140%, 73% and 112% compared with those of 2001 before the entry into WTO. In 2007, the proportion between copyright import and export for the mainland of China was 3.99:1. Moreover, based on the statistics, 16,969 kinds of publication copyright were brought into China and 2,455 types of publication copyright were exported in 2008. 15,776 types of book copyright were brought in, while 2,440 were exported with the proportion between copyright import and export 6.47:1. Although in an unfavorable trade balance, it still underwent a greatly improved situation compared with that of the past. In 2008, the top ten areas and countries for book copyright import were: Chinese Taiwan, America, Britain, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, Singapore, Canada and Russia. The top ten areas and countries for book copyright export were: Chinese Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, America, Russia, Germany, France, Japan, Britain and Canada. The two lists indicated the width of copyright trade.