Editor’s Note: As the first children’s publishing house in modern China, the Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House has brought classic books to generations of children, leaving an indelible impression on their minds. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the JCPH. To celebrate this milestone, BookDao interviewed Feng Jie, the president of the JCPH, asking him to share the most memorable moments of the JCPH's illustrious history.

Feng Jie, who took over the JCPH in 2018, has led the publisher's transition from a "product strategy" to a "copyright strategy." Specifically, the JCPH has used "One Hundred Thousand Whys", China's first popular science brand, as a work handhold for this transition, taking "rights protection, maintenance, and authorization" as its strategic steps. With the efforts of several generations of publishers at the JCPH, "One Hundred Thousand Whys" has been effectively protected, and significant progress has been made in rights protection over the past two and a half years.

Although the road to rights protection is long and arduous, it is a necessary step to take, as it not only expands the development space of the "One Hundred Thousand Whys" brand in traditional publishing but also opens up broader development opportunities for the JPCH in the future.

70 Years of the JCPH: A Glance at Their Glorious Moments

BookDao: Looking back at the 70 years of the JCPH, if we were to pick out some important moments from its long history to sketch out the overall development of the publishing house, which highlights or events do you think are particularly worth mentioning at this moment?

Feng Jie: The JCPH was established on December 28, 1952, and this year marks its 70th anniversary. In the past 70 years, the publishing house has provided a large number of popular book and magazine brands like "One Hundred Thousand Whys," "Five Thousand Years of History," "365 Nights," "The Story of Sanmao the Vagabond," "Little Children," "Youth Literature," and "The King of Stories," etc., which have made positive contributions to the provision of healthy spiritual nourishment for children, cultural inheritance, and cultural dissemination, and played an important role in the process.

Looking back at the past 70 years, there are many exciting moments worth reviewing. Personally, I think there are two things worth mentioning.

First, in 1979, the boxed picture book "Treasure Ship" was exported to Japan, marking the first time that Chinese children's publishing went abroad. In the past 40 years, the publishing house has exported more than 2,300 book and magazine copyrights to countries including the United States, France, Sweden, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries.

The second is "One Hundred Thousand Whys," which was published in 1961. In 1999, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the JCPH published the "One Hundred Thousand Whys" New Century Edition, which pushed the publishing house's business to a glorious peak. This series of books was praised by the People's Daily as "a scientific cornerstone for the future of the republic."

In 2011, on the 50th anniversary of the publication of "One Hundred Thousand Whys," the JCPH held the launch ceremony for the sixth edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" at the Great Hall of People in Beijing, attended by National People's Congress Vice Chairman Han Qide, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication Wu Shulin, Secretary of the Party Group of the China Association for Science and Technology and Director of the China Science and Technology Museum Xu Yanhao, Director of the Publishing Bureau of The Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, Tao Hua, as well as many academicians like Chen Jia'er, Yang Xiongli, and Chu Junhao.

In 2013, the sixth edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" was officially published, and a publishing symposium was held in Shanghai, attended by Han Zheng, a member of the Politburo of the CPC and Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, National Committee of the CPPCC Vice Chairman Han Qide, Deputy Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication Wu Shulin, Former Deputy Minister of Education Wu Qidi, and academicians like Wang Pinxian, Tang Zhaoyou, Li Daqian, and Fang Cheng. The high specifications of the launch ceremony for the sixth edition of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" and its publishing symposium were rare in the national publishing industry, and more than 100 media outlets reported on it at the time.

Five Years of Transformation: Fulfilling Organizational Arrangements at the JCPH

BookDao: You took over the JCPH in 2018, and in our impression, the publishing house was in a relatively low period of development. It is understood that you were previously in charge of trade magazines and did not know much about children's publishing. Have you ever thought about the consequences if you couldn't do it well after taking over?

Feng Jie: To be honest, this was not my personal choice. At the end of 2017, the main leaders of the group talked to me and proposed to transfer me to the JCPH. I was very uneasy, nervous, but more excited.

I was uneasy and nervous because I didn't know much about children's publishing. I used to work in the editing, publishing, and business management of trade magazines, such as "Storytelling" for more than 30 years. I didn't know much about children's publishing. I was excited because I felt that the JCPH was a prestigious and old publishing house with a significant position in the publishing industry.

More than 30 years of publishing work has made me develop a concept of obeying organizational arrangements. I joined the publishing house in 1985 and worked as an editor for "Storytelling" magazine. Ten years later, the old president of Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, Jiang Zengpei, asked me to go to an advertising company under the Literature and Art Publishing House. I worked there for ten years and increased the advertising revenue of "Storytelling" magazine from 2 million to 14.7 million yuan per year. In 2006, "Storytelling" Media Company was established, and He Chengwei, the president of Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House and my former boss, who was also the chief editor of "Storytelling", transferred me from the advertising company to "Storytelling" Media Company, where I worked until 2018.

In early 2018, the group transferred me to the JCPH. I didn't consider my own gains and losses. At the time, I told the main leaders of the group that although I couldn't guarantee whether I could complete the reform task entrusted by the group, I could promise not to take any personal gains during the reform process. At the same time, I also said that if the group thought I was not doing well or doing wrong in the JCPH, they could remove me from my position at any time.

Looking back now, I am very grateful for the trust of the group leaders and the understanding and support of all the staff of the JCPH, which allowed me to implement some of my ideas on the transformation and development of traditional publishing.

BookDao: The reality of the rejuvenation of the JCPH in the past five years is obvious to all. Can you use data to explain what important changes have occurred?

Feng Jie: When I took office, I was given a mission by the group, which was to launch a three-year comprehensive reform of the JCPH. The three-year comprehensive reform of the JCPH was part of the group's "3+1" reform plan, which includes People's Publishing House, Literature and Art Publishing House, Children's Publishing House, and the education sector.

In less than five years, we have indeed made some adjustments and changes. Of course, the pandemic that started in 2020 also had some impact on the reform and development of the JCPH.

Compared to 2017, the variety of books published by the JCPH has increased by 38.6% in 2021, the delivery volume has increased by 40%, the total assets have increased by 27.7%, and the owner's equity has increased by 106.4%. The average salary of JCPH employees has increased by more than 50%.

Expanding the Development Space of Traditional Publishing Towards the Future with "Copyright Strategy"

BookDao: In an interview a few years ago, you emphasized the importance of shifting from a product strategy to a copyright strategy when you took over the JCPH. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary, could you please talk about the practical success of the JCPH's copyright strategy? As the leader, what did you grasp tightly to ensure the success of the strategy, from strategic thinking to practical implementation?

Feng Jie: Through about four to five years of practice, our copyright strategy has shown initial results and achieved some phased achievements.

The first thing I did when I joined the JCPH was to adjust the development strategy from a product strategy to a copyright strategy. The rapid development of modern information communication technology has completely changed readers' habits, interests, and reading paths, posing great challenges to our product forms. The development of technology has given rise to many new media, which are constantly competing for our users in the market. Compared with traditional publishing, new media provides users with a richer reading experience.

I have always believed that to overcome the difficulties in publishing, we must first overcome the limitations of publishing. Traditional publishing professionals need to make a big adjustment in their thinking about publishing. In the past, we only thought about cultural inheritance and dissemination from the perspective of publishing. Now, changes in the market require us to think about publishing from the perspective of cultural inheritance and dissemination, so that publishing professionals can broaden their horizons. As Fei Xiaotong said, "Each has its own beauty, and the beauty of one contributes to the beauty of all." This is very suitable for the mentality that traditional publishing professionals should have in the face of deep integration.

The copyright strategy aims to provide professional publishing services to society, obtain the copyright of publishing content, and then integrate more social resources around the extension of copyright to expand the development space of traditional publishing.

The goal of the copyright strategy is to use the brand as the core to command the arrangement of publishing resources and human resources, which I call "collection." Around the core of the brand, we extend its product line, which I call "expansion." We first collect and then expand, or we call it "one collection and one expansion," to clarify the goals and tasks of the copyright strategy.

The restructuring of the content production organization mainly provides organizational support for the copyright strategy. At that time, we established the Children's Literature Center, the Children's Science Popularization Publishing Division (which we restructured into the "100,000 Whys" subsidiary at the end of last year), the Preschool Reading Materials Publishing Division, and the Education and Training Publishing Division. We also established the Copyright Management Department and two studios.

Personnel management and performance management systems were also reformed and adjusted to encourage those who perform well to receive more rewards, with the aim of effectively promoting the implementation of the copyright strategy.

The Importance of Upholding Rights During Challenging Times: What Drives JCPH to Fight for Justice?

BookDao: In recent years, children's copy rights protection has attracted attention from the publishing industry. So far, the rights protection of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" has achieved a phased victory. Why are you so persistent in protecting these rights? What does this fight mean for the JCPH? What does it mean for the industry?

Feng Jie: One of our key strategies for advancing copyright is "One Hundred Thousand Whys", because it has been the undisputed first brand in China's children's science publishing for 60 years and has a very good copyright foundation.

I greatly admire the leadership team and editorial team of the JCPH at that time. "One Hundred Thousand Whys" (6th edition) consists of 18 volumes with 6 million words, nearly 8,000 pictures, 4,000 questions, and 768 scientists and science writers who participated in writing. At that time, the JCPH and these 768 scientists and science writers signed contracts to ensure that the JCPH had complete independent intellectual property rights for "One Hundred Thousand Whys" (6th edition). They handled the ownership of the copyright very cleanly, which allowed us to fully launch the copyright strategy for "One Hundred Thousand Whys" today.

When we were promoting the copyright strategy for "One Hundred Thousand Whys", we encountered a major problem. There were a large number of counterfeit publications of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" in the market, and our team told me that more than 100 publishing houses were involved to varying degrees in the counterfeit publication of "One Hundred Thousand Whys", including national level publishers, professional children's publishers, and more local publishing houses, which caused us great psychological pressure.

I summarize the specific promotion of the copyright strategy for "One Hundred Thousand Whys" from three dimensions: confirming rights, protecting rights, and authorizing rights. If a right is established but cannot be effectively maintained, society cannot form a consensus on ownership, and the final authorization cannot be carried out. Therefore, even in the face of such a complex and difficult situation, I emphasized that we need to have a sense of rights protection and even more so the will to protect our rights.

We initiated the first lawsuit in early 2020, and it took two and a half years from the first lawsuit to the final appeal on July 28, 2022. So far, we have sent lawyer's letters to 87 publishing houses, and many publishing houses have reached a settlement with us immediately after receiving the letter. They still respect the JCPH's claim to independent intellectual property rights for "One Hundred Thousand Whys". We only take legal action against those publishing houses that refuse to acknowledge infringement and do not stop the infringement. Currently, 11 publishing houses have been sued by us, and we have won all the lawsuits against the 5 publishing houses that have made judgments in court.

However, during the more than two years of rights protection, we clearly saw that some publishing houses suspected of infringing and counterfeiting "One Hundred Thousand Whys" did not really put themselves in, often cooperating with the content providers to do everything they could to procrastinate and delay. This undoubtedly increases our time cost for rights protection.

We have noticed the judicial interpretation of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China on intellectual property crimes. Illegal business operations with an amount of more than 50,000 yuan constitute a serious circumstance and are sentenced to less than three years' imprisonment; illegal business operations with an amount of more than 250,000 yuan constitute a particularly serious circumstance and are sentenced to three to ten years' imprisonment. The operating income of counterfeit publication of "One Hundred Thousand Whys" often reaches several million or even tens of millions. Once a criminal case is filed, the publishing house is suspected of corporate crime, and the impact on the publishing house will be extremely serious, and the legal representative will also bear criminal responsibility.

From the perspective of the JCPH, we are doing this to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the JCPH. But we are also safeguarding the rights of original creators, which is not only the interest of the JCPH, but also the right of more publishing houses dedicated to building original capacity.

As we continue to promote rights protection, on the one hand, we are expanding the development space of the JCPH in the traditional publishing field. Our "One Hundred Thousand Whys" (Colored Phonetic Version) published in November last year has been reprinted seven times, with sales of 180,000 sets and a cover price value of 23.4 million yuan, which was unimaginable before. Last year, we authorized Zhihu to publish the Zhihu version of "One Hundred Thousand Whys", which has sold 210,000 sets and has a cover price value of 42 million yuan. This is the result of rights protection and the power of brand accumulation.

On the other hand, rights protection has also promoted the gradual formation of a consensus in society that the JCPH has independent intellectual property rights for "One Hundred Thousand Whys", which has a very positive effect on the brand's extension and development in non-traditional publishing fields. In June of this year, the cooperation between "One Hundred Thousand Whys" and Douyin in the live streaming field was also a huge success, setting the record for the highest single live streaming attendance (160 million) in the first half of this year. In September, we jointly held the "Sensodyne's One Hundred Thousand Whys" event with "Sensodyne" on World Love Teeth Day. The audio cooperation between "One Hundred Thousand Whys" and Ximalaya also officially landed in the second half of last year.

As a popular science brand, "One Hundred Thousand Whys" will definitely expand into the following fields in the future: science, education, themed applications, media such as movies, TV shows, and animation, as well as related merchandise. Recently, we have been in discussions with the Changning District government in Shanghai to transform a children's park into a "One Hundred Thousand Whys" theme park, and this project has already been approved.

It is evident that protecting intellectual property rights through litigation is the mission of '"One Hundred Thousand Whys" copyright strategy. We cannot avoid it and must persevere. I believe that as the level of legal construction continues to improve, society will one day come to a consensus where all acts of disrespecting intellectual property and infringing upon the legal rights of others will be condemned. At that time, a favorable external environment for the sustainable development of high-quality publications will truly emerge.

BookDao: You have likened the JCPH to the "eldest son" of China's children's publishing. If the past five years were a revitalization of the "eldest son" spirit, then at the starting point of 70 years’ anniversary, what areas does the JCPH need to focus on to further develop and promote the "eldest son" spirit?

Feng Jie: I refer to the JCPH as the "eldest son" of China's children's publishing based on a chronological definition. The JCPH was established on December 28, 1952, as the first professional children's publishing house in Modern China. The second was the China Children's Press and Publication Group, established in 1956, followed by the New Buds Publishing House in Tianjin, established in 1979. Therefore, in the first half of the 1950s, the JCPH was solely responsible for the publication of national children's reading materials.

Looking to the future, the JCPH will focus on "creative transformation and innovative development" in its planning, and this requires starting with a copyright strategy. Without copyright, we lack the foundation for transformation, and can only make technical adjustments on the product side, compress costs, and reduce scale, which cannot solve the problem of development. To address this problem, we must penetrate the product and reach the core embodied in the copyright. In my personal understanding, the possession, control, and application of copyright are an effective prerequisite for implementing the "creative transformation" advocated by General Secretary Xi Jinping. Only with creative transformation can we talk about innovative development.

No. 1538 Yan'an West Road in Shanghai, the original location of the JCPH

In 2015, while working at the Storytelling Company, I had business dealings with many Japanese publishing houses and cultural companies. During this time, I fully understood the production committee system in Japan. Different industries form a production committee centered around a common interest in copyright. There are publishers, cultural companies, film and television companies, and other peripheral commercial companies, which together form a production committee to expand the copyright in their respective areas of expertise. Every new development of copyright is a strengthening of its value, and every party in the production committee benefits from it.

I believe that a copyright strategy will provide unlimited imagination space for the future incremental development of traditional publishing. To achieve this, we need to change the way we grow and transform the growth momentum. We are planning to further transform the "One Hundred Thousand Whys" subsidiary of the JCPH into a market-operating entity with diversified investment, mainly engaged in the market-oriented transformation of the "One Hundred Thousand Whys" brand value of the JCPH. Its revenue scale may exceed that of the parent company, the JCPH, which is worth looking forward to.

The JCPH has left us with valuable spiritual and material wealth in many fields over the past 70 years. Inheritance is not just a transfer, but a mission. We must ensure that these glorious and deeply-rooted publishing brands are further developed in our generation of publishing professionals, promoting the cause of the JCPH continuously towards the goal of high-quality and sustainable development.

Century Publishing Park in Shanghai, the current location of the JCPH