As a professor at the School of Marxism, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Chen Huadong was transferred from his position as Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University to become President and General Editor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press.
Chen Huadong is an exceptionally organized and logical individual. Regardless of the topic at hand, he can quickly sort out the key points. He initially worked in the School of Engineering and later transitioned to the field of ideological and political publicity after completing his doctoral studies in management. Now, he has taken on a managerial role within the corporate setting. The rational thinking and organizational skills of an engineering background, combined with the structural and strategic thinking of management expertise, have brought a different dimension to his work as President.
Born in the 1980s, Chen Huadong, an executive, is at the helm of SJTUP, a university publishing house with a rich history spanning four decades. Following the Chinese tradition, the press has reached a stage of maturity. However, in Chen Huadong's well-defined vision, SJTUP has embarked on a new phase, confronting fresh challenges and potentially discovering novel opportunities.
The Fourth Stage of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the SJTUP, but looking back further in time, the publishing history of Shanghai Jiao Tong University can be traced back to the late 19th century, specifically to the Nanyang Public School Translation Institute. It was the earliest university publishing institution in modern China and was established with ambitious goals, aiming to "assist in talent cultivation" and "promote knowledge across nations." It published popular books like Adam Smith’s "The Wealth of Nations" translated by Yan Fu.
However, Chen Huadong explains that those belong to the stories of bygone eras, part of the honorable past in the development of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. The new history of the SJTUP begins in 1983.
After the reform and opening up, with the development of China's socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, major publishing houses emerged and were successively established. The SJTUP was also approved by the Ministry of Culture in 1983. From 1983 to 1992, this stage belonged to the exploration period of the publishing house, focusing on transforming mindset and enhancing awareness of open thinking among the Chinese people. At that time, the first thing SJTUP did was to summarize the practical experience of reform at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and compile the book "An Initial Exploration of Management Reform at Shanghai Jiao Tong University." After its publication, it had a significant impact domestically. This marked the first development stage of the new SJTUP.
From 1992 to 2006, this stage was a period of market adjustment for the entire publishing industry and also the second stage of development for SJTUP. Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992 gradually established a transformational consciousness for the overall market economy. Confidence and determination in the publishing industry to face the market and move towards the market were greatly enhanced. A prominent manifestation was that an increasing number of publishing institutions saw opportunities in the future with expanded university admissions, rapid population growth, and a booming education market. They actively entered various segments of the publishing industry.
In 2008, Han Jianmin, who had served as Deputy Chief Editor of Hebei University Press, became the President of SJTUP after pursuing further studies for a doctorate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Chen Huadong highly praised Han Jianmin's tenure as President, stating that he led SJTUP into a period of glorious development lasting ten years. The SJTUP transformed from a university press primarily focused on academic textbooks to a golden period of popular publishing, achieving a transition to mass publishing. From that time, domestic publishing institutions gradually strengthened their awareness of branding and the market. Brand publishing became a consensus, exemplified by a series of major projects such as "Large Aircraft Publishing" and "Tokyo Trial Publishing." Chen Huadong said, "Just as the founding slogan of Shanghai Jiao Tong University was 'Born to Strive for Excellence,' the positioning and mission of SJTUP is also to contribute to the strength and prosperity of the country." This marks the third stage of development for SJTUP.
"Before and after the 19th National Congress, the concept of convergent publishing and integrated development gradually took shape, and I believe that publishing houses have entered the fourth stage." However, the book business in the publishing industry has already solidified people's thinking over the years. After convergent publishing became the trend and driving force for industry development, the entire industry faced the issue of transformation. During this year's National Book Trade Fair (Book Fair) held in Jinan, Chen Huadong mentioned in a speech that China's digital publishing and convergent publishing trends are remarkable. The overall market volume has increased tenfold over the past decade, but within this tenfold increase, over 70% of the contribution comes from online games and advertising, and true cultural publishing has not been fully realized. How the publishing industry and publishing institutions can leverage their advantages and occupy a more important position and revenue share in the convergent publishing market is a concern for the entire industry. "Only by truly elevating the value of publishing in the digital economy to a certain stage can our digital economy have core competitiveness," said Chen Huadong. "Currently, convergent publishing is still at the revenue scale level and has not played a leading role in readers' values or reflected the values of the publishing industry."
A Shift in Thinking: Necessity in the Digital Environment and Ecosystem
After the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country has attached great importance to convergent publishing, and the integration and development of publishing has become a consensus in the industry. Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press has closely followed this national trend, making digitalization and transformation its key focus during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, and embracing integrated development as one of the main strategies for the 14th Five-Year Plan.
"There are many new technologies and approaches available now, but digital publishing or convergent publishing should not merely use new media methods to assist publishing. Instead, we should consider how to engage in publishing within the digital environment and ecosystem. This requires a shift in thinking," says Chen Huadong. He divides the development of digital publishing into three stages: the first stage is using digital technology as a tool to support and facilitate traditional publishing; the second stage is establishing a digital business ecosystem and conducting publishing within this new ecosystem; the third stage involves a complete transformation in thinking, using digital thinking to contemplate publishing and driving transformative changes in the industry.
Chen Huadong believes that the SJTUP is currently in the process of transitioning from the first stage to the second stage, but true competitiveness in digital publishing will be achieved in the third stage. To strive towards the third stage, the SJTUP has developed medium- to long-term plans and layouts internally.
Firstly, while "digital" emphasizes the medium, "convergence" emphasizes the mindset. Therefore, they renamed the "Digital Publishing Center" to the "Convergent Publishing Center," leading the editors to change their conceptual thinking. Secondly, in the process of topic selection and application, editors were provided with directional options to guide them in transforming traditional paper-based publishing into convergent publishing. This includes supporting and promoting diverse forms and carriers of publishing. To support the editorial departments in producing high-quality works and achieving dual effectiveness, the SJTUP has established the Convergent Publishing Fund, offering full support in terms of funding and resources. "We aim to select the best among the good, strive to build a brand, create influence, and genuinely contribute to the promotion of talent development in our country."
The business activities of the Convergent Publishing Center primarily fall into three categories. The first category is traditional electronic audiovisual work, which includes e-books, audiobooks, electronic publications, and audiovisual publications. The second category is databases, including local historical documents, the "Tokyo Trials Project," and the "Plain Language" corpus. The third category focuses on the layout and support of innovative textbook publishing, guiding the diversification of convergent publishing formats. In addition to print and e-books, this includes storytelling, QR codes, and intelligent interactive formats. "Although our scale is still relatively small, we have achieved profitability from the beginning, which has also eased the pressure on our organization," says Chen Huadong.
With clear goals, steady progress, and a well-paced approach, the SJTUP's convergent publishing projects have received positive feedback. The "Tokyo Trials" database and the "Tokyo Trials Publishing Project" have won awards such as the China Publishing Government Award and the 8th China Excellent Publication Award. The local historical documents database project has played a significant role in the preservation, excavation, and promotion of excellent traditional Chinese culture. The database of ancient books related to traditional Chinese medicine and epidemic diseases, released at this year's Jinan Book Fair, is the first project in China to organize data on ancient books in the field of traditional Chinese medicine and epidemic diseases, making a contribution to the training of students in the field of traditional Chinese medicine.
To date, the SJTUP has been deeply involved in the digital integration of academic publishing, leveraging its academic resource advantages to cultivate vertical fields. The "Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press Database Cloud Platform" integrates seven academic databases, harnessing the advantages of an academic publishing database "cluster," and becoming a distinctive feature of SJTUP's convergent publishing brand. The "Large Aircraft Stereoscopic Knowledge Service Platform Project," selected for the National Key Electronic Publication Plan during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, is developed based on the "Large Aircraft Publishing Project" series. It is gradually moving towards the goal of structured and interconnected knowledge in the academic field. The SJTUP is also involved in the construction of key research bases for textbook development under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 14th Five-Year Plan. Based on the "Convergent Publishing Resource Center," they are developing the "JiaoWoxue" course publishing platform, creating exemplar projects for new forms of textbook publishing, and supporting the development of disciplines in the university.
Publishing Involves Three Circles: Author Circle, Friend Circle, Reader Circle
"Relying on the University, Putting Textbooks First, Promoting Academics, Prioritizing the Market" is the operating policy of the SJTUP. The importance of textbook publishing is unquestionable, both from the perspective of national development and the comprehensive competitiveness of university disciplines. the SJTUP has a certain foundation and advantage in publishing, relying on university disciplinary textbooks. Among the winners of the first National Excellent Textbook Publishing Units selected after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, only six publishing houses received awards, and the SJTUP was one of them.
At the National Symposium on Philosophy and Social Sciences held on May 17, 2016, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed the construction of three major systems: Chinese-characteristic disciplines, academic research, and discourse. Strengthening the construction of national disciplinary textbooks ultimately aims to establish an independent knowledge system in China. Chen Huadong explained, "Because previously, the source and experience of higher education disciplinary textbooks in China were mostly introduced from Western disciplines, the importance of university press textbooks has reached an unprecedented height from the perspective of national strategic layout and policies."
In May of this year, in order to implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council regarding textbook construction and the newly revised and implemented "Vocational Education Law of the People's Republic of China," the Ministry of Education released the first batch of "14th Five-Year Plan" national planning textbooks for vocational education, with the SJTUP ranking eighth in terms of the number of selected textbooks. Currently, the SJTUP mainly publishes textbooks for higher education and vocational education. In addition to textbooks in science and engineering disciplines, there are also advantageous disciplinary textbooks in fields such as communication principles, digital media, medical student series, and smart law.
"The requirements of the state for textbook compilation are becoming increasingly strict. In each round of disciplinary assessment, textbooks are an important indicator, and high-quality textbook publishing resources will be concentrated in central-level publishing houses," said Chen Huadong. However, in the face of the pressure of lacking high-quality resources, the SJTUP has shown sufficient sincerity.
"There is no invincible martial art in the world, only fast and unbreakable techniques." the SJTUP has a textbook called "Fundamentals of Materials Science," which is edited by Academician Xu Zuyao. This textbook has been published for several years, and other publishing houses have also come to "undermine" it. However, through the process of reprinting and subsequent cooperation, the editors and authors of the SJTUP actively proposed revisions and ideas, establishing a good relationship and forming a community.
In addition, the leaders of the SJTUP, along with the heads and editors of the Textbook Publishing Center, visited various colleges of Shanghai Jiao Tong University one by one, giving lectures and reports to teachers, hoping to establish better cooperation relationships and jointly strive to keep the best teachers and works in the SJTUP. "As members of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, we should keep pace with the university and form a circle with them," humorously summarized Chen Huadong. "Publishing actually involves three circles: the author circle, the friend circle, and the reader circle."
Relying on the resources of their alma mater, the SJTUP has successively launched series brands such as "Approachable - Xi Jinping's Language Power," "Qian Xuesen Series Books," "Vital Instruments of the Nation," and "Scientific Spirit." They have published excellent books such as "Diary of Doctor Cha in Aid of Hubei," "Technological Achievements in China," "Caulerpa Blooms - The Burden and Expectation by Erhai Lake," and "Soaring: The Rise of China's Large Aircraft," closely following the characteristics of the times, highlighting the features of Shanghai, and promoting the distinctive features of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Books such as "A Brief History of Quality" and "New China in Major Engineering Construction" use solid theoretical research to expound China's development concepts, development ideas, and Chinese solutions, further consolidating the strong spiritual drive to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Combining the advantages of Shanghai and Jiao Tong University, they are creating a series of theme books titled "New Era Ideological and Political Education Course," providing in-depth interpretations of the connotation of the "Ideological and Political Education Course" and building the brand of the "Ideological and Political Education Course" books.
"Why do people choose to publish their works with the SJTUP? It's because our publishing quality is good, we have a good reputation, and the textbooks we publish are genuinely welcomed by teachers and students. Moreover, after the publication of textbooks, both the economic and social benefits are improved synchronously, and the recognition of the SJTUP by authors naturally increases," confidently stated Chen Huadong.
In recent years, the SJTUP has received numerous national, provincial, and municipal awards for the ordinary higher education textbooks it has published. This includes 33 national and ministerial awards, 103 awards in the East China region, 30 awards in Shanghai and other provincial levels, and the first "National Advanced Collective in Textbook Construction" award. Among them, the textbook "Fundamentals of Materials Science (3rd Edition)" won the first National Textbook Construction Award for Excellent Textbooks (Higher Education Category) First Prize, and the two volumes of "Principles of Ships (2nd Edition)" won the second prize of the first National Textbook Construction Award for Excellent Textbooks (Higher Education Category).
Academic publishing remains a major focus of university publishing work. Nowadays, major publishing houses are all expanding into new disciplines such as new engineering, new humanities, new agricultural sciences, and new medical sciences. However, a new trend in academic publishing is to integrate with various industries. "Academic publishing is a characteristic of university presses because we rely on the resources of universities. However, relying solely on university resources is no longer sufficient. We need to reach out. If academic publishing cannot integrate with the needs of industries and society and be transformed into productivity, the road ahead will become increasingly difficult," believes Chen Huadong. He believes that academic publishing should "go out," but this "going out" means not only going abroad but also stepping into various industries and taking root in Chinese social practices.
In 2008, when the large aircraft manufacturer COMAC settled in Shanghai, the SJTUP began collaborating with COMAC and the School of Aerospace Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2009 to initiate the "Large Aircraft Publishing Project," conducting academic research on large aircraft. This collaboration has been ongoing for 14 years. Similar large-scale publishing projects include the "Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Technology Publishing Project," "Energy and Environment Publishing Project," "Precision Medicine Publishing Project," and "Translational Medicine Publishing Project." These projects have received funding from the National Publishing Fund, the National Fund for Scientific and Technological Academic Works Publishing, among others, and have established recognition in the market, shaping the distinctive academic publishing brand of Jiao Tong University. This year, the SJTUP has also launched another project called the "Ocean Publishing Project," which is driven by both the "large aircraft" and "ocean" domains. "There is currently great demand for technology related to deep-sea exploration in China, and universities have advantages in technological research and development. After these achievements are released, they are promptly transformed into publishing projects, following the model of the Large Aircraft Publishing Project. This work will likely continue for 10 years or even longer," according to Chen Huadong's plan. In his vision, this process is a selection and transformation process. "We are not just publishing books for the sake of publishing. We are building a comprehensive and diverse service platform to transform knowledge. This is our new publishing philosophy."
Resource Integration and Keeping Pace with the Times: The Key to the New Era of Marketing
When it comes to textbook promotion, Chen Huadong believes that the most important factor is the high quality and good reputation of the textbooks themselves. In terms of quality control, the SJTUP focuses on three main points: first, precise positioning, highlighting the advantages and key areas of the SJTUP. "Every publishing house has its own positioning. If we try to do everything, we will have limited energy, and our peers will also compete for a share, which will not showcase the strengths of our press." Second, strengthening the supervision of quality, with everyone taking responsibility seriously. Third, mutual learning and complementing each other's strengths.
"Books have a strong influence, and if there are major political errors, it can have a significant negative impact. Publishers should not only focus on economic benefits but also pay attention to social benefits. University presses, in particular, should pay attention to guiding public opinion," said Chen Huadong.
In recent years, with the continuous iteration of mobile internet products, the traditional publishing industry has faced new challenges in terms of content value and channel marketing. The core issue in marketing is the channel. New media live streaming marketing channels offer large sales volumes and low discounts. Additionally, the issue of piracy in publishing is a significant challenge and has a significant impact on traditional publishing marketing.
Chen Huadong mentioned that in the past, the SJTUP focused more on academic publishing and less on popular publishing, which resulted in a relative lack of advantage in marketing. Therefore, this year the SJTUP established a dedicated marketing department. The newly established marketing department serves three main purposes: first, after book publication, it collaborates to carry out new media promotion and marketing activities. Second, it conducts big data analysis to identify market trends for books that are planned or intended for publication. The third role is to strengthen the integration of editing and distribution. From the initial stage of planning data, the department ensures that editing and distribution are linked, actively participating in the entire process.
Original article in Chinese: 陈华栋：上海交通大学出版社正进入第四个发展阶段