Zhonghua Book Company
Zhonghua Book Company, formerly spelled Chunghwa or Chung-hua Shu-chü, and sometimes translated as Zhonghua Publishing House, are Chinese publishing houses that focuses on the humanities, especially classical Chinese works. Currently it has split into a few separate companies. The main headquarters is in Beijing, while Chung Hwa Book Company (Hong Kong) is headquartered in Hong Kong. The Taiwan branch is headquartered in Taipei.
History
The company was founded in Shanghai on 1 January 1912 as the Chung Hwa Book Co., Ltd. by Lufei Kui, a former manager of the Commercial Press, another Shanghai-based publisher that had been established in 1897. From the year of its foundation to the birth of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it published about 5,700 titles, excluding reprints.The Chung Hwa Book Co., Ltd. was one of the companies that printed banknotes for the Central Bank of China from 1931 to 1949.
Zhonghua's punctuated editions of the Twenty-Four Histories have become standard. The publishing project, which started in 1959 on a suggestion by Mao Zedong, was completed in 1977. A revised edition of the entire set integrating the most recent scholarship on the Histories is being prepared.
On December 19, 2011, The China Publishing and Media Holdings Company was founded to become the parent company of the Zhonghua Book Company.
Subsidiaries
- Shanghai Zhonghua Printing Co., Ltd. : Originally established in 1912 as Chung Hwa Book Co., Shanghai. In 1966, it was renamed to Zhonghua Printing Factory. In 1988, it was changed into a limited liability company according to the Company Law of the People's Republic of China in 1998. In 2008, Shanghai Zhonghua Printing Co., Ltd. was moved to Qingpu Industrial Park.
Former subsidiaries
- Chung Hwa Book Company, Limited : Originally established in 1945 in Taipei, Taiwan. In August 1949, the Chung Hwa Book's Shanghai headquarter was relocated to Taipei. Chung Hwa Book Company, Limited was registered in Hong Kong in 1949-01-20. The Taiwan headquarters was officially separated from the Chung Hwa Book operations in PRC in 1950-10-08. The Taiwanese company was later registered in 1951 in Taiwan, and renamed to Chung Hwa Book Company, Limited in 1952-09-19. The Hong Kong registration was renewed in 1984-08-31 under the old registered names, but with location set to People's Republic of China.
- Chung Hwa Book Company (Hong Kong) Limited : Originally established in 1927 in Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong. In 1988, it was renamed to Chung Hwa Book Company Limited and re-registered as a subsidiary of Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Limited, with incorporation on 1988-06-16.
- Chung Hwa Book Company Pte Limited : Originally established in 1923, it was incorporated on 27 October 1989 as a limited private company. As of 2016, it is a subsidiary of Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Limited.
- Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House : Founded in August 1958 as Ci Hai Editing Institute under the Beijing company. In January 1978, it was renamed to the current name. As of 2016, it is owned by Shanghai Century Publishing(Group) Co., Ltd.
- ? : Originally established in 1933 in Pak Tai Street, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon as a printer for CHBC's Hong Kong branch. In 1980, it was merged with ? and ? into C & C Joint Printing Co., Ltd..
Representative publications
- Zizhi Tongjian
- Guwen Guanzhi
- Twenty-Four Histories
- The Analects of Confucius, Annotated and Translated
- Records of the Grand Historian
- The Classic of Poetry, Annotated and Analyzed
- ''Wang Li Character Dictionary of Ancient Chinese''