Evidence suggests that when a society's per-capita income exceeds US$3000, people begin to place greater emphasis on the pursuit of knowledge. In other words, the extent to which a publishing industry flourishes is an indicator of the wealth and advancement of a society.

So what's the situation in Taiwan, where people are "up to their ankles" in money? Is it a well-read society, or a crude and ill-educated one? We can get a clue from the publishing industry.

The Sixth Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) will be held next February. Its theme will be: "Between Asia and the World." The fair aims to be a gateway for world publishing to enter into Asia, which is to say a so-called "Asia-Pacific Copyright Trading Center."

Between Asia and the world

In fact, right from the start, when the Government Information Office (GIO) first began holding the TIBE in 1987, it expected that eventually it would focus on trading of copyrights, not direct sales. Moreover, to increase international exchanges and upgrade the level of Taiwan publishers, since 1988 the GIO has subsidized publishers' participation in major book fairs in places like Germany, the US, and Italy.

After nearly a decade of effort, not only do Taiwan publishers have a wealth of book fair experience, the TIBE has made a name for itself around the world.

Liao Su Hsi-tsu, publisher at New Schoolmate Books, which is handling arrangements for next year's TIBE, points out that Taipei's fair is now the fourth largest in the world in terms of participating nations and publishing houses. It trails only the publishing trade shows held in Frankfurt, Germany and in Bologna, Italy, and the BEA exhibition in the US.

Tseng Farn-chyan, chairman of the Association of Taipei Publishers, notes that at last year's Fifth TIBE, 588 publishers from 34 nations had displays. This made the fair larger than those held in Beijing, Seoul, and Singapore.

The work of inviting and registering publishers has been largely completed. It is expected that publishers will come from 40 countries; already the supply of exhibition booths cannot meet demand. Tseng Farn-chyan says that the original layout of the World Trade Center exhibition floor had room for only 1316 booths; the new layout can now accommodate 1407, but still that is not enough.

Tseng points out that, in order to help local firms stay abreast of publishing information, beginning in 1998 the TIBE will be held annually (rather than biannually as it is now). It is also planned that publishers will invest in a book exhibition company specially established to take charge of exhibitions.

Asian copyright trading center

Besides the TIBE, there are also international book fairs in Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, and elsewhere. Virtually every country has its own. Why do countries compete to hold them?

"It is very important for the publishing industry to stay in touch with and interact with the outside world, to stay abreast of the latest intelligence and information," says Rex How, president of the Commercial Press and a veteran publisher who was one of those who arranged the Fifth TIBE. Besides benefiting the publishing industry, says How, another reason countries hold book fairs is that they hope to get a leg up in the race to become Asia's copyright trading center.

In the middle of July of this year, the chairman of the Frankfurt Book Fair accepted an invitation from the TIBE Planning Committee and came to Taipei for a visit. In a seminar, he stated that the Frankfurt Book Fair plans to establish a display center in Asia, with mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan being considered for its location. His analysis was that Hong Kong's market is not as big as Taiwan's, and the mainland, though having a large market, also has many limiting factors, so that Taiwan seems to offer the best conditions.

But what about other Asian cities? Wu Hsing-wen, editor-in-chief of Publishing Industry Magazine, notes that the Tokyo Book Fair has never been that well attended, the main reason being that Japan has a highly developed system of copyright agents. Copyright trading goes on routinely within this system. Secondly, costs are high there, making exhibitions an expensive proposition and causing foreign publishers to think twice about going there.

The Beijing Book Fair was started one year earlier than Taipei's. But the mainland's publishing market is not open, and restrictions and regulations are complex. For example, even paper for printing is rationed. So naturally conditions there do not match those in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong and Singapore exhibitions mainly focus on sales, and are targeted at local residents. Thus Taiwan is special in that its fair is clearly defined as being for "copyright trading."

Who gets the right to publish?

Why is it important that Taiwan become the leading "Asian copyright trading center"?

Taiwan's publishing industry produces over 20,000 titles per year, more than half of which depend on purchased rights. Thus copyright acquisition is clearly important. Further, establishing Taiwan as a "Chinese Language Publishing Center" also depends on the ability to acquire international copyrights.

Chen Chia-hsien, director of Bardon Chinese Media Agents, notes that it used to be easy for Taiwan publishers to acquire global Chinese-language rights. But since 1992, when the PRC passed its copyright law, and the PRC's accession to international copyright protection treaties, Taiwan firms have steadily been reduced to getting publishing rights only for "the Chinese language market excluding mainland China." Then, in 1991, as a result of US-ROC copyright negotiations, Chinese language rights were divided into those for complex characters (used in Taiwan) and those for simplified characters (used in the PRC). Taiwan publishers can only acquire the complex-character rights. Some especially popular authors are even able to sell their rights three times-for Taiwan, for Hong Kong, and for mainland China.

Taiwan publishers are worried that, given the huge difference in size between the Taiwan and PRC markets, as mainland firms become stronger and more ambitious, the day may come when they will acquire a monopoly on global Chinese-language rights. If that happens, the only way Taiwan could publish books translated into Chinese would be to acquire the rights from the PRC.

Tseng Farn-chyan notes that if Taiwan firms lose their leading position, Taiwan publishers will only be able to get "second-hand" information. This would have a profound affect not only on the publishing industry itself, but on all those people who count on the publishing industry for their information.

David and Goliath

This crisis is not imaginary. There are already some indications that the above scenario could indeed occur.

A Chinese saying has it: "The duck is the first to know if the spring river water is warm." Publishing agents are the first to know which way the wind is blowing in this market. So, as early as the 1992 passage of the PRC's copyright law, Taiwan publishing agents immediately began exploring the mainland market, which has far greater potential than Taiwan's.

Wu Hsing-wen points to a foreign book on the digital revolution, with one version printed in complex characters for Taiwan and one in simplified characters for the PRC. It has sold more than 30,000 copies in Taiwan, but more than 10 times that many in the mainland.

Foreign firms are much more likely to deal with PRC publishers than Taiwan's. Luk Yu-hung, who often travels to mainland China, recalls his recent negotiations with a Japanese publisher. When Luk was representing his Taiwan-based firm, Shu-shin Books, they demanded very stringent conditions. But when he opened negotiations on behalf of Baitong Books, a mainland publisher in which Shu-shin is an investor, his Japanese counterparts immediately sold the rights with much better conditions.

Rex How advises Taiwan firms to focus on control of complex-character publishing: "The smart thing to do would be to make a firewall and separate complex- from simplified-character publishing." He adds that it would be especially useful if the TIBE can develop into an Asian copyright trading center. Besides benefiting the upgrading of the industry and building international friendship, it would ensure that Chinese-language publishing rights were not controlled entirely by the PRC.

Look east... not west

Nevertheless, though things may not be going Taiwan's way, many publishers are not willing to give up the struggle for global Chinese-language rights, despite the unlikelihood of success. They are hoping that, through the TIBE, Taiwan will become an Asian Copyright Trading Center, and this will serve as the mechanism by which it can hold a commanding presence in the global Chinese-language market.

There are more than 5000 publishing houses in Taiwan. In 1995, total revenues in the publishing market reached US$3.2 billion. Though publishers always complain, the industry as a whole is flourishing.

However, the Taiwan market is clearly limited. Wu Hsing-wen notes that few books can, like Emotional Intelligence, sell 50,000 copies, and even fewer, like T-Day 1995, sell 200,000. Most reach only around 5000. Thus Taiwan publishers must look outward if they want to develop further.

It would be very difficult to take Chinese-language products "westward" into the international market. Judging from the Frankfurt Book Fair, it is only cookbooks and coffee-table scenery books that get the attention abroad. Few people are interested in any other category. Clearly there is still a long way to go before Chinese-language publications can break through their linguistic and cultural barriers.

Jerome C. Su, president of Bookman Books, notes that Taiwan's firms need to improve their linguistic abilities and also adopt a more internationalist perspective before they can head west.

Comparatively, it is easier to "head east" to find a Chinese-language market; this is where Taiwan publishers will have to go in the future.

A unified Chinese-language market

In the past, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the PRC-with different levels of development and different audiences-had separate publications markets. There were vast differences in subject matter, editorial policies, design, and marketing methods. However, following the PRC's opening to the outside world, rapid economic growth there, its reclaiming of Hong Kong, and increasingly close interaction among the three entities, a unified Chinese-language market is irresistibly taking shape. This is so despite the differences between complex and simplified characters, because most Chinese can understand both.

"Everyone can see the unified Chinese-language market coming," says Chou Hau-cheng, who helped Yuan Liou Publishing grow strong and has gone out on his own with Shih-shue-shea Publishing. But seeing the market taking shape is a far cry from controlling it. Thus, publishers in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China have already begun jockeying for the leading position in Chinese-language publishing.

Market unification could work to the advantage of Taiwan publishers, because no one can afford to produce original versions of major works (encyclopedias, reference books, and so on) by relying only on the limited Taiwan market. (Such books have been published in Taiwan, but only in translation.) Luk Yu-hung adds that, although demand for such books is small, they are important for national development.

Liao Su Hsi-tsu agrees that unification of the Chinese-language market will be beneficial not only in making high-cost projects more viable, but also in increasing information sharing and arrangements of mutual benefit.

It is not only publishers in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China, who have been eyeing this Chinese-language market of more than one billion people. Well-known global firms like Longman, Oxford, and McGraw Hill have set up offices or subsidiaries in Hong Kong or Taiwan.

In mid-September of this year, the US publisher John Wiley signed a cooperation agreement with Taiwan's Business Weekly Publishing. A John Wiley representative indicated his company thought the Chinese market was very important. He stated that his firm chose Business Weekly because Taiwan has a quite good publishing environment, has a lively and open market, and is "serious" about copyright protection.

Chen Hsin-yuan, a professor at Nanhua Management College and editor of a publishing trade magazine, points out that right now the economic situation is not good in many Western countries. The operating revenues of the largest publishers in Germany are falling. So many firms are looking to the Asian market.

Since the PRC is the largest single Chinese-language market, its importance cannot be understated. Wu Hsing-wen argues that it is meaningless to talk about becoming either the Chinese-language publishing or copyright center of Asia unless you can successfully penetrate the mainland market.

When Taiwan books meet PRC books

The mainland publishes well over 100,000 titles per year, of which more than 60,000 are new. Many in Taiwan's publishing industry fear that once the market is opened, high-volume low-priced books from the PRC will overrun Taiwan's market.

"The biggest threat is in academic books," says Chen Hsin-yuan. Taiwan has developed a get-rich-quick culture in recent years. There has been little attention paid to author development or basic research, and there has been excessive reliance on products published in the PRC, leading to a insufficient number of books originating in Taiwan.

This lack of original production could be fatal to Taiwan's publishing industry.

Presently, more than one-half of published items in Taiwan depend on purchased copyrights. This is especially so for larger works like reference books. Thus Taiwan firms are producing Chinese translations of, say, the Encyclopedia Brittannica, with rights that have been purchased, rather than having reference works explicitly for the Chinese reader.

Last year, Shih-shue-shea Publishing began holding a competition for the "Luo Guanzhong Novel Prize." The winner of the NT$1 million first prize was from mainland China. Chou Hau-cheng points out that, though NT$1 million may seem like a lot of money, its not necessarily enough to make a Taiwan person invest the time and effort to produce a 300,000-character novel.

If that's the way things are for novels, you don't even need to mention things like dictionaries and reference books-the PRC already has seized the lead in both these fields.

Discovering the continent

Nevertheless, at the current stage, Taiwan publishers still have many advantages over their mainland counterparts.

Kuei Tai-hua, general manager of the Human Cultural Enterprise Co., who has had much experience cooperating with mainland houses, notes that Taiwan's free-market mechanism means that its firms are more deft in subject selection and development, sales, and management strategies. In comparison, PRC firms have a civil-service mindset. They are not only conservative in outlook, they are less ambitious.

Wang Jung-wen, publisher at Yuan Liou, argues: "Taiwan's publishing industry has unlimited creativity." In every environment there are risks and opportunities. In specific fields of publication, like computers or finance and business management, there are still large opportunities for Taiwan publishers.

Currently, publishers are buying and selling copyrights across the Taiwan Strait, but Taiwan firms mainly buy, and infrequently sell. Wu Hsing-wen says that books sold in the mainland are cheap, and royalties are a mere 6-8%, so there is no profit to be made for Taiwan firms by selling copyrights there. And you have to go to the mainland personally to pick up the NT$20-30,000 in royalties, so some operators laugh: "The royalties aren't even enough to cover the hotel!"

With profits from copyright selling so low, it is better to directly "invade" the mainland market. For example, Shu-shin Books and Caves Books of Taiwan have joined together with 13 technical-book publishers in the PRC to form Baitong Books in Guangzhou. However, there are only a few scattered cases of such cooperation. Fundamentally, the PRC still does not allow Taiwan firms to invest in publishing or bookshops there.

However, even for those in the vanguard, it's still a case of "look but don't touch." Shu-shin's Luk Yu-hung says that the mainland market may look good, but there are many difficulties.

Scrounging for scraps

The biggest market in mainland China is for textbooks and language instruction. Thus the Xinghua Chinese Dictionary sells 20-30 million copies per year, and Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary sells 2-3 million annually. With such incredible numbers, who wouldn't get excited? Unfortunately, this big pie has always been kept "in-house," with outsiders excluded-you can see it, but it remains out of reach!

Further, "you can't judge the mainland market from a few individual cases," says Kuei Tai-hua. And Kuei points to another common thing people overlook about the allegedly huge PRC market: A large proportion of the mainland's people are illiterate or very poor, with no purchasing power. With such a narrow scope for publications, besides textbooks, reference books, and a few bestsellers, that huge market doesn't really exist for other types of books.

Moreover, although the PRC market is large, it is chopped up. Wu Hsing-wen says that it used to be the case in the mainland that publishing was considered one thing, and sales something completely separate. However, this has changed since publishers were made responsible for their own profits and losses beginning back in 1983. Publishing houses now have to take responsibility for distribution themselves. There are 4000 outlets to cover in Jiangsu Province alone. This is not something every publishing house can handle, and many can't even cover their home provinces. How can they undertake multiple-province distribution, much less cover the entire PRC?

Also, because the gap between town and country is so large in the PRC, and the legal system there is not very well-established, publishers describe today's mainland publishing market as being an "adventurer's playground."

Though the mainland market is not as mature as Taiwan's, it is catching up fast. Luk Yu-hung, who spends much time in the PRC, notes that the mainland's ability to deal with the outside world has improved greatly in the last five years, as has its ability to purchase copyrights. It has absorbed Taiwan's influence in terms of titles, cover design, editing techniques, and is increasingly creative.

Luk laughs that he saw one "best-seller" in Shenzhen, wrapped up in a provocative cover, entitled The Story of 105 Men and Three Women. He bought one out of curiosity, only to find that it was the Ming dynasty adventure novel All Men Are Brothers.

Ho Fei-peng, publisher of Business Weekly Publications, Inc., who was in the mainland in late August and early September attending the Changchun Book Fair, relates that there were no empty seats at the seminar on purchasing of copyrights, and everyone was very attentive. Also, mainland publishers are increasingly aggressive looking for copyrights to purchase. From these factors you can see that the other side is catching up fast.

Nobody can dominate

Despite the imminent danger, many operators in Taiwan remain optimistic. This is because, although there are no borders in publishing, the unified Chinese-language market has unlimited promise, and published items still are strongly regional.

"Every region has its own publishing mechanism, and the locals will always be best informed," says Rex How. Publishing is a very "localized" activity because many writings are only comprehensible to the local residents. "An outsider's publishing culture often can't fit into the locality," says Chen Hsin-yuan. He points to the fact that many foreign and mainland novelists do not find wide acceptance in Taiwan.

From this you can see that, even assuming there is free trade in publications between the two sides, it wouldn't necessarily be so easy to steal the other's market. Kuei Tai-hua points out: "From the market point of view, nobody can absorb anybody else, or dominate anybody else." Taiwan publishers will at least hold onto Taiwan itself, and have their own market.

Publishing without borders?

Perhaps publishing knows no borders, but it is definitely affected by politics. Taking the Taipei International Book Exhibition as an example, the PRC refuses to allow its firms to accept invitations to participate because it objects to the "International" label. It seems that objective factors are no match for political ones. This is the most unpredictable factor for publishers on both sides.

Perhaps, only when relations among publishers in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China become, in Rex How's words, a cross between "competitive cooperation" and "cooperative competition," can everyone come out a winner.

"Publishing is a key," says Luk Yu-hung. Although the revenues from publishing are not huge, the industry is of deep importance for society. Taiwan's publishers are in a position of, as a Chinese proverb has it, "worrying about crisis in a time of peace." They will have to fight to keep their hands on this key.

p.106

International book fairs have become the trend in publishing in recent years. Many Asian countries hold them, hoping to become book centers of the Orient. The photo shows the Taipei International Book Exhibition.

p.108

Taiwan has nearly 5000 publishing houses, publishing 20,000 titles per year. The market is lively and competitive.(photo by Hsueh Chi-Kuang)

p.109

The Chinese-language market is getting increasing attention. In September of this year, Taiwan's Business Weekly Publishing and the US' John Wiley signed an agreement to cooperate.

p.110

Most publishing houses in Taiwan are run by literati, and few outsiders know their tribulations. It's hard to imagine, but most of the glittering array of books in Taiwan are published by very small companies.

p.111

The mainland, with 1.2 billion people, is seen as the market with the world's greatest potential. (photo by Diago Chiu)

p.112

Publishing is strongly regional. After an initial period of intense curiosity, people are already losing interest in mainland publications.

p.113

Two Taiwan books about the Yijing have been incorporated into a PRC reference book, putting them among the few Taiwan publications to enter the mainland market.

Taiwan has nearly 5000 publishing houses, publishing 20,000 titles per y ear. The market is lively and competitive.（photo by Hsueh Chi-Kuang）

The Chinese language market is getting increasing attention. In September of this year, Taiwan's Business Weekly Publishing and the US' John Wiley signed an agreement to cooperate.

Most publishing houses in Taiwan are run by literati, and few outsiders know their tribulations. It's hard to imagine, but most of the glittering array of books in Taiwan are published by very small companies.

The mainland, with 1.2 billion people, is seen as the market with the world's greatest potential. （photo by Diago Chiu）

Publishing is strongly regional. After an initial period of intense curiosity, people are already losing interest in mainland publications.

Two Taiwan books about the Yijing have been incorporated into a PRC reference book, putting them among the few Taiwan publications to enter the mainland market.