A Limited Internationalization

The imbalance of the copyright licensing trade in Taiwan can be seen in a 2004 survey. Out of 422 responding Taiwan book publishers, only 67, or 16.1%, have sold rights overseas, whereas 168 publishers have bought rights to 4,396 titles.

By far the majority of the titles sold were to mainland China (595, or 85.1% of the total), followed by Korea (194, or 14.9%), with the U.S. (36) and Hong Kong and Macau (24) a distant third and fourth. Of these, 367 were children’s books, and 153 were on information science.

Although this survey hardly represents precise statistics, it does demonstrate the limited character of internationalization in Taiwan publishing; moreover, even this limited internationalization is primarily in the realm of juvenile literature.

This phenomenon is not unique to Taiwan, but can also be seen in the publishing rights trade among Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, which consists mostly of children's books, picture books and manga. In other words, our internationalization is primarily "visual," not literary or intellectual.

The Role of Government

To rectify this imbalance the Taiwan government has, since the 1990s, promoted the translation of Chinese-language books -- mostly contemporary Taiwanese novels -- into other languages (mainly English, French, German and Japanese) in cooperation with commercial and academic publishing houses overseas.

• 1. English-language translations

  The University of California, Santa Barbara has collaborated in the publication of the Taiwan Literature: English Translation Series and the Taiwan Writers Translation Series. Columbia University Press has collaborated on the Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan series, which is now up to 16 titles.

• 2. French-language translations

  Five titles have been published so far in collaboration with such houses as Acte Sud, Les Editions du Pigeonnier, and Picquier.

• 3. Japanese-language translations

  Preparations are advancing for the publication of two series, Contemporary Taiwanese Literature and Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry in Translation, in collaboration with Kokushokankokai. The series Indigenous Taiwanese Writers Library, to be jointly published with Sofukan, will release some 20 titles in three years, including fiction, poetry, essays and criticism.

These projects show that the government can play an important role as a funding source to compensate for inadequate exports of titles overseas. However, writers and publishers need to be concerned about the government's motives in undertaking such promotions. All too often, government support of internationalization efforts in publishing is followed by restrictions on the means and character of that internationalization that distort the original purpose of the effort.

Problems with International Exchange

In his essay "Social Conditions for the Internationalization of Ideas," Pierre Bourdieu asks what someone can do who sincerely wishes to advance the internationalization of intellectual life in today's world. This is a particularly urgent question for publishers. People understandably believe that the intellectual life should naturally lend itself to internationalization, and we have particularly high expectations for the internationalization of publishing.

However, Bourdieu warns that international exchanges are frequently influenced by structural elements that spawn misunderstandings, the most influential such element being the separation of a transmitted text from its original discourse. Text cannot coexist with its discourse in the same context when it is transmitted, and this leads to many misunderstandings in the course of international exchanges.

This is a fundamental problem in the transmission and reinterpretation of thought, one that cannot be eliminated. However, as publishers we have to somehow face this very serious problem articulated by Bourdieu. The process of transmission from one country to a publisher in another country entails a series of social operations and selective steps:

We must further ask ourselves:

Another fundamental problem is that foreign intellectuals frequently are used as a tool for objectives that they would probably oppose in their own country. The most common case is the use of foreign thinkers as proxy opponents of domestic thinkers.

Finally, there is the problem of the reading process itself. Foreign readers will take a considerably different approach in their understanding of an imported text; the arguments that interest them will inevitably differ from those that arise in the source country. In other words, we must be aware that in the context of internationalization, people in different cultures will evaluate a text by different methods.

Bourdieu also warns us that it has always been true throughout the world that those seeking dominance attempt to impose hegemonic principles on others in their struggle to establish cultural hegemony. When we talk about international exchanges in publishing, do we truly intend to promote mutual understanding, or do we have other objectives that will only invite misunderstanding? As publishers, do we have the ability to prevent the occurrence of the latter?

How East Asian Publishers Can Achieve Stronger Ties

It is a rule of the market that one must think about the international rights licensing business from the standpoint of profit. But for non-English-speaking nations in their disadvantageous position, this generates a surplus of rights imports over exports, or a very limited "internationalization" restricted to "visual" works. Government intervention can result in the replacement of cultural exchange with propaganda, producing limited effects and inviting even more misunderstanding. Indeed, suspicions may be aroused that such efforts are an attempt at cultural hegemony.

Under these conditions, what should East Asian publishers do? At past conferences we have repeatedly talked about the need for mutual cooperation, as well as about the difficulty of obtaining information on one another's publishing activities. In a market where English reigns predominant, internationalization for East Asian publishers must begin with internationalization among ourselves. Based on our discussions at previous conferences, I would like to make the following proposals toward this goal:

1. More active exchanges among publishing houses, publishers and editors. In addition to publishers' conferences and editors' symposiums, I think that "publishing house trips" would be of great value.
2. A mutually beneficial convention on copyright licensing. We must continue the discussion we have begun on this topic and actually carry it out.
3. More effective use of the EAPC Website, for which I propose more exchanges and discussions of our publishing philosophies, introductions to publishing houses, and active development of the Recommended Books section.

Regarding the latter, I propose that we increase the number and frequency of recommendations of new titles. We must encourage participation and contributions from more editors in East Asia and make this Website into an information exchange center for East Asian publishing. In this manner it can serve as a true platform for internationalization.