Books on Chinese philosophy, culture launched at London Book Fair

Four books on Chinese philosophy and culture were jointly launched by a major Chinese publisher and the academic publishing company Springer Nature at the London Book Fair, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday.

They are Redefining A Philosophy for World Governance, Harmonism as an Alternative, Modern Notions of Civilization and Culture in China, Redefining Chinese Literature and Art.

Authors of the books examine in detail the historical background, semantic context, origin and evolution, and academic influence of each concept, which should leave readers with a deeper understanding of the influence of these concepts on the development of Chinese thought and culture.

The launch event of the English editions of these first four titles of the "Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture" series here on Tuesday was organized by China's Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) and Springer Nature.

The books grew out of FLTRP's "Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture" project. In 2016, FLTRP and Springer Nature reached an agreement on publishing this series and started work on the first four titles, which have been authored by established scholars and translated into English by senior translators and sinologists.

Xu Jianzhong, editor-in-chief of FLTRP, said, "This project is the first attempt at explaining and communicating these concepts in a systematic and innovative way for readers worldwide. Both FLTRP and Springer Nature attach great importance to the joint project."

Tamsine O'Riordan, editorial director of social sciences and humanities at Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature), said: "We are proud of our joint efforts with FLTRP to enrich the global social science study and help the world understand China better."

She told Xinhua that they had worked with many Chinese publishers for decades and seen that more and more readers from all over the world are interested in Chinese publications following China's economic rise.

Wang Yongli, minister counsellor for education at the Chinese Embassy in the UK, congratulated the launch of the books and expressed his wish for deeper and broader cooperation between publishers in China and the UK.

According to the FLTRP, since the "Key Concepts in Chinese Thought and Culture" is an open series, it will continue to cooperate with Springer Nature to bring forth more works by outstanding Chinese scholars.