The Economist - USA (2021-07-17)

The Economist July 17th 2021 37

China

Independentpublishing

The small print

T

he beijing International  Book  Fair,
which  takes  place  in  August,  gives  the
better­known  view  of  China’s  publishing
industry: state­controlled and gargantuan.
The  organiser,  China  Publishing  Group,
owns 40 of the 580 government­run firms
that  dominate  the  country’s  $15bn  book­
publishing market—second in size only to
America’s.  But  another  book  jamboree,
held  one  month  earlier  in  the  capital,
shows  a  less  familiar  aspect.  The  abC  Art
Book  Fair,  which  this  year  ran  for  three
days  from  July  9th,  is  all  that  the  other  is
not: independent, eclectic and lean. Read­
ers piled in to buy and browse the works of
140  independent  publishers  (last  year’s
event  is  pictured).  It  reflects  a  small  but
lively indie­publishing scene.
The government tightly controls print­
ed  matter.  Publication  codes,  such  as
isbns, that must be used by all books and
periodicals sold in China are allocated only
to state­run publishers (half of them based
in Beijing). Censors pore over works before

they go to print. The government gives an­

other 200 privately owned publishers spe­

cial permits to operate.

There  are  other  small  unofficial  pub­

lishers  scattered  across  China.  They  may

be legally registered as businesses, but lack

publishing  licenses.  At  the  latest  abC  fair,

an  event  dating  back  to  2015,  the  majority

of exhibitors were illustrators, comic­strip

authors,  photobook  makers  and  publish­

ers of what the industry calls zines (small

pamphlet­like magazines). Some were pa­

permakers, or studios offering high­quali­

ty  printing  by  letterpress,  silk  screen  or,

more affordably, by Risograph.

For decades until “reform and opening”

began  in  the  late  1970s,  only  one  retailer

was  allowed  to  sell  books  to  the  public:

Xinhua  Bookstore,  a  state­run  firm.  But

under  Deng  Xiaoping  private  publishers

and  bookshops  were  allowed  to  operate

again, under close watch. Some bypass re­

strictions  on  circulation  by  designating

their magazines as neibu, or for “internal”

reading. That allows distribution among a

limited group: neibumaterials may not be

sold  to  the  public.  Non­government  pro­

ducers  of  periodicals  have  to  rent  the  re­

quired  codes  from  state  entities  that  no

longer need them because the journals us­

ing  them  are  defunct.  Independent  book

publishers  have  to  buy  isbns  from  state

counterparts, an arduous procedure. Small

publishers  sometimes  purchase  them  in

Hong Kong, where doing so is cheaper and

far  simpler.  Such  an  isbndoes  not  give

automatic access to China’s market. 

But  independent  publishers  who  keep

their content free of anything the Commu­

nist Party might seriously dislike, and who

limit  their  print­runs  to  just  a  few  hun­

dred, can still manage to thrive. “No one is

doing this to resist” authority, says a maga­

zine­maker  in  Shanghai.  Another,  in  the

southern  city  of  Guangzhou,  says  she  de­

voted one issue to technology, but avoided

mention  of  debate  about  facial  recogni­

tion. “I can’t risk the magazine for one sen­

tence,” she says. “I want to survive.”

Some  publications  are  more  daring.

One  is  Missionary, a  thoughtful  magazine

about gay life in China. (Official tolerance

B EIJING AND SHANGHAI

Despite strict controls, independent publishers are quietly flourishing

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