China is making a big push into the international publishing world as overseas publishers begin to realize the potential of local books and how lucrative joint publication deals can be. Evidence of this was recently seen at the copyright agreement reached between premier global publishing house HarperCollins and Jieli Publishing House, whose popular children book series Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao is set for international release.

At their cooperation contract signing ceremony in Beijing on August 29, Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, said that her company had bought the rights to publish the series of books by Chinese women writer Yang Hongying in foreign languages in overseas markets. The first installment of the English version of the series, a total of eight volumes, will hit bookshelves in Britain and the United States next spring, and versions in other languages will follow soon after.

Relating the funny stories of a Chinese primary school student named Ma Xiaotiao, a mischievous optimist, the best-selling series has sold over 10 million copies in China since it was launched in July 2003. The French version of the series is already available in France.

"We are so pleased and excited to have the rights to publish the series and bring Ms. Yang's works to the world stage," said Amanda Ridout, Managing Director of HarperCollins General Books Division, the world's leading English-language publishers. "Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao is not only an attractive and interesting series, but also a window to China's society for children in other countries on the eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games."

The cooperation between the two publishing houses is only the tip of the iceberg as Chinese publishers' actively move to merge into the world market. At the 14th Beijing International Book Fair (BIBF), the largest book fair in Asia and one of the most influential four in the world, which was held on August 30 - September 3 this year, over 5,000 cooperation letters of intent were signed. They included an increasing proportion of copyright exports reached between Chinese publishers and their foreign counterparts, said Jiao Guoying, Vice President of BIBF Organizing Committee.

Some joint publication agreements were also signed at the book fair, which included an agreement between China's Social Sciences Academic Press (SSAP) and Brill, a Dutch publishing house founded in 1683. It allows Brill to publish the English versions of SSAP's yearbooks that focus on environment, society, economy and other issues in China, based on authoritative research conducted by leading scholars.

According to their agreement, these books will be translated into English and published soon after the completion of the Chinese manuscripts, even earlier than the publication of the Chinese version.

Actually, China has been escalating its efforts to expand into the world publication market for years. And the cooperation between Chinese publishers and their foreign counterparts in this sector has grown from mainly book and copyright trade, to joint planning, publishing and distributing.

"China's publishing industry is now on par with Western publishers, discussing topics and sharing the huge world book market together with their overseas counterparts," said Christopher Paterson, Executive