"Content is everything,” says Zhang Chaoyang, president of Nanjing-based Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (PPMG), which has ranked among the top 10 on the Global 50 publishing list since 2019. “We must find great content to create impactful brands that are managed cohesively not just for our domestic readers but also for the international market,” Zhang says. “We also need to look beyond traditional paper-based books to create audio and video content as well as our own IPs.”
Zhang’s vision has led to the creation of 26 brands. Each is differentiated by a unique logo, a distinctive book cover design, and a color scheme as well as its focus on a specific discipline or theme. These features have created strong brand recognition among readers, resulting in the popularity of the books wherever they are displayed or sold.
The Phoenix Literature Award, created in 2021, “is about discovering homegrown talents,” says Liu Qinqiu, deputy director of global business development. “This will allow our company to continue introducing new voices to readers, both domestic and international. We work with top translators—such as the award-winning Nicky Harman and Helen Wang—to ensure the best possible translation for our titles.” Thus far, 10 works have been published under the Phoenix Literature Award brand, including bestsellers such as Cai Jun’s Son of Lies, with more than 25,000 copies sold, and Ye Mi’s Never Get Old, which will be available in Arabic, English, Persian, Spanish, Russian, Thai, and Turkish editions.
Then there is Obelisk, which is all about history—of the world, of wars, and of cities. Established in 2020 by Yilin Press, a PPMG subsidiary that specializes in original and translated literary titles, Obelisk has published blockbuster works such as William Shirer’s trilogy—The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Collapse of the Third Republic, and Berlin Diary—which has sold upward of 100,000 copies, and Homa Katouzian’s The Persians, which has gone back to the press eight times since its January 2022 publication.
“Obelisk differentiates itself through original academic research based on archaeological and cultural relics,” says Jing Wenhan, Yilin Press editor and Obelisk brand manager, whose team has forged close partnerships with institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the National Museum, the Palace Museum, and Peking University. “We use innovative marketing and promotional strategies for each title to arouse reader curiosity and create a buzz. For Stephanie Dalley’s upcoming book The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon, for instance, we are planning a themed book exhibition on lands of myths and miracles.”
Another PPMG brand honors the first Chinese author to win the Hans Christian Andersen award for children’s literature. Established in 2017, the Cao Wenxuan Children’s Literature Award has discovered many young writers and published 38 works under its brand of the same name. The first winning work, Ran Mu’s Star Island Girl, has been adapted into a TV series. Other bestsellers include Zhao Ling’s The Flood and Yang Juan’s Youth Comes Naturally. In all, some 600,000 copies have been sold under this brand.
The most popular—as well as the oldest—of the PPMG brands is the Overseas Chinese Studies Series. Started 36 years ago with the idea of “discovering China outside of China,” the series focuses on translating and introducing works by overseas Sinologists such as Prasenjit Duara, K.C. Hsiao, Tomohisa Ikeda, Owen Lattimore, Benjamin Schwartz, and L.S. Yang to offer readers different viewpoints on Chinese culture and history.
“The Overseas Chinese Studies Series’ first title was Gilbert Rozman’s The Modernization of China, which was published in 1988 in line with the grand theme of reform and opening-up at that time,” says editor-in-chief Liu Dong. Upcoming titles will be aimed at promoting cultural exchange and learning among different civilizations and at using ideas and knowledge to promote China’s modernization, Liu says. “Currently, this brand has 232 titles, and in today’s academic world, there are few people who are not influenced by these books. In fact, scholars from universities across China eagerly await the launch of every new title.”
