The Development Of Canadian Book Publishing Industry And Cultural Awareness

In the chain of global publishing industry, we have always focused on major cultural product export countries like United Kingdom and United States of America. Canada, as a country with a capitalism system, however, didn’t follow the expansion model that major Western players have exercised. Instead, aiming at improving local culture’s "sense of place" and the "sense of being", also breaking through its marginal status in cultural production, Canadian book publishers heavily reply on government’s macro-control strategies, in both domestic and international market. Thus this unique model is being dissected by researchers work for publishing industry as well as in academia. By going through the existing literature on the topic, the researcher here tried to emphasis the importance of book market for French speaking people within Canada, as oppose to the mainstream book market for English speaking people, making up the present vacuum on the subject. Former studies has mainly dealt with the current situation in publish industry and neglected to provide the necessary historical background; through analyzing the literature, the research also tried to explain the unique experience of Canadian publishers who fought against the infiltration of foreign capital and cultural imperialism.First, the author depicted the historical development of Canadian Book Publishing. By concentrating on both the English-language and French-language Book Publishing, the history of the invasion of foreign capitals and cultural imperialism in Canada can be displayed comprehensively. In addition, how can globalization aggravate the current situation of Canadian book Publishing is also mentioned in this chapter.Second, the researcher discussed the current situation of book publishing in Canada from four aspects, especially on the topic of how they were influenced by foreign capital. The aspects are:the structure of industry chain, the subject of book publishing, the products’features, and the influence of new media.Third, after revealing the possible problems that related to the invasion of foreign capital, the researcher then analyzed public policy implemented by Canadian government as response to the difficulties faced by Canadian cultural production industry, including book publishers. However, those efforts may not be enough to change the lack of independence of Canadian cultural production, due to the heavily penetrated foreign capital and the unavoidable cultural similarity within the North hemisphere.Fourth, the researcher later turned the attention to the political and economic implication behind the industry’s structure and the resulting public policy. In the researcher’s opinion, those policies, related to publishing as well as cultural production, wouldn’t be enough to ease the difficult time faced by Canadian publishers due to the political, economic, and cultural complication in current printing ecology Last but not least, the researcher believes there are lessons to learn from the Canadian government’s strategy of both improving local culture’s "sense of place" along with "sense of being" and breaking through the imprison of foreign capital plus cultural imperialism. The Canadian model may be beneficial for China’s printing publishing industry though their experience can’t be borrowed directly. However it does enlighten us to seek for industry’s everlasting creation in a globalizing world.