The Kaiming Book Co.,the Kaiming Group And The Kaiming Character: A Relationship Between Chinese Intellectuals And The Publish Industry

In 1915, Chen Duxiu and Chen Pei, Chen Ting brothers signed a contract to publish La Jeunesse. The co-operation between intellectuals and publishers led to the rise of the New Culture Movement. The marriage of the intellectuals and the publishers was breakdown. Chen Duxiu and his BeiJing colleagues wanted to control the magazine. In other word, the Chinese intellectuals tried to enter publishing industry. Many new culture presses were established in the golden ager of 1925-1927. As a result, new culture presses became as important as ancient books presses and large company.The Kaiming Book Co. was founded in 1926. It concerned with women's issues. After the New Culture Movement, the leaders decided to make their books focus on the young. A lot of textbooks, reading materials, journals were published. When the Kaiming Book Co. was famous in publishing industry, it increased capital to become a company and expanded the business to modern literature, ancient books and translations of literature. Finally, it became one of the five major presses in the mid-1930s.After the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the company moved into inland areas of China. The leaders dissatisfied the KMT's cultural policy, so them paid more attention to politics and the CPC. The KMT's failures in governance resulted in stagnation of the publishing industry after the Sino-Japanese war. When the CCP replaced the KMT, the Kaiming Co was the first one that apply to run the press jointly with the state. In the April 1953, it united the Youth Publishing House to constitute the China Youth Press.The company's fate is related to the leaders. Intellectuals and businessmen composed the leadership. The former is a group of intellectuals, most of them were middle school teachers before they jointed in the company. They were responsible for the press's self-positing and book publishers, and the latter in charge of market. The Kaiming Co. developed very well because of their close cooperation. The changing concept of the value, social responsibility, enlightenment, the state in the Kaiming Group was the reason of the Kaiming Co's difference. In this sense, the "enlightened bookstore history" can be described as a "history of publishing people's hearts."After 1945, many Kaiming people worked in the publishing executive department. They agreed with the CCP's concept of the modern nation-building; in the other hand, the publishing environment had changed dramatically. These factors led the company become a historical term. The subsequent years of the Kaiming Group suffered a variety of unexpected fate.The Kaiming Co cannot be copied. It doesn't only reflect the development of China's private publishing industry; it opens another widow to study Chinese intellectuals. Nowadays, rethinking the Kaiming Co. will help our publish industry.