New Trends in China's International Publishing: From "Outward Expansion" to "Deep Integration" (People's Medical Publishing House Co., Ltd., Beijing 100000)

Abstract

Purpose: Against the backdrop of economic globalization, rapid internet technology development, accelerating internationalization of China's economy and culture, and deepening openness in the publishing industry, this paper explores the international development path of China's publishing industry to provide reference for the sector.

Method: Taking People's Medical Publishing House (hereinafter referred to as PMH) as a typical case study, this paper thoroughly analyzes its process of exploring the "going global" path through comprehensive and diversified innovative practices in line with international publishing trends.

Results: PMH has achieved remarkable success in coordinating Chinese and Western medicine, linking multiple languages, and balancing independent operations with win-win cooperation.

Conclusion: PMH has steadily achieved the critical transition from "going global" to "going deep," providing a highly valuable paradigm for the international development of China's publishing industry.

Keywords: Diversified industry chain; Going global; Integrated development; Servitization; Policy resources
CLC Number: G230
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)04-46-04
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.04.009
Citation Format: Zhang Chenyu. New Trends in China's International Publishing: From "Outward Expansion" to "Deep Integration"[J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(4): 46-49.

Economic globalization has swept across every corner of the world like a surging tide, while internet technology has served as a powerful catalyst, building high-speed channels for global information flow and cultural exchange. Against this grand backdrop, China's economic rise and cultural prosperity have accelerated the pace of internationalization. In recent years, the national strategy of cultural "going global" has injected tremendous momentum into China's publishing industry, propelling its opening-up to new heights and ushering in a new chapter of international operations. In today's era of multicultural integration and collision, the publishing industry, as a key force in cultural dissemination, has demonstrated many remarkable new trends in its international development through years of evolution. From an internal structural perspective, the industry has continuously expanded in depth, breaking previous single publishing models as innovative patterns emerge like bamboo shoots after spring rain. Copyright trade is no longer limited to simple transfers but has evolved to incorporate rich cultural connotations, advancing toward comprehensive cultural trade [1]. Publishing cooperation has moved beyond book-level collaboration to closely integrate with upstream and downstream industries, progressing toward all-around industrial partnerships. While traditional print publishing maintains its profound heritage, it has steadily embarked on digital transformation under the impact and empowerment of digital technology, with digital publishing flourishing as a new engine for industry growth [2].

As an important player in the publishing sector, PMH has stood at the forefront, accurately discerning the shifting trends in international publishing. With innovation as its pen and multifaceted measures as its ink, PMH has carved out vast territories in the international publishing arena through comprehensive and three-dimensional publishing practices. The house has achieved outstanding results in coordinating Chinese and Western medicine, linking multiple languages, and balancing independent operations with win-win cooperation, gradually accomplishing a magnificent transformation from superficial "going global" to deep "going deep," establishing a benchmark for the internationalization of China's publishing industry.

1. Diversified International Industry Chain: Multi-dimensional Expansion Driven by Publishing Core

As a classic upstream and downstream expansion strategy for traditional publishing, industrial extension has long played a key role on the international publishing cooperation stage. Centering on its publishing core business, PMH has deeply tapped its potential and vigorously promoted international industrial extension, using publishing as the center to radiate into diverse cultural industry fields and paint a splendid new landscape of industrial development. In medical publishing, PMH has precisely targeted Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with Chinese characteristics as a sharp spearhead to break into international markets. For years, the house has meticulously planned and launched TCM books primarily in English but covering multiple foreign language versions. Whether academic masterpieces expounding classic TCM theories or popular science works introducing practical TCM diagnosis and treatment techniques, these publications have attracted considerable attention in overseas markets, sparking strong interest among international readers in TCM culture and laying a solid foundation for the global dissemination of TCM culture. Meanwhile, PMH has also made precise efforts in Western medicine publishing. In cutting-edge fields such as stomatology and oncology, the house holds copyrights to international classic books, providing domestic medical researchers with cutting-edge knowledge aligned with international standards. In critical areas like surgery and operative medicine, PMH has meticulously crafted and published a large number of high-quality English editions with international influence. These books, with their rigorous academic content and exquisite surgical case analyses, have become important reference materials for international medical exchanges and learning, securing a stable position in the global medical publishing landscape.

Since 2015, PMH has upgraded its strategic layout by establishing branch offices across the country in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xi'an, Chengdu, Wuhan, and other cities. These branches take root locally, deeply integrating regional resource advantages and keenly capturing demand signals in local medical, educational, and cultural fields, demonstrating their prowess in diversified operations. On one hand, they excavate local characteristic medical cultures to plan and publish medical books with regional features; on the other hand, they closely cooperate with local medical institutions and universities to conduct academic exchanges and training activities, injecting continuous vitality into PMH's international development and further expanding its industrial territory boundaries.

2. Comprehensive "Going Global": The Cornerstone of International Development

"Going global" represents the first step for the publishing industry onto the international stage and the key to opening the world's doors, understanding the global publishing ecosystem, finding international cooperation partners, and exploring vast markets. Whether carrying profound knowledge through traditional publishing or embracing the charm of technology through digital publishing, the primary task in embarking on the international journey is to bravely "go global" [3].

2.1 Perfecting the "Going Global" Product Line: Refining the Overseas Publishing Process

Through more than a decade of diligent efforts, PMH has meticulously cultivated its overseas publishing practice and carefully developed a full-process operation model tailored for international markets. This model encompasses precise early-stage market research to deeply understand the demand preferences and reading habits of readers in different countries and regions, as well as the current status of local medical education development, providing a solid foundation for topic planning. It involves strong alliances between domestic and foreign authors to jointly create high-quality content with both international perspectives and local characteristics. The model also includes professional translation, rigorous editing, and meticulous typesetting and publishing. For subsequent market promotion, the house utilizes online channels such as internationally renowned medical academic platforms and social media for targeted promotion, while participating offline in international book fairs and medical academic conferences [4] to comprehensively showcase its publications.

In terms of publishing content, PMH has focused its efforts on the special project of "Chinese Medical Culture Going Global." TCM foreign-language editions and related products have reached over 300 varieties, comprehensively showcasing the profound knowledge systems of TCM theory, acupuncture and moxibustion, tuina massage, and herbal formulations. English editions reflecting the development of Western medicine clinical practice and academic research frontiers in China have also been launched successively, with dozens of high-quality works published annually covering hot fields such as cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment, precision tumor therapy, and innovative neurosurgical techniques, conveying China's strong capabilities in Western medicine to the world.

2.2 Expanding PMH's International Brand Influence: Telling China's Medical Stories

To tell China's stories well, PMH has planned the "Great Doctors" series of themed books. This series focuses on outstanding medical practitioners who have made illustrious contributions to human health. Among them, the story of "Great Doctor Ma Haide" shines particularly bright. Dr. Ma Haide, a legendary figure who left an indelible mark on modern Chinese medical history, crossed national boundaries and brought hope to countless patients through his exquisite medical skills and selfless dedication. The series presents these moving stories not only in Chinese but also in multiple languages including English and Arabic, striving to break language barriers and enable readers from different corners of the world to deeply appreciate the elegance of these great doctors. PMH cooperated with China Intercontinental Press to devote tremendous efforts to translating and publishing the English and Arabic editions of Great Doctor Ma Haide. Through diverse methods such as participating in international book fairs and closely cooperating with numerous overseas distribution channels, the series has successfully entered the world stage [5]. Since its launch, it has achieved impressive results in international markets, with cumulative sales exceeding 600 copies per language, continuously conveying the great power of medical benevolence to the world and enabling the world to gain deeper understanding and appreciation of Chinese medical humanism.

2.3 Promoting Copyright Export: Expanding International Reach Through Innovative Cooperation Models

Upholding advanced concepts of development and openness, PMH firmly grasps the critical lifeline of copyright export and vigorously carries out copyright trade. Through years of progress, the house has achieved remarkable results, with over a hundred high-quality copyrights exported overseas to destinations including the United States, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions.

To break through copyright trade bottlenecks and stimulate innovation vitality, PMH has cleverly carved out new paths by actively encouraging collaborative authorship between domestic and foreign experts. This approach transcends national boundaries, cultural barriers, and professional fields, allowing wisdom from different backgrounds to collide and merge to create medical masterpieces with diverse characteristics. Simultaneously, PMH has deeply explored innovative copyright export cooperation models by joining forces with international publishing giant Springer to establish a cooperative editorial department. Through close collaboration covering brainstorming in topic planning, meticulous craftsmanship in content creation, coordinated advancement in publishing and distribution, and joint efforts in market promotion, the two parties have created high-quality books for international markets, injecting powerful momentum into "going global" publishing efforts and continuously expanding the boundaries of international publishing territory [6].

3. Transformation from Knowledge Payment to Service Orientation: A User-Centric Publishing Mindset

Amid the vigorous development of international cooperative digital publishing, publishing enterprises are undergoing profound mindset transformations, gradually shifting from traditional reader thinking to user thinking—a critical leap for adapting to market demands and enhancing competitiveness [7]. PMH stands at the forefront, actively contemplating how to provide more comprehensive and thoughtful services to readers and users, taking solid steps on the journey from knowledge payment to service orientation.

PMH's "Renwei Assistant" product series serves as a pioneering explorer, boldly innovating and practicing in domestic user services. By integrating PMH's massive high-quality medical resources, it provides users with one-stop services including intelligent consultation, medical course learning, and health information push, receiving widespread user acclaim. Currently, the integration of knowledge payment with media, publishing, and education remains in the initial exploration stage. The main user groups in the future will undergo structural shifts, moving from early adopter groups seeking novel experiences toward mass and mainstream markets that emphasize efficiency and cost-effectiveness [8]. Therefore, the publishing industry must continue focusing its core strength on content production, using advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to precisely classify and tag content, achieving accurate push and personalized matching of knowledge content so that every user can quickly find the information that meets their specific needs in the vast sea of knowledge [9].

4. Leveraging Policy Resources to Propel Expansion

As China's pace of foreign cultural exchange becomes more vigorous and the "going global" strategy continues to advance in depth, the state provides comprehensive and multi-level protection for foreign cultural trade, offering substantial support in key areas such as information consulting, fiscal and financial services, platform construction, and project assistance [10]. PMH keenly perceives these era opportunities, closely centering on the national "Belt and Road" initiative and using publishing as its pen to paint a magnificent chapter of international cooperation.

International book fairs serve as brilliant events for global cultural exchange, building bridges for PMH to communicate with the world. PMH skillfully utilizes this platform to deeply explore cooperation potential with countries along the "Belt and Road," yielding initial fruits. At numerous book fairs gathering global wisdom, PMH representatives shuttle among participants, frequently interacting and conducting in-depth discussions with medical publishers from "Belt and Road" countries such as Russia, India, Turkey, Poland, and Iran. With professional publishing strength, rich medical resources, and open and inclusive cooperation sincerity, PMH has successfully established close partnerships. Through cooperative publishing channels, Chinese medical books carrying Chinese wisdom and cutting-edge medical research results have crossed oceans, effectively promoting the vigorous development of foreign publishing and copyright trade cooperation. These successful pilot projects shine like brilliant pearls, creating demonstration effects and accumulating valuable experience for subsequent expansion into more countries [11]. In the future, PMH will continue to firmly grasp opportunities at international book fairs to further deepen publishing cooperation with "Belt and Road" countries, allowing the light of Chinese medical culture to illuminate more regions along the route.

5. Pioneering Innovation to Meet International Development Demands

The surging wave of publishing internationalization has presented a series of new challenges and opportunities for publishing innovation, covering key dimensions such as publishing concepts, talent cultivation, and management operations [12]. PMH stands at a high vantage point, comprehensively examining current publishing reforms and innovation projects from an international perspective, deeply contemplating and precisely exploring to ensure that every reform measure and innovation attempt closely aligns with the pulse of international publishing development and possesses practical relevance and effectiveness.

5.1 Publishing Concept Innovation: Breaking Through Mental Barriers to Embrace International Markets

In the journey toward publishing internationalization, conceptual innovation stands as the primary key factor, much like a lighthouse guiding the way forward. Publishing practitioners must possess pioneering and innovative publishing concepts and advanced ideas that align with international standards [13]. Publishing concepts compatible with the internationalization process should encompass many core elements: pioneering and innovative consciousness encourages publishing enterprises to dare to try entirely new publishing forms, content themes, and business models to stand out in international market competition; international rule awareness ensures publishing activities comply with international copyright regulations and industry standards, maintaining a fair and orderly market environment [14]; international publishing concepts help enterprises accurately grasp global reader demand preferences and reading trends to plan publishing projects with international appeal; international management concepts guide enterprises to optimize internal management processes and integrate global resources to enhance operational efficiency and international competitiveness; international talent concepts emphasize attracting and cultivating publishing professionals with cross-cultural communication skills and global perspectives [15]; international market awareness drives enterprises to constantly monitor international market dynamics and competitive situations to flexibly adjust publishing strategies; international competition awareness stimulates enterprises to continuously improve product quality and service levels to compete for top honors on the international publishing stage; and international cooperation awareness encourages enterprises to actively seek international partners to achieve win-win development through complementary advantages.

5.2 Publishing Talent Innovation: Building a Talent Highland to Empower Publishing's Future

Publishing internationalization and innovative development cannot be separated from talent foundation support. As a knowledge-intensive and culturally creative industry, publishing has an extremely high dependence on high-quality talent. Examining the current situation of domestic publishing enterprises, talent scarcity bottlenecks constrain the industry's pace toward internationalization and breakthrough innovation [16]. PMH deeply recognizes this pain point and comprehensively advances talent-strong enterprise initiatives, aiming to create a prosperous situation where talent invigorates the enterprise and the industry.

On one hand, PMH carefully constructs a complete human resource management chain system adapted to the enterprise's new development stage, covering talent selection, utilization, cultivation, and retention. In talent selection, the house broadens channels to recruit diverse talents without rigid constraints, including medical professionals, editorial elites, marketing experts, and digital technology specialists. In talent utilization, PMH puts people in suitable positions based on individual expertise to maximize potential. In talent cultivation, the house builds comprehensive growth platforms combining internal training, external advanced studies, and practical project exercises to enhance employees' comprehensive qualities. In talent retention, PMH optimizes compensation and benefits systems and creates a positive corporate culture atmosphere to enhance employees' sense of belonging and loyalty, ensuring a talent team that is sufficient in number, reasonable in structure, and excellent in quality, injecting surging momentum into enterprise development.

On the other hand, PMH learns international publishing industry operation patterns, advanced management experiences, cutting-edge digital technology applications, and international market development skills. The house cultivates a talent team with global vision, familiarity with international publishing industry operations, and rich in international market awareness and pioneering spirit, significantly enhancing its international publishing business capabilities and laying a solid talent foundation for PMH's international development.

5.3 Publishing Management Innovation: Keeping Pace with the Times to Lead International Publishing

Currently, the global publishing industry presents intertwined development trends of internationalization, networking, digitalization, branding, and capitalization, driving continuous innovation in publishing concepts, business formats, and management practices like surging waves and expanding new boundaries and realms for industrial development. PMH follows this trend resolutely, implementing publishing management innovation strategies to stand at the forefront of era changes [17].

Through broad platforms such as international book fairs, international exchanges, and foreign affairs activities, PMH conducts in-depth research and learning from successful examples in the international publishing industry. The house absorbs the essence and combines it with its actual situation to deeply explore core business areas including international trade, network publishing, digital publishing, creative planning, brand management, and capital operations, gradually establishing mature and robust business models and profit models. For instance, in international trade, PMH optimizes copyright export processes and expands overseas sales channels; in network publishing, it continuously upgrades digital platform functions and enriches digital content products; in digital publishing, it deepens big data applications and improves personalized recommendation accuracy; in creative planning, it focuses on innovative integration of medical popular science and professional education; in brand management, it strengthens PMH's international brand recognition; and in capital operations, it explores diverse paths such as introducing strategic investments and promoting corporate listing and financing [18]. Through comprehensive and systematic management innovation, PMH comprehensively enhances its survival and competitiveness in international markets, using excellent international and modern management to drive Chinese publishing and Chinese medical culture to stride into the world, steadily moving from superficial "going global" to deep "going deep," and gradually growing into a towering tree in the international publishing market.

The wave of international publishing market space has rolled in, profoundly reshaping the publishing business landscape and catalyzing a comprehensive international transformation of publishing operations. International market space and diversified demands urgently call for deeply integrated international business activities. Publishing operation internationalization encompasses multiple key requirements: internationalization of business vision and concepts encourages publishing enterprises to break geographical limitations and use a global perspective to identify market opportunities and examine their own development; internationalization of business fields and activities drives publishing enterprises to expand across boundaries, moving from single book publishing to diversified cultural industry layout and integrating into international industrial chains; internationalization of development strategies and operational means requires enterprises to formulate long-term development plans aligned with international market competition and flexibly optimize operational strategies using cutting-edge technologies such as digitalization and networking; internationalization of resource development and talent selection advocates integrating global high-quality resources and recruiting and cultivating interdisciplinary talents with international literacy; internationalization of capital operations and brand marketing helps enterprises accelerate development through international capital and enhance global brand influence to precisely reach international target audiences; and internationalization of product development and market expansion guides enterprises to closely focus on international reader demand and develop publishing products with global appeal while expanding international market share through multi-channel and multi-platform approaches. All these key elements intertwine and synergize to forge powerful international operational capabilities for publishing enterprises.

Through decades of diligent progress and innovative exploration, PMH has gradually expanded from initially focusing solely on Western medicine book copyright introduction to today's diversified international publishing landscape featuring coordinated development of Chinese and Western medicine, parallel copyright import and export, multi-language publishing, and simultaneous advancement of traditional and digital publishing. With profound accumulation and continuous innovation, PMH has continuously penetrated the core of international mainstream publishing markets and initially built a complete and efficient "going global" product line, carefully cultivating an elite publishing team with professional editorial skills, international publishing vision, and excellent marketing capabilities. Looking ahead, PMH will continue to uphold the spirit of pioneering innovation and forge ahead with multiple measures. As the state's support policies for publishing "going global" continue to increase, and with the continuous improvement of software and hardware conditions for cultural trade such as cultural service exports, overseas investment, marketing channel construction, and cultural trade talent cultivation, coupled with increasingly frequent and in-depth international exchange and cooperation activities among Chinese publishing enterprises and increasingly rich practical experience in cultural trade, PMH will continue to innovate and strive to let Chinese publishing light shine globally.

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Author Bio: Zhang Chenyu (1987—), female, Han ethnicity, from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, holds a master's degree, intermediate professional title, with research interests in international publishing cooperation.

(Responsible Editor: Li Yansong)