Huang Yongjun (right) poses with Karin Abarbanel, an author and entrepreneur, at BookExpo America in New York in June 2012. Photo: courtesy of Huang Yongjun

A private bookseller, dubbed as the first in China to go international, has been turning a profit by selling books about the Communist Party of China around the world. Huang Yongjun recognizes the cash cow he is working with though in his words he doesn't care about politics himself. However, he expects a measure of tacit support and recognition from officials.



"I can do nothing without money, and only after making money can I introduce more about the CPC to the world," Huang told the Global Times in a phone interview from the UK, where he is promoting his books.



After years working as a publisher in China, he set up a company in London in 2008 named New Classic Press.



Until 2010, the tomes he put out were not about the CPC but about topics ranging from doing business in China to traditional Chinese medicine.



Those books didn't get any attention from officials, Huang explained. A top official, whose status Huang is unwilling to disclose, visited his stall at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2010 but left without passing comment.



This scene made Huang quite sad. "Though a private businessman, I need officials' encouragement and support, psychologically," he said.



Tasting a sense of honor



Still feeling puzzled, Huang turned to a friend for help. "You should publish books about the CPC," Huang quoted his friend as saying. This friend said Huang's books were too traditional and advised him that books about the CPC would find more purchase with officials.



Huang turned his eye to a book, Why and How the CPC Works in China, published in 2011, the year marking the 90th anniversary of the Party.



The book, edited by Xie Chuntao, a professor with the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, tells the secrets behind the Party's success while explaining how it builds a new China and why it retains public support despite having made costly mistakes.



Huang had the book translated as China! China!! China!!! What's Behind the Success of the Communist Party of China?



"With this title, I want people to realize immediately this book is about China. The exclamation marks help arouse curiosity and attention from readers," he said.



This book led to Huang feeling a sense of honor and mission, he said.



On December 23, 2011, he was hosted by top officials including Liu Yunshan, then head of the CPC Central Committee's Publicity Department. "For that day, my photo could be seen during Xinwenlianbo, a leading CCTV news program," emphasized Huang.



Huang admits he hasn't even read his best-seller, even though it brought him acclaim. As for how he chooses books, he says he only looks at whether the subject matter concerns the CPC and whether it has a catchy title.



China! China!! China!!! has sold 8,000 copies abroad so far but Huang refuses to reveal how much he earned, only admitting that he had to fork out 10,000 yuan ($1,618) to New World Press, for the rights to publish and sell the book in the UK.



This model is Huang's basic modus operandi, selecting a book, securing its English language rights, hiring translators and native speakers as copy editors, and slapping an eye-catching headline on it before selling it overseas.



When questioned as to whether his limited thematic selection would mean that the subject matters of certain books might overlap, Huang said that there are many books about the CPC and thus he has many from which to choose from. "I hire PhD students to judge which books are of good quality, and which are not," he said.



Understandably, some have poured scorn on Huang's accomplishments, calling him a CPC mouthpiece or stooge. But Huang answers that "all I'm thinking about is selling books, and I don't represent the CPC's political stance. Doesn't the West advocate freedom of speech and press?"



For industry experts, the optimal choice for introducing books about the CPC to the world is to choose a foreign publishing house.



New World Press once tried to sell the book's English copyright to international booksellers, like Penguin Group, but this failed for political reasons, according to Li Shujuan, director of the English language editorial department of New World Press.



"Booksellers like Huang are popular with Chinese book publishers like us, but it is difficult for a foreigner to promote books about the CPC which is still a sensitive topic," said Li to the Global Times.



In China, private booksellers still get little support from the government although it has encouraged the publishing industry to help Chinese culture go abroad.



Making money



Since 2011, Huang has made money from 10 books but he does not need to secure English-language rights for all of them. Some are published for free and some authors even pay Huang to translate and sell them overseas.



"My principle is getting resources first. Once I get the English copyright, I can publish them any time according to my plans, which means other print houses cannot publish them any more," he said, adding that profitability is also a factor.



Huang judges that foreigners must know more about the CPC before they can fully understand China. "Even some Western scholars show strong interest in CPC," he said, adding that many foreign scholars' understanding of the CPC is flawed as they mainly read Western books about the Party.



His books definitely get attention from universities and research centers focused on China. "Before a book is published, we put out a notice in local newspapers," he said, adding that he also organizes seminars to promote them.



Huang's books are sold mainly through typical channels. They are popular with universities such as Cambridge, Edinburgh and Leeds, but have also found shelf space at bookstores like Waterstones and are bought as well by Chinese government departments to be given as gifts to foreign politicians.



Huang uses Chairman Mao's idea of a united front to look for clients, appealing to overseas Chinese, students studying abroad as well as Chinese embassies and China-centric research centers.



On April 15, the first day of the London Book Fair, four books were introduced by New Classic Press, namely China Dream, The Nation, The Path Decides the Destiny and The Chinese National Great Rejuvenation.



China Dream seeks to explore the strategy of the country's resurgence. The Nation tells of the evacuation of Chinese nationals from Libya in 2011. The Path Decides the Destiny narrates stories of 20 entrepreneurs from China and the UK while the fourth provides depictions of the different periods of development in China's construction of socialism.



Good timing



Private businessmen introducing the CPC to the world really works, says Huang, as dealing with them is more acceptable to non-governmental organizations abroad. "Being a private businessman means he can take a neutral standpoint," said Zhang Xixian, a professor with the Party School, to the Global Times.



Compared with official channels, individual forays have proven successful. The CPC used to rely on its official channels to promote itself, but making headway proved too difficult. "The cultural system between the West and China is completely different. As to the publicity industry, it is governed by the Party in China, while in the West it is run by individuals," said Zhang.



Now, officials are beginning to slowly change their minds. They have realized State-owned publishers selling books abroad cannot do enough, and that tapping private ones is necessary to introduce China to other countries.



To Huang, what the government has done to promote China has cost a huge amount of money but has had little to no effect, like advertising China's national image on Times Square in New York. Even so, some provincial governments have followed suit, such as Shanxi and Tianjin, all in vain.



Huang pours scorn on advertising shows that have little impact, saying they are glaringly obvious and will never catch on.



Huang's achievements indirectly act as a bellwether to see if China is popular in the international community, said Zhang. To him, the period for exposing China's dark sides has passed, and the time for analyzing China from different aspects, both its achievements and failures, hasn't arrived yet.



Currently, there cannot be a large market for books about the CPC, since ordinary people abroad don't necessarily have a strong interest in the topic, Huang Guorong, former deputy director of the People's Liberation Army Printing House, told the Global Times.



However, such books have a potential high-end market since foreign parties and politicians want to read them to find out how China can develop so quickly, Huang added.



Huang was echoed by Li Shujuan. "Selling books about the CPC is not an easy business, but it is meaningful," she said.



"Now, China is at the second level, and people abroad want to learn about China's experience and achievements," said Zhang. It is the right time for people like Huang to do business and introduce China to the world.



More ambitious



Huang is also working for the construction of a base promoting the administrative concepts of the CPC in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, where the Party was founded. He also started a mailing list for his publishing house in late March, which over 500 foreign readers have signed up, he said.



Some books are published aboard, but Huang is also beginning to target Chinese government departments as buyers as he thinks his books would make good gifts to foreign politicians.



"Some books rely on the market, some are sold to the government, and others show our influence," Huang explains.



So far, 70 percent of his books have made money, but he is still promoting the rest.