Joint Publishing (), also known as Sanlian Press or SDX Joint Publishing, is a book store chain and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

founded at Queen's Road Central in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

on 18 October 1948. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) is one of major book store chains in Hong Kong and currently a subsidiary company of Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Limited. The Mainland China branches of the book store chain, such as SDX Joint Publishing and Shanghai Joint Publishing were owned by separate holding company of the Chinese government. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong)'s parent company Sino United Publishing, was owned by Chinese central government agency Hong Kong Liaison Office.

History

The book store was the result of a merger in 1948 between three leading

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

publishers and book stores, ''Life'' (), ''Reading'' () and ''New Knowledge'' (). The newly merged bookstore brought together all the names of its previous entities (), but was often referred to in English as SDX Joint Publishing, taking the first initial of each of the previous names to form an acronym, or simply ''Sanlian Press'' or ''Joint Publishing'' (). Shortly after it was formed, it moved its headquarters to

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

in March 1949 and established its Hong Kong–based subsidiary. After the establishment of

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

on 1 October 1949, the bookstore located in Hong Kong was mainly responsible for publishing materials from

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, while the main branch in mainland China was nationalized. After the coming of

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

in mainland China in 1966, the publishing business in mainland China was seriously damaged and the bookstore in Hong Kong survived by republishing old books. With several re-locations, it finally settled in current premises in Queen Victoria Street in May 1971 and opened a retail store at the ground floor in July 1974. The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and was soon replaced with economic reform. In 1978 the book store in Hong Kong decided to publish their own books independently and join with other international publishers. It initially targeted in

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the Cradle of civilization#Ancient China, world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

and later concentrated Hong Kong topics and

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

. Its direction was proved successful and the book store aggressively opened branches in Hong Kong. Outside Hong Kong, the book store expanded to various cities in mainland China by joint venture, and five stores in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, specifically in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In January 1988, the Hong Kong–based Joint Publishing was registered as a limited liability company called 'Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited ()'. In March 2021, Joint Publishing was found liable for defamation, publishing information that the High Court found false, including claims that the United States had funded opposition groups in Hong Kong.

Subsidiaries

Shanghai Hong Kong Joint Publishing Co., Ltd. (): Established in October 1999, it is a joint venture between Joint Publishing (Hong Kong), Shanghai Book () and Shanghai Joint Publishing.

Namesake

*SDX Joint Publishing (): The mainland branch of Joint Publishing was merged with state-owned the People's Publishing House () in 1951. In January 1986, it became an independent company unrelated to the Joint Publishing (Hong Kong). *Shanghai Joint Publishing (): It was founded in 1986 by People's Publishing House as a subsidiary of

Jiefang Daily ''Jiefang Daily'' ( zh, s=解放日报, p=Jiěfàng Rìbào), also translated as ''Liberation Daily'', is the official daily newspaper of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. History ''Jiefang Daily'' was first publish ...

, unrelated to the Joint Publishing (Hong Kong).

References

External links

Official website

History on official website

SDX Joint Publishing Company長灘急流，舵穩帆高──寫在生活書店成立70週年
{{Authority control Publishing companies of Hong Kong Publishing companies established in 1948 Bookshops of Hong Kong Book publishing companies of China