NTU Leads League of University Presses in 2015 Taipei Book Fair

National Taiwan University for the third consecutive year led a group of national university presses in showcasing their publications at the Taipei International Book Exhibition. This year’s Joint Exhibition of National University Presses was held at the Taipei World Trade Center on Feb 11-16.

This was also the first year that the universities jointly held a press conference ahead of the exhibition. During the conference, NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang (楊泮池) highlighted the importance of the role publishers in Taiwan play in the global arena. As inheritors of traditional Chinese, Taiwan has inherited an advantage in understanding the culture, politics and history of the Chinese speaking world. As such, publishers in Taiwan have the obligation to transfer such important knowledge to the world. The importance of such a role is evident in the widespread popularity that NTU’s Massive Open Online Course on the Chinese literary Classic The Red Chamber Dreams has received across the globe.

Also present at the press conference was Education Minister Se-Hwa Wu (吳思華) who pointed out that academic publications serve as an important conduit for the academia to engage in dialogue with society, adding that the Ministry of Education has therefore encouraged professors and universities to publish academic research projects into books so as to facilitate such dialogue. It also established the Humanities and Social Sciences Education Project, and in the future, shall extend its financial support for university presses.

Meanwhile, Director of NTU Press Jieh Hsiang (項潔) refuted the common belief that universities publish only abstruse books that are not aimed at market popularity. He stated that a number of publications by NTU Press have done extremely well in the market, therefore, he is confident that NTU’s work will be recognized at home and abroad. He also calls for more university presses to join the alliance to jointly promote academic books written in the Chinese language.

In addition to NTU, the joint exhibition of national university presses included National Sun Yat-sen University Press, National Central University Press, National Chiao Tung University Press, National Chengchi University Press, National Tsing Hua University Press, Taipei National University of the Arts Publishing Section, and National Taiwan Normal University Press. The publishers of National Chung Hsing University and National Cheng Kung University were also invited as featured guests to the event. The 10 university published showcased up to 3,000 publications during the six day Taipei exhibition, and held as many as 26 talks and lectures to further facilitate face-to-face interaction between the academia and the public.

Related : NTU Press Leads Seven University Publishers in Going International (2014/06 NTU Highlights)