Press freedom
The return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997 and its subsequent desultory affect on freedom of speech has not, according to Luk, affected the university press.
"Much of the trouble that has arisen has involved the media. Publishers have been left alone," Luk said. "And of course, publishing books in English and other non-Chinese languages means that officials are less likely to see them, let alone bother to read them."
A case in point is an English-language book published by the university press about the first five-year term of Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
"Our agents in China have had no qualms with selling the English-language book about Tung Chee-hwa on the grounds that no one reads it,'" Luk explained. "It's a different story with books in Chinese that touch on such topics, however. Our agents in China won't touch them."
Broadening its scope in recent years, the publishing house now produces titles on business management, education, social and natural sciences, and national healthcare systems. But its most lucrative publications in recent years have been textbooks.
"We've had a lot of luck with our textbooks both at home and abroad. Colleges and universities in the US now use them as part of their Chinese-language curriculums," Luk said. "And of course there's the local market, with more and more foreigners taking the time to learn Chinese, be it Mandarin or Cantonese."
Colorful language
Making textbooks might be cost effective, but it still isn't a risk-free venture. According to Luk, the company's most recent phrasebook dealing with informal aspects of the Cantonese dialect needed a complete overhaul after publishers realized some of the colloquialisms were too colorful. "The Cantonese have a passion for using what in English would be considered four-letter words in everyday speech," Luk explained with a smirk. "Because of this, a few rather rude phrases managed to make their way into the first edition. Needless to say, we had to remove them before the book was reprinted."
Although many of the books published by the Chinese University Press deal with Hong Kong or China, Luk is well aware of the void in the Taiwan-related market. This is one of the
reasons the company recently opted to re-publish Pai Hsien-yung's (白先勇) 1983 collection of short stories, Taipei Voices, in bilingual format.
"We have always had a good relationship with Taiwan's academics and often call on them to act as referees and consult them before we publish certain works. But we only recently set out to publish works such Taipei Voices in English," Luk said. "And with the ever-growing number of foreigners living in Taiwan, I'm pretty hopeful that these books will find an audience."
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