A symposium on the Chinese Culture Records Literature Volume was held on January 6 by the Chinese Culture Records Working Committee and the Phoenix Publishing & Media Group. Liu Binjie, the chairman of General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), attended the symposium and gave a speech.

The Chinese Culture Records is the largest collection of Chinese language ancient books in the history of the People’s Republic, and the masterpiece, a massive dictionary-encyclopedia of Chinese culture, was compiled by contemporary experts and scholars, and covers past achievements and with modern scientific classification methods, and which covers almost all ancient Chinese books. Its coverage is even larger than the Yongle Dadian of the Ming Dynasty and the Ancient and Modern Books in the Qing Dynasty. It included 24 volumes with 700 million characters, and it is an all-in-one file of ancient Chinese civilization.

Phoenix Publishing & Media Group chairman Tan Yue said that it took the great efforts of the editors to compile the masterpiece, and the editors have demonstrated courage, innovation, teamwork and an indifferent to fame and fortune. Meanwhile, Liu made six proposals for the future works regarding Chinese Culture Records: first, all editors and officials shall enhance their understanding and sense of responsibility for the project; secondly, they should seek excellence from strict quality controls to make the masterpiece an example for the entire Chinese publishing industry; third, they should enhance co-ordination and planning to ensure project completion on schedule; fourth, they should pay attention to personnel training and team building to produce a group of experts in editing ancient books; next, they should improve management of budget; and finally, they should attach more importance to digitalization.

In addition to more than 70 experts and scholars, a number of key officials, including Li Yan, the former deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department and the vice chairman of the Chinese Culture Records Working Committee, Liu Jianshen, the deputy head for publishing bureau with the Central Propaganda Department, Wu Shangzhi, the publication department chief with the Press and Publication Administration, and Liang Yong, deputy director of Propaganda with the Jiangsu Communist Committee attended the meeting.