On April 7, during the Jilin Province Culture and Tourism Promotion Conference held in Budapest, Hungary, China’s Jilin Northeast Asia Publishing & Media Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hungary’s Kossuth Publishing House. The two sides will strengthen publishing cooperation in the fields of culture, tourism, science and technology, ecology, and academia. The goal is to sustainably produce high-impact publications through joint planning, translation, publishing, and promotion, injecting new vitality into both publishing industries and advancing bilateral cultural exchange between China and Hungary.
The cooperation will initially cover disciplines such as basic sciences and humanities and social sciences, as well as other areas mutually agreed upon. The two parties also plan to maintain regular communication regarding collaborative projects. When conditions permit, both sides are willing to invite senior representatives for reciprocal visits and conduct exchanges in publishing and cultural dissemination.
A representative from Jilin Northeast Asia Publishing & Media Group expressed optimism that this partnership would provide a platform for advancing international academic exchange between the group and Kossuth Publishing House.
Jilin Northeast Asia Publishing & Media Group is a key provincial-level cultural enterprise, operating across four main sectors: books, newspapers and periodicals, printing, and distribution. It integrates the entire publishing chain—from editing and printing to distribution—across both traditional and digital platforms. Its subsidiary, Jilin Publishing Group Co., Ltd., is the only publishing group in China that holds its own publishing rights.
In recent years, the group has published more than 13,000 book titles annually, with a reprint rate exceeding 50%. In 2024 alone, it published over 18,000 book titles, ranking among the top in China for market share and variety of active titles.
With the advancement of the Belt and Road Initiative, the group has steadily expanded its global outreach. Over the past five years, it has exported copyrights for over 200 titles. Highlights include the successful completion of the Asia Classics Mutual Translation Project, featuring The Beauty of Korea Special Lectures and Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes. The Arabic-language edition of Daddy on the Cloud was selected for the “Classic China International Publishing Project”, while the China Black Soil Culture “Belt and Road” International Publishing Promotion Project was named one of the 2024 Outstanding International Cooperation Projects for Chinese Publishing. Jilin Publishing Group has been recognized as a Key National Cultural Export Enterprise for 18 consecutive years.
In 2024, to enhance mutual understanding and cultural exchange, the group donated and mailed 294 volumes of 101 selected Jilin-published titles to book corners in countries such as Italy and Russia. To accelerate the creation of a new international cooperation framework, the group also hosted a promotional event for the simplified Chinese edition of Caterina’s Smile: The Mother of Leonardo da Vinci during the 24th Week of the Italian Language in the World.
A representative from the group stated that this collaboration will further cultural exchange and mutual learning between nations, promote the internationalization of publishing, and help bring more high-quality works with Jilin characteristics, showcasing China’s development achievements and cultural wisdom, to EU audiences.
