As a product of social development, pishu (reports that link colors to government use, such as the Blue Book, White Book, and Yellow Book) are important cultural markers. Systematically and objectively recording the landscape of social progress during a certain period, they represent cultural values which are reflective of both history and reality. Usually compiled by academic communities, social organizations, or eminent scholars, pishu are distinctively original, being scientific and authoritative. They foster the production and transmission of public knowledge, and are thus of academic and pragmatic value.

Involving a wide range of fields, pishu reflect the status quo and most recent progress of a particular subject in a comprehensive way, revealing foci, hotspot issues, frontiers, and future trends of each subject. With extensive and far-reaching influence, they are therefore reference books for the general public, and important instruments for policymaking and think tank development by means of offering insights. By offering advice and suggestions through academic channels and providing references for a country’s legislation and policy formulation by governments at all levels, pishu play a crucial role in advancing a country’s think tanks and the course of rule of law.

Take the Blue Book for an example. Having undergone a century’s development, the Blue Book in China has formed its own distinctive features. It has explored a pathway that is independent and self-reliant. Originating from translations of Blue Books from foreign countries, it had long been confined by traditional Western concepts and progressed at quite a slow pace in China. After the implementation of the reform and opening up, the situation changed. The turning point was the Blue Book of Chinese Science and Technology, which was published in 1986. With this publication, the fact that the Blue Book had for a long time only been compiled by foreigners, leaving the sense that it belonged to the West, finally ended.

Western countries have long published the Blue Book as an official document, which limited its production and application. Moving ahead, Chinese Blue Book has blazed a path different from the West. While the government plays a leading role, academic communities and social organizations also play important parts, with collaboration from big teams. The coverage is also broad, as an integral whole, gradually extending from the original economic, political, scientific, and technological sectors to different industrial sectors and disciplines. Since the First National Conference on pishu convened in 2000, publishing has expedited in such fields as culture, education, law, medical science, health science, environmental science, and industrial technology in the last two decades. Since the reform and opening up, there are altogether more than 300 publishing houses which have actively organized the thematic planning of the Blue Book and been engaged in its publishing. It has proved in practice that publishing the Blue Book cannot simply follow Western marketization methods, but must prioritize social effects. In the publishing industry, more investment in Blue Books and stronger efforts to foster its communication both at home and abroad means shouldering social responsibility.

To improve the Chinese approach to pishu, the following aspects warrant attention.

Above all, quality is the heart of pishu. The compilation and publication quality should thus be further improved by more strictly organizing book theme selection, planning, building personnel, reviewing, editing, and focusing on sales of books. A quality control mechanism should be established in which professional evaluation and social evaluation are combined. Those with repetitive content, no originality, crude forms, or which lack seriousness can be excluded from the book market.

The biggest distinction of Chinese pishu from other academic books, in the general sense, is that they serve society. Their publishing plans should thus be made based on national needs, and guided to offer policy support and knowledge services in order to underpin national economic and social development during the 14th Five-Year Plan period and the years going forward to 2035.

In addition, it is advisable to establish communication channels through the internet and multi-media, apart from printed-versions of documents. The role of new media and integrated media should play a part in pishu communication. Publishing translated works of Chinese pishu is also necessary. Moreover, it is necessary to boost academic exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign scholars and between publishing houses both at home and abroad.

Ke Ping is a professor from the Business School at Nankai University and a distinguished professor of Changjiang Scholar Program under the Ministry of Education.