2009 Best books in China
By admin on 2014-12-26

Chinese and English versions of the 2009 Yearbook of the People's Republic of China have come off the press for distribution both in China and abroad, the publisher announced Friday.

The yearbook is China's sole comprehensive State collation of statistics and has been published annually since 1981. Comprising of comprehensive data from all levels of government, the 2009 edition contains more than 3 million Chinese characters and more than 100 color photos, according to Xinhua Publishing House, a division of Xinhua News Agency.

The book breaks down issues into 40 categories, including national defense, diplomacy and the economy.

Statistics in the yearbook were drawn from Xinhua's Multimedia Database and contributed by authoritative figures from central government ministries and local authorities, the publisher said.

Camus in Chinese

A translated version of the complete set of Albert Camus was launched Thursday in Beijing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the youngest Nobel winner in literature of the 20th century.

The four volumes, published in Chinese by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House and translated by Liu Mingjiu, a French literature expert with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, comprises of Camus' novels, plays and essays.

In additional to the author's classic works The Stranger and The Plague, the set also includes his political essays, proving to be the most comprehensive Chinese edition available to this day.

After the launch ceremony, a seminar on Camus' literary significance was held, attracting dozens of foreign literature experts and avid readers.
As a famous French author, philosopher and journalist, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 and is regarded as a advocate of existentialism. He died two years later in a car accident.