A Brief Introduction to Academy Press（Xue Yuan）

　　  When the Chinese defeated the Japanese invaders in 1945, a group of Chinese well-known scientists and scholars founded a democratic party named Jiu San Society (Sept the Third Society) , with the tenet of promoting democracy and science in China. 19 years ago, there are tens of thousands of members in Jiu San Society from Chinese scientific and cultural circles, among whom thousands were famous scholars and scientists. On Oct. 12, 1987, they established their own publishing house.

　　  An appropriate name was needed then. Su Shi, the famous litterateur during Song Dynasty,in one of his famous poems he wrote, “Ploughing academe with brush pen and ink while fighting battles with bow and arrow.”The Academy symbolized the abode for literati and scholars. Coincidently, it shared the same name with the place where the ancient Greek philosopher Plato gave his lectures. Thus, the publishing house was called Academy Press(AP). Based on the tenets of promoting democracy and science and the objective of transmitting science and culture, Academy Press (AP) has become the actual assembly place for scientific research fruits ever since its establishment. Up to now, it has published more than three thousand types of books, with the total sales exceeding billions of volumes. Not only in the mainland China readers can have access to the books published by AP, but also in Kong Hong, Macau, Japan, Korea, South Eastern countries, Europe and North America. Every year thousands of books are sold in these areas. Some foreign publishing houses have even purchased the copyrights of some of the books of AP.

　　  According to the investigation based on the academic background of our closely related authors and the research trends of the academy world, also the consideration of the history and statue quo of publishing industry, we determined to target at publishing books on traditional Chinese culture, such as folk arts, medicine and pharmacy, geography and archeology, etc. We are also going to publish more reference books on science & technology, dictionary and atlas, more educational books and books on arts & culture, etc.

　　  Though AP does not enjoy the large scale, it provides for the readers with needy books. Though the history of AP is short, there is still a long way to go. We believe, on this pathway, we are going to receive supports from lots of friends to help us achieve the final goal.