Shanghai Hopes For All E-textbook Campus in Five Years

In Global Trade Talk by Wuping Zhao

By Wuping Zhao

SHANGHAI: Shanghai hopes be the first Chinese city to promote all e-textbook campus in five years, according to a statement from Shanghai Municipal government on June 6, 2010.

An official from local government said the city’s Educational Committee is experimenting with an e-book campus, which started at the beginning of this year. The committee has selected several schools to introduce e-textbook to their students, while cooperating with publishers and distributors to establishing a platform for providing digital content service. “We hope all primary and high schools will use e-textbooks on hand-held reading devices when the market will allow it,” according to the statement from Shanghai Education Committee.

The Xinmin Evenning News, the local newspaper, reports that East China Normal University Press is participating in the all e-textbook project in Shanghai. It claims an e-textbook reader will cost about 1,000 Yuan (US$146.40).

According to recent research findings, a Shanghai student spends an average of 1,750.36 Yuan (US$256.30) on 213 textbooks (which include 73 in primary school, 82 in junior high school, and 58 in senior high school ) for a 12-years study period at primary and high schools.

About the Author

Wuping Zhao

Wuping Zhao is the vice president for Shanghai Translation Publishing House. He joined Shanghai Century Publishing Group in 2001 and acquired many literary authors including T.S. Eliot, Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, Boris Pasternak, Jack Kerouac, Simone de Beauvoir, Marguerite Duras, Milan Kundera, Umberto Eco, Mario Vargas Llosa, Elfriede Jelinek and Bernhard Schlink. He graduated from Columbia Publishing Course in 2009. Prior to his publishing career, he spent seven years as a book reporter at China Reading Weekly in Beijing.