CONCISE ENCYCLOPDIA BRITANNICA

Wade-Giles romanization Chien-ming Pulieh-tien Pai-k'e Ch'un-shu, Pinyin Jianming Buliedian Baike Quanshu, 11-volume short-entry encyclopaedia in the Chinese language, published in Peking in 198591 and believed to be the first joint venture by a socialist state and a privately owned Western publishing enterprise. The Concise Encyclopdia Britannica was published as a joint venture of the Greater Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House (an official agency of the People's Republic of China) and Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc. Ten volumes of the work were published in 198586, and an 11th volume was issued in 1991. The encyclopaedia reflects a Chinese government policy to modernize and restore educational facilities suspended during the Cultural Revolution (196676). The Concise Encyclopdia Britannica is based on translations from the Micropdia portion of the 15th edition of the Encyclopdia Britannica. All articles on China and Chinese subjects, however, were prepared by the staff of the Greater Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House in Peking. All editorial decisions were supervised by a joint editorial board composed equally of Chinese and American scholars headed by the deputy editor in chief of the new encyclopaedia, Liu Zunqi, and the vice chairman of the board of editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica, Frank B. Gibney. The Greater Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House also published a 74-volume topically arranged large-entry encyclopaedia, Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu (China Great Encyclopaedia). This work was issued one volume at a time, beginning in 1980 with a volume on astronomy; the final volume was completed in 1993.