One Hundred Thousand Whys
One Hundred Thousand Whys (Chinese:十万个为什么) is a popular science book title in China.
In 1934, Shanghai Kaiming Bookstore published a Dong Chuncai translation of Сто тысяч почему (One Hundred Thousand Whys in English) by former Soviet Union writer Mikhail ll'in (real name Илья́ Я́ковлевич Марша́к). The book was a huge hit and by the end of 1949 it had printed 10 editions.
In 1958, Shanghai Youth and Children's Press planned a large popular science book and invited over 200 authors. The first edition was published in 1960, with volumes in Math, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Meteorology, Agriculture, Zoology, Geology, and Health. A third of the book was written by Ye Yonglie, who contributed over 300 topics[1]. By 1964 it was printed 11 times and total 5.8 million copies. 6 additional volumes were published between 1964 and 1966.
In 1971 the third edition, called the "work, farmer and soldier" edition was published by Shanghai People's press, with 21 volumes. This version has a lot of political content, such as frequent quotes from Mao Zedong [2]. The political content are largely dropped in revisions after the culture revolution.
In 2000, the series has printed over ten million copies and over 100 million volumes. Shanghai Youth and Children's Press tried to trademark the title, however application was denied because it has become a common book title. [3] There are over 500 versions of books with this title from various publishing houses according to the Beijing Kaijuan Book Market Research Institute [4].
References
- ^ Ye Yonglie discusses One Hundred Thousand Whys by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, April 22, 2014 (http://www.cssn.cn/ts/ts_dsft/201404/t20140422_1079957.shtml)
- ^ Dean, G. (1974). Science and Politics in China: Reflections on One Hundred Thousand Questions. Science Studies, 4(1), 93-96. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/284540
- ^ 《十万个为什么》遭遇商标难题 by China Intellectual Property Press, Dec 8 2014 (http://www.iprchn.com/Index_NewsContent.aspx?NewsId=79280)
- ^ The Publishing Industry in China edited by Robert Baensch, Routledge, Jul 5, 2017 p.96