The book store was the result of a merger in 1948 between three leading Shanghai publishers and book stores, Life, Reading and New Knowledge. The newly merged bookstore brought together all the names of its previous entities, but was often referred to in English as SDX Joint Publishing, taking the first initial of each of the previous names to form an acronym, or simply Sanlian Press or Joint Publishing. Shortly after it was formed, it moved its headquarters to Beijing in March 1949 and established its Hong Kong-based subsidiary. After the establishment of People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the bookstore located in Hong Kong was mainly responsible for publishing materials from mainland China, while the main branch in mainland China was nationalized. After the coming of Cultural Revolution in mainland China in 1966, the publishing business in mainland China was seriously damaged and the bookstore in Hong Kong survived by republishing old books. With several re-locations, it finally settled in current premises in Queen Victoria Street in May 1971 and opened a retail store at the ground floor in July 1974. The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and was soon replaced with economic reform. In 1978 the book store in Hong Kong decided to publish their own books independently and join with other international publishers. It initially targeted in Chinese culture, literature and art and later concentrated Hong Kong topics and social science. Its direction was proved successful and the book store aggressively opened branches in Hong Kong. Outside Hong Kong, the book store expanded to various cities in mainland China by joint venture, and five stores in North America, specifically in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In January 1988, the Hong Kong-based Joint Publishing was registered as a limited liability company called 'Joint Publishing Company Limited '.
Subsidiaries
Shanghai Hong Kong Joint Publishing Co., Ltd. : Established in October 1999, it is a joint venture between Joint Publishing, Shanghai Book and Shanghai Joint Publishing.
Namesake
SDX Joint Publishing : The mainland branch of Joint Publishing was merged with state-owned the People's Publishing House in 1951. In January 1986, it became an independent company unrelated to the Joint Publishing.
Shanghai Joint Publishing : It was founded in 1986 by People's Publishing House as a subsidiary of Jiefang Daily, unrelated to the Joint Publishing.
