Joint Publishing

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Joint Publishing (Traditional Chinese: 三聯書店) is a book store chain and publisher founded at Queen's Road Central in Hong Kong in 18th October 1948. It is one of major book store chain in Hong Kong.

The book store was merged from three leading publishers and book stores, (生活書店), (讀書出版社) and (新知書店) , in mainland China. The newly merged book store was closely related to the communist government at that time. Many intellects stayed in Hong Kong and publishing in Hong Kong was its main business. It moved its headquarter to Peking with many key staff in March 1949.

After the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1st October, 1949. The book store was mainly responsible for publishing materials from mainland China. As the coming of Cultural Revolution in mainland China in 1966, the publishing business in mainland China was seriously damaged and the book store in Hong Kong earned its survival by republishing old books.

With several relocation, it finally settled in current premises in Queen Victoria Street in May 1971 and opened 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 mainly 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.