Concise Encyclopædia Britannica

Concise Encyclopædia Britannica, 11-volume short-entry encyclopaedia in the Chinese language, published in Beijing in 1985–91 and believed to be the first joint venture by a socialist state and a privately owned Western publishing enterprise.

The Concise Encyclopædia 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 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Ten volumes of the work were published in 1985–86, 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 (1966–76).

The Concise Encyclopædia Britannica is based on translations from the Micropædia portion of the 15th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. All articles on China and Chinese subjects, however, were prepared by the staff of the Greater Encyclopaedia of China Publishing House in Beijing. 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 Encyclopædia 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.