From Ming to Alice, publisher creates works of art for domestic readers

A chance encounter with a captivating children's pop-up book in a Milan bookstore sent Wang Yihua on a magical journey of her own.

"I was so amazed, even as an adult. I just couldn't put the books down and sat there reading until the business hour was over," Wang said.

She began to wonder: "Why can't my daughter and other children at home have books like these?"

A creative mission followed, and in the decade after that enthralling discovery in Italy, she built Lelequ, China's leading pop-up book publisher, from scratch.

These days, Wang has been busy fulfilling her promise to publish a bilingual pop-up book about Ming, the much-loved giant panda who survived the Nazi blitzkrieg and cheered British hearts during the war some 70 years ago.

She attended the installation of a statue memorializing Ming, a gift from the Chinese people to the London Zoo, during President Xi Jinping's official visit to the United Kingdom in October.

The text of the story is already complete, and a paper-art designer and illustrator are working to enable Ming to pop, flap and swirl as readers turn the pages.

"We're confident that the Ming book will have huge appeal," Wang, chair of the Ronshin Group publishing house, told China Daily during a book fair in Beijing in January.

Wang's early years as a pop-up publisher were challenging. Pop-up books are priced significantly higher than regular books - sometimes 10 to 20 times higher - and require special skills.

The new company had no marketing channels, no experience, and factories able to print their products were contracted to foreign publishers.