Book on China's COVID-19 experience translated, published

Less than three months after the Chinese-language book COVID-19, From Basics To Clinical Practice was published, three foreign-language versions of the book integrating hands-on treatment solutions to COVID-19 patients of frontline Chinese medical workers and their comprehensive knowledge of the pandemic, made their global debut on Friday.

The English, French and Spanish versions of the book were compiled by Zhang Wenhong, leader of the Shanghai team of experts in the treatment of COVID-19 cases. It was an effort from Shanghai to contribute to the global fight against the ongoing pandemic, according to Fudan University Press, which published the Chinese book and organized volunteers to translate the book into other languages.

The Shanghai-based press and Singapore-based World Scientific Publishing Company published the English book, and India-based Royal Collins published the books in French and Spanish. The books will be distributed in countries where those languages are spoken to help local medical workers, as well as the public.

Even before the Chinese version of the book was published, Zhang's team decided to grant the copyright of the book to publishers overseas free of charge in order to support countries severely affected by the pandemic to jointly overcome difficulties, Fudan University Press said.

"The pandemic is still evolving in the world and it's hard to predict how it will develop. At this moment, smooth international communication is vital, and that includes sharing the Chinese experience with other countries," said Zhang, also director of the department of infectious diseases at Shanghai Huashan Hospital Affiliated with Fudan University, at the publishing ceremony of the books in Shanghai on Friday.

Mohan Kalsi, chairman of Royal Collins Publishing Group, said he believed "the book will help more doctors in more countries to save more lives".

"Also, it was a miracle for Fudan University Press to have raced against time to organize translators from the world to accomplish translation and editing of the books within such a short time," he said via video link.

The translators were chosen from more than 600 candidates, who sent self-recommendations, resumes and trial translations of pages of the book from China and all over the world, after the press made a recruitment request online in late March. Translation teams for the three languages were soon selected, and the translation and cross-checking took only one week each.

"Translation of the book into Italian, Russian, German, Serbian and Arabic is in progress, and books in these languages will be published soon," said Zhang Yongbin, deputy editor-in-chief of Fudan University Press.