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The World of Textbooks: Pages That Opened Our Minds Celebrating this flourishing period of Chinese textbook publication, Chou Sing Chu Foundation published the commemorative book Pages That Opened Our Minds in 2014 during the 90th anniversary of POPULAR. The book records some 407 Chinese textbooks published by predecessor publishing companies to POPULAR. Pages saw a second volume released in 2017, which built on the foundation laid by the first volume and gave a more comprehensive view of the Chinese textbook publishing industry of Singapore in the early years. Among the over 3,000 volumes listed were several textbooks from the publishers under the same banner as POPULAR that had previously been omitted. Not wanting to leave out any volumes, POPULAR collaborated with Chou Sing Chu Foundation in 2020 to publish a third volume, focusing specifically on the Chinese textbooks and reference books published by companies under World Book Company. It collected a total of 610 volumes, seeing an increase of over 200 compared to the first volume. Among the 610 Chinese textbooks and reference books currently recorded in this volume of Pages That Opened Our Minds, 42 were published by Chung Hing, “世界”课本 开卷有益 为纪念那繁花似锦的华文教科书出版时期，大众 于2014年欢庆成立90周年之际，连同周星衢基金 出版《开卷有益·润物无声》纪念刊(“《润》”)， 以图示目录记录了407册大众前身机构所出版的 华文课本藏书。《润》第二卷于2017年推出， 在第一卷资料基础下，宏观展示新加坡早年民间 出版社推出的华文教科书，计有3000余册，当 中亦含早前未收获的大众同门教科书。为免遗珠 之憾，2020年大众再携手周星衢基金，出版了 《润》第三卷，并再次聚焦大众前身机构世界 书局体系下出版的华文课本藏书与参考丛书， 所收录的册数计有610册，较第一卷增加了超过 200册。 在目前所获的610册华文课本与参考丛书藏 书中，众兴版有42册;世界版为315册;联营版 有96册;教供社占108册;其他同门出版社则占 49册。这些藏书目前散藏于六处:新加坡国家图 书馆管理局、新加坡教育部文物中心、南洋理工 大学华裔馆王赓武图书馆、马来西亚南方大学学 院图书馆、马来西亚新纪元大学学院陈六使图书 馆，以及周星衢基金，盼来日有更多人士进一步 研究与补充。 315 by World Book Company, 96 by United Publishing House, 108 by Educational Suppliers Limited, and 49 by other World Book Company-related publishing houses. These books are currently housed in six different locations: the National Library Board of Singapore, the Singapore Ministry of Education Heritage Centre, the Nanyang Technological University Chinese Heritage Centre Wang Gungwu Library, the South University College Library in Malaysia, the Tan Lark Sye Library in New Era University College in Malaysia, and Chou Sing Chu Foundation. We hope that these books will continue to see gaps filled, as well as to inspire further research. “Textbooks have a short lifespan; they are not handed down through the generations, and yet are vital introductory texts in children’s education,” Mr Chou Sing Chu once wrote. Even if the publishing of school textbooks is no longer one of POPULAR’s businesses, but today’s success are the fruits of a long history that can be traced back to POPULAR’s roots in educational publishing, a fact which all of us in the POPULAR family must not forget. “教科书的寿命很短，不是传世之作，但它 却是教育儿童的入门书”，周星衢先生曾如是为 文写道。尽管学校教科书出版已非现今大众的业 务之一，但却是今日硕果累累的大众教育出版事 业的根源所在，供大众同仁饮水思源。 131 popularnews - 17