At a time when many bookstores are being forced to close, Guangxi Normal University Press has managed to build both fame and income by continuing to put out seemingly old-fashioned titles in the seemingly old-fashioned industry of publishing paper books.

With a relatively short history and operating from Guilin the Guangxi Zhuang automous region, GNUP made a profit of more than 58 million yuan (around $9.3 million) from its book sales in 2014.

Not just that, He Linxia, the company's president hastened to add, but also 88 titles from GNUP were included 183 times in various influential recommended reading lists in the media in 2013 alone.