Values in biograph

China should seek the ideas and insight behind the luxuries. "It's most urgent we become international Chinese with advanced values, because we are full of forgeries." Such values lacked in 1894 – records tell, for example, of Chinese sailors' shock as the gunpowder shells they fired at Japanese ships failed to explode, their deadly cargo having been replaced with sand by corrupt factory owners in cahoots with officials.

The Original Defeat has over 200 pictures, including 80 digital designs of naval vessels and eight Japanese hand-drawn illustrations bought from the US Library of Congress at some expense. The reason, Shi explains, is that today's generation of readers are "visual and fragmented" and books must meet their aesthetics and reading habits.

It took a team of six editors three years to complete."We write like we edit magazines, holding meetings and following subjects missed out in other books."

A tireless publisher of bestselling illustrated lives of revolutionary figures such as Soong Meiling, Chiang Kai-shek, Teresa Teng,

San Mao, Lei Feng and Che Guavara, Shi hopes to one day rewrite the biographies of 100 important figures and events from between 1900 to 2000, because "most published books have an outdated value that can't be accepted today."

In Leifeng 1940-1962, the Maoist "Model Worker" is reincarnated as a hipster icon with a retro fur-lined hat, according to a Newsweek review.

Dubbed a "historical manual," the series is suitable for amateur readers of any age to learn history. "It is an easy read, no more than five hours," Shi said, who studied Chinese concentration spans.

The veteran publisher said e-books will be launched in July since "our illustrated books are born for the iPad."

The English version of The Original Defeat is not yet available but the Japanese edition will be published soon. Meanwhile, a big-budget movie on the topic will hit theaters next year.

Book tag: The Original Defeat, Shi Yonggang & Zhang Fan, 247 pp, Xiron Books, 39.8 yuan ($6).