Confucius will feature prominently in next year's literary offerings, besides books on Shanghai and wildlife.

More than 2,500 years after Confucius handed down his sage insights, the Chinese ideologue continues to appeal to a worldwide audience. Not surprisingly, Confucius dominates the offerings of the English-language press in China for 2010.

A new paperback edition of Yu Dan's popular Confucius from the Heart is set for release in 2010. [China Daily]

The Foreign Language Press (FLP) in China is putting out two books on the life and work of a man whose ideas formed the foundation of much of subsequent Chinese thought. The first, Confucius, by Kong Xianglin, 75th descendent of the great man and vice-president of the Confucius Research Institute of China, is a user-friendly, handy guidebook to Confucian ideas. Profusely illustrated with Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) images sourced from Confucius institutes abroad, the book's salient feature is a chapter on how Confucian doctrines influenced American and European philosophical traditions.

Getting to Know Confucius: A New Translation of the Analects, by Lin Wusun, chief editor of Beijing Review, who also translated Sun Tzu's Art of War, comes with a longish introduction, in which the author compares Confucius to Plato and Jesus Christ. The bi-lingual edition comes with detailed annotations, and the 30 most-used Confucian aphorisms in the form of a pullout.

Pan Macmillan is reissuing Yu Dan's immensely popular Confucius from the Heart, based on her equally admired TV series, a lively adaptation of The Analects for the non-scholarly reader, in a paperback edition. The United Kingdom-based Compendium Books will be releasing The Way of Confucius by Jonathan Price, published in association with the Shandong Publishing Group.

In sync with the countdown to the Shanghai Expo in May 2010, lavishly mounted books on China's commercial capital are being meticulously put together, ready to roll hot off the press early next year. These include Shanghai: A History in Photographs by Liu Heung Shing and Karen Smith, published by Penguin.

Embellished with rare archival photographs, this book purports to be a "definitive history of China's most beautiful city". FLP is getting photographer-writer John Burris to follow up on his compilation of evocative photographs of Beijing ("Beijing Days") with a similar work on Shanghai.

After Confucius and Shanghai, the third most-popular theme seems to be wildlife and its conservation. Living Fossils: the Pandas of China West (Penguin) by Zhang Zhihe and Sarah Bexell, a well-researched account of the panda's fight for survival, comes with stunning photographs and an introduction by renowned evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff.

Moon Bear, told by Brenda Z Guiberson and illustrated by the internationally acclaimed Ed Young, published by Pan Macmillan in collaboration with Animals Asia and Moon Bear Rescue initiative, is intended to raise awareness about the bear sanctuary in Chengdu, Sichuan province.