In short

Enrich and decentre the look upon the world through the kaleidoscope of cultures and languages.

L’Asiathèque, independant publishing house specialized in cultures and languages of the world offers a choice of books in fields of fiction, humanities, and language learning by remarkable authors. Literature, cinema, philosophy, spirituality, art, travel, languages. L’Asiathèque is also a bookshop located in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.

The story of l'Asiathèque

L'Asiathèque was founded in 1973 on the initiative of Alain and Christiane Thiollier, originally as a bookstore specialized in Asian languages and cultures. Located at 6 rue Christine, in the Latin Quarter, L'Asiathèque became a meeting place, appreciated by travelers as well as students and researchers. Shortly after, under the leadership of academics who had encouraged the creation of the bookstore, including professors Pierre-Bernard Lafont and Gérard Fussman, was opened a publishing department. Its first publications were the volumes of "Actes du XXIXe Congrès international des orientalistes" (Proceedings of the 29th International Congress of Orientalists), a conference held in Paris in 1973.

Then, the publishing sector had developed, particularly in the field of language education, in close collaboration with the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris (INALCO). Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, Korean, Turkish, Bengali, Burmese, but also Russian, Hungarian, modern Greek, Judeo-Spanish, Tachelhit, Quechua, Wolof... The editorial policy of L’asiathèque is no longer only revolving around Asian languages but also includes languages spoken in middle Europe, Latin America and Africa.

At present, l'Asiathèque remains an independent publishing house, under the leadership of Philippe Thiollier, son of the founders. It aims to maintain an ambitious editorial production based on the two following pillars: "Literature and knowledge" and "Languages". As the learning of foreign languages goes hand in hand with the discovery and knoweldge of the related cultures and contemporary literatures of the world, anyone is enabled to have a sensitive perception of the diveristy of opinions and ways of thinking.

Joining the Union des éditeurs de voyage indépendants (Independent Travel Publishers Association) and opening a bookstore at 1 rue Deguerry 75011 Paris (France) is giving L'Asiathèque a bigger visibility.


Editorial policy

In 1978, l'Asiathèque began to publish works on language education with teachers of  ​National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) as authors. Since then, teachers of INALCO continued to make spontaneous proposals which helped l’Asiathèque to develop collections of language textbooks, dictionaries, linguistics and bilingual books. The main purpose to the launch of these collections was to allow learners from outside the univeristy to benefit from the teaching methods used by teachers of INALCO, as only students could benfit from it until then. Moreover, the significant increase of languages departments in many French-speaking universities helps to diversify collaborations with well-known researchers around the world.

In addition to this educational publications program, L'Asiathèque has set the goal – often thanks to enlightened collection directors– to offer reference books – serious yet without being of a heavy erudition – on the cultures of the world to a large audience. On the other hand, the publising house aims to enable literature-lovers to lay hands on some literature gems. Thus, many collections have been created such as Routes de la soie (Silk Roads), Espace tibétain (Tibetan Space), Connaître le Japon (Knowing Japan), Empreintes chinoises (Chinese Imprints), Novella de Chine (Novella from China), Monde coréen (Korean world), Monde indien (indian world), Taiwan fiction, Liminaires, Les bilingues, 80 mots du monde (80 words of the world), etc... Testimony books are based on a direct and authentic experience and thus, stimulate readers to be more open-minded and more prompt to reflection. Literary works such as novels and short stories are chosen based on their originality and quality of writing. All books offered in L’asiathèque benefit from careful editorial monitoring.

Your manuscript

Your manuscript is welcome in l'Asiathèque!

Yet, take note that we accept only manuscripts written in French!

Before presenting your manuscript, we recommend you to refer to our editorial policy available in the opposite box.

Manuscript can either be handed over in person or send, if possible printed and bound, to the following address :

L'Asiathèque
1, Rue Deguerry
75011 Paris
France
+33 1 42 62 04 00

If you want to hand over your manuscript in person, please be aware that L’asiathèque is open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m to 6 p.m and from 12 p.m to 5 p.m on Saturday.

You can also send it by email, in PDF format, to the following address:
editions@asiatheque.com

Our team is small but we will make sure to get back to you within three months at the most.


Foreign rights

L'Asiathèque holds the rights to numerous reference works for any languagas and anywhere around the world. Essays, literature, language learning (manual and dictionaries) which managed to prove their worth are regularly updated. Manuel d'arabe moderne (Manual of modern Arabic) by Luc-Willy Deheuvels has been especially published in Italian by Zanichelli, and is regularly reprinted.

You will soon find here our foreign rights catalog.

You are a bookseller

You will soon find in the Booksellers area a series of general and thematic catalogs with bar codes which can be downloaded in pdf format (start of academic year, quarterly new books, etc.).

In due course, you may generate personalized catalogues by sorting them according to themes, departments or keywords you are interested in.

As of now, you may contact us through the dedicated messaging channel in the Booksellers area.