BEIJING - Former Harvard professor Ezra Vogel's book on late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping is expected to hit store shelves on the Chinese mainland this year, according to the SDX Joint Publishing Company, publisher of the book's mainland edition.

The company recently announced that it has won the right to publish the mainland edition of the book, which is scheduled to debut on Jan 18, to mark the 21st anniversary of Deng's 1992 south China tour.

SDX won a public bid involving among more than 30 domestic publishers for the mainland edition of Vogel's book, "Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China," said Li Xin, editor-in-chief of SDX.

The book, which took Vogel ten years to complete, portrays a transforming China from the perspective of Deng, focusing on the era after the inception of China's lengthy reform and opening-up drive, Li said.

Vogel is a well-known expert on China, working as the director of the Harvard East Asian Research Center from 1972 to 1977. ?He has written a plethora of books on China, as well as other East Asian countries.