China Plans Big Splash at BEA

May 2015
China Plans Big

Splash at BEA
More than 500 members of the Chinese

publishing community will be in New York to
connect with their international colleagues
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
AN INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER ROOTED IN CHINA

AND A CHINESE PUBLISHER WITH THE BROADEST GLOBAL VISION
With 35 years dedication to foreign language publishing, a backlist of 10,000-plus titles and 1,000-strong new
titles annually published in 47 languages, Foreign Language
Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP) has enjoyed the No.1
position in Chinas English book market for more than two
decades. Recognized as the benchmark for Chinas foreign
language publishing, FLTRP is a trusted name among
foreign-language learners and readers in China.
Keeping in pace with the changing times, FLTRP has
been actively expanding its business scope and exploring
innovative transformation. New lines of publications in Chinese
as a foreign language, humanities and social sciences,
natural science and childrens books, and new endeavors in
educational training, online courses and digital publishing have enabled

FLTRP to transit from a traditional publisher to a provider of
comprehensive educational products and services.
As one of the first Chinese publishers to engage in international cooperation, FLTRP has maintained active cooperation
with nearly 500 international publishers. Renowned as an
international publisher rooted in China and a Chinese publisher
with the broadest global vision, FLTRP looks forward to sharing
quality educational resources with American publishers. Through
co-publishing, setting up overseas offices and global M&A, we
hope to work with American partners to provide the best products
and services for learners and readers in both countries.
CONTACT DETAILS:
For copyright business,
please contact:
Rights Manager
Tel: 86-10-88819074
Fax: 86-10-88819433
To place an order,
please contact:
FLTRP Bookstore
Tel: 86-10-88819929
To know more about us, please visit en.fltrp.com.
Postal Address:
International Division
Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press
No.19 Xisanhuan Beilu
Beijing, China, 100089
China Has Ambitious Plans for BEA
he 2015 edition of BookExpo America will

feature one of the biggest exhibits ever seen
at the annual eventa 25,000-sq.-ft.
display that will be home to Chinas large
contingent of publishers and authors. BEA
director Steve Rosato says that the large
China presence will take international activity
at the show to new heights.
Chinas participation at BEA comes at a
time when the countrys publishing industry is
evolving in a number of important ways. Sales
at Chinas physical bookstores rebounded in
2014 following two soft years, and book sales
through online retailers continued to increase
last year. Sales of e-books and other digital content in China grew at a rapid rate last year as well, and more
growth seems assured. The countrys publishers, who have
imported an increasing number of U.S. titles, are hoping to
build a market for some of their top authors overseas.
May 2015
P u b l i s h e r s W e e k ly . c o m
China Plans Big

Splash at BEA
To reflect all the activity that is occurring in Chinas

publishing market, Chinese organizers have assembled
an impressive number of events that will be held before,
during, and after BEA. Some events will focus directly on
books and publishing, while others, such as art exhibitions,
will highlight different aspects of Chinese culture.
To help BEA attendees and others in the publishing
industry get a better understanding of the state
of the Chinese book industry and its plans for
BEA, Chinese organizers have created a special
BEA supplement. Among the pieces youll find
on the following pages are an overview of Chinas retail and digital book markets, a look at
China Publishing Group Corporation (CPG),
Chinas largest and most influential trade and
professional publishing group, and interviews with some of
Jim Milliot
Chinas best-known authors.
Jim Milliot is editorial director of Publishers Weekly.
WHATS INSIDE
4
Chinas Bookstores
Had a Healthy 2014
Sales through physical stores rebounded
and online sales
continued to rise.
Chinas E-book
Market Is Robust
and Growing
Over 500 members of the Chinese publishing

community will be in New York to connect
with their international colleagues
Authors appearing on the cover (in alphabetical order): A Yi,

Bi Feiyu, Cao Wenxuan, Di An, Feng Tang, He Jianming,
Ji Hongjian, Lan Lan, Li Er, Liu Zhenyun, Lu Xin, Lui Cixin,
Mei Jia, Mei Zihan, Qin Wenjun, Shao Li, Shen Dongz,
Sheng Keyi, Su Kui, Su Tong, Wang Gang, Wang Xufeng,
Wu Meizhen, Xi Chuan, Xu Zechen, Zhao Lihong
13
Meet Author A Yi
The popular author
of crime novels has
picked up critical
praise and awards.
14
Spotlight on the
China Publishing
Group
After a period of rapid

expansion, a more
stable pace of growth
in the Chinese e-book
market kicks in.
Publishing more than

10,000 books annually, CPG is Chinas
largest trade publisher and has international ambitions.
11
28
Chinese publishers
continue to hunt for
American titles that
appeal to domestic
readers.
Liu is one of Chinas

best-known writers,
with a number of film
adaptations to his
name.
U.S. Books Draw

Lots of Interest
13
14
Author Liu Zhenyun

Makes Friends
28
W W W. P U B L I S H E R S W E E K L Y. C O M
MARKET UPDATE
RETAIL
Chinese Bookstores
BY OPENBOOK
Sales at physical bookstores bounced back in the year,

while online sales continued to grow
ast year was a great year for the Chinese retail book market. In 2014, 198,000 new books were
published. Although that number has been shrinking each year since 2012, 1.3 million titles were
sold in bricks-and-mortar stores in 2014an increase over the previous year and a historic high.
Additionally, more than 1.2 million titles were purchased from online booksellers. Total Chinese
retail book sales exceeded 50 billion yuan. Of this, retail sales at physical bookstores amounted to
approximately 34 billion yuan, while those at online booksellers amounted to around 20 billion
yuan. The physical retail market ended the declines of the previous two years and achieved annual
growth of 3.3%; online booksellers, meanwhile, maintained their rapid growth. Combining online
and offline channels, the Chinese retail market achieved annual growth of roughly 10% in 2014.
From the perspective of the global publishing industry, China still ranks among other rapidly
developing countries. Last year, among the 10 markets that Nielsen monitors (Australia, Brazil,
France, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the U.K., the U.S., and South Africa), only five saw
growth in sales of print books. The rate of growth of Chinas print book
market was second only to that of Brazil, and it clearly outstripped those of
many English-speaking countries, including the U.S. and the U.K.
TOTAL
SALES AT
ONLINE
BOOKSTORES,
20102014
(IN BILLIONS OF YUAN)
2.0-2.1
2.1
1.6-1.7
1.6
1.2-1.3
1.1
0.6
MAY 2015
0.8-0.9
0.4-0.5
Had a Healthy 2014

SALES AT PHYSICAL VS. ONLINE BOOKSTORES BY CATEGORY
4.4%
2%
1%
Teaching Materials
Social Sciences
4.7%
Childrens
25.5%
7.4%
Literature
Science &
Technology
7.4%
4.5%
1.6%
4.9%
0.7%
7.7%
6.7%
27.8%
10.5%
Languages
11.9%
18%
17.7%
Lifestyle
Art
13.6%
22%
Biography
Other
Physical Bookstores
Over the past few years, as the commercial marketing of book retail has gradually
matured and online booksellers have risen
in prominence in China, the growth rate
of physical bookstores has slowed. This
was particularly true in 2012 and 2013,
when retail sales in physical bookstores
fell. This trend was especially visible in
first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as well as in
several large-scale, privately run bookstores. Retail sales rebounded at physical
bookstores in 2014, and bricks-and-mortar booksellers saw positive year-over-year
growth in each quarter.
While sales at physical bookstores in
China have been declining, online booksellers have been expanding rapidly. After
a number of adjustments over the past few
Online Bookstores
years, physical bookstores are perfecting
their customer service and improving the
customer experience. These developments
have had a major impact on traffic and
sales. OpenBook, a clearinghouse for statistics about the Chinese publishing industry,
divided the stores it surveyed into the following categories, based on the cities where
theyre located: first-tier-city bookstores, in
Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen; second-tier-city bookstores, in other
large municipalities; and third-tier-city
bookstores, in other key cities.
In 2014, Chinese bookstores with the
strongest growth happened to be those
that lost significant business to online
retailers early on: bookstores in Beijing,
Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen
experienced annual growth of nearly 8%.
Medium- to large-scale stores displayed

similarly solid growth. In addition,
privately owned bookstores had total sales
growth exceeding 1% in 2014. This is due
in part to the fact that many bricks-andmortar bookstores have stepped up efforts
to perfect in-store displays, while intensifying marketing activities and developing
innovative marketing methods. Increased
sales are also attributed to numerous business developments, including growth in
B2B channels and improved product mix
and management efficiency.
With improved performance of physical booksellers in 2014 and steady gains
by online retailers, Chinas retail book
market has become more stable, with the
two channels providing more choice for
consumers.
MARKET UPDATE
RETAIL
Biographies,
Childrens Books
Hottest Segments
Increased retail sales at physical bookstores in China last year are also reflected
in annual sales growth of individual
genres. Biographies saw the greatest
growth, followed by childrens books.
Sales of both increased by more than
10% in 2014, while fiction also
approached an annual rate of 10%. Additionally, supplementary teaching materials and social science titles posted gains.
The language category saw the biggest
annual sales decline in 2014, while the
science and technology and lifestyle segments slowed as well.
The data shows that book sales in
Chinese bricks-and-mortar stores and
online share commonalities as well as
differences. Books about the social sciences, childrens books, and fiction all
performed well in both marketsparticularly the former two categories.

Social science texts and childrens books
made up more than 35% of sales in physical bookstores while composing more
than 50% of sales of online booksellers.
However, middle- and elementaryschool supplemental learning materials,
which made up a quarter of purchases at
physical bookstores, only amounted to
approximately 7% of total sales through
online channels. On the other hand,
themed booksincluding materials for
civil servant exams and adult professional
assessments, as well as childrens picture
books and comic booksachieved only
slightly higher sales among online booksellers compared to their bricks-andmortar counterparts.
When comparing the sales of physical
and online booksellers in China, it is
clear that the principal needs of these two
retail markets are similar; however, differences exist within individual catego-
ries. These variances are directly related

to the differences and needs of customers
at both physical and online bookstores.
The types of books desired by relatively
young online shoppers and those that
benefit the most from discounted prices
perform better for e-tailers than bricksand-mortar stores. National sales trends,
however, often figure more prominently
in sales at physical bookstores.
The Impact of
Bestsellers
Bestsellers have always had a major

impact on the retail book market in
China. The top 5% of bestsellers
accounted for 64% of sales at physical
bookstores in China in 2014; for online
booksellers, that top 5% made up more
than 80% of sales. Bestsellers clearly
enjoy increased success among online
booksellers, where site traffic and actual
sales volume tend to be focused on top-
ANNUAL SALES GROWTH BY CATEGORY

20%
15%
11.5%
10%
10.2%
9.7%
4.4%
5%
3.3%
1.8%
0%
-1.6%
-5%
-1.7%
-4.2%
-7.9%
-0%
-15%
Biography Childrens
Literature
Teaching
Materials
Growth rate in 2012
MAY 2015
Social
Sciences
Art
Growth rate in 2013
Lifestyle
Science & Languages

Technology
Growth rate in 2014
Overall
Market
selling merchandise; users rarely even

browse low-ranking books displayed on
websites, resulting in fewer sales among
nonbestsellers.
Childrens books, literature, and academic books tend to dominate Chinese
bestseller lists, and these trends are
reflected in both physical and online
book sales. However, sales of childrens
literature and novels are typically stronger
at physical bookstores, while childrens
picture books and comics, management
publications, and lifestyle books do
better online.
Childrens books dominate both
online and physical bestseller charts in
China, making up more than 50 of the
top 100 bestsellers in each market, so
eliminating them from the analysis can
be quite illuminating. Of the remaining
books on the list, 43 fall under categories such as literature, self-help, academic, lifestyle, business, education,
and popular science. Novels, essays, and
biographies are extremely popular at
both physical bookstores and online
booksellers, but they perform notably
better at bricks-and-mortar stores, while
lifestyle and business books are purchased more frequently at online stores.
Top-selling lifestyle books at physical
bookstores tend to be health themed,
whereas those sold at online retailers are
more often related to parenting and education. Business books that sell well at
physical stores are typically related to
economics and finance, whereas a
broader ranger of business titles sell
online, including books about management, sales, and marketing. Meanwhile,
academic, education, and natural science
titles are represented fairly evenly in
bestseller lists for both online and physical bookstores.
Generally speaking, the differences
between the bestseller lists of Chinese
bricks-and-mortar bookstores and online
retailers reflect the different reading habits of their respective customers. However, they also reflect different publishers emphases and marketing tactics
relating to the channels through which
they offer their products.
TOP 10 BESTSELLERS AT PHYSICAL

BOOKSTORES IN CHINA IN 2014
RANK
BOOK TITLE
AUTHOR
PUBLISHER
Charlie IX and Dodomo, Vol. 21:

The Mysterious Kingdom in the
Desert
Leon Mage
Zhejiang Childrens
Publishing House
New Words by Zhijiang
Xi Jinping
Zhejiang Peoples
Publishing House
The Diary of the Smiling Cat: The

Child from the Alien Planet
Yang
Hongying
Tomorrow
Publishing House

King Solomons Ring
Leon Mage
Zhejiang Childrens
Publishing House
Totto Chan: The Little

Girl at the Window
Tetsuko
Kuroyanagi
Nanhai
Publishing Co.
I Belonged to You
Zhang Jiajia
Hunan Literature
and Art Publishing
House
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garca
Mrquez
Nanhai Publishing
House
The Kite Runner
Khaled
Hosseini
Shanghai Peoples
Publishing House

Shambhala, the Edge of the World
Leon Mage
Zhejiang Childrens
Publishing House
10
Book Collection Series of Shen Shixi:

The King of Animal Novelsthe
Dream of the Wolf King
Shen Shixi
Zhejiang Childrens
Publishing House
TOP 10 BESTSELLERS AT ONLINE

BOOKSTORES IN CHINA IN 2014
RANK
BOOK TITLE
AUTHOR
PUBLISHER
I Belonged to You
Zhang Jiajia
Hunan
Literature and Art
Publishing House
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel Garca
Mrquez
Nanhai
Publishing House
As Long as You Are Here
Liu Tong
China CITIC Press
A Good Mother Is Better Than a

Good Teacher: 16 Years of Notes on
Teaching by an Educational Expert
Yin Jianli
China Writers
Publishing House
The Kite Runner
Khaled
Hosseini
Shanghai Peoples
Publishing House
To Live
Yu Hua
China Writers
Publishing House
Diary of a Naughty Boy:

Parents Are Not My Servants
Le Duoduo
Blossom Press
Diary of a Naughty Boy: Come On!

You Cannot Defeat Yourself
Le Duoduo
Blossom Press
Diary of a Naughty Boy:

I Will Be Rich in the Future
Le Duoduo
Blossom Press
10
Diary of a Naughty Boy: Never

Study for Parents and Teacher
Le Duoduo
Blossom Press
Note: All data cited in this article are provided by Beijing OpenBook Co. Ltd.a clearinghouse
for publishing statisticsand are based on Chinas book retail survey system, established in 1998.
MARKET UPDATE
E-BOOKS
The E-book
Market in
China
INTENSE
COMPETITION GIVES
WAY TO ORDERLY
EXPANSION
D
B Y Z H U Y E YA N G
MAY 2015
igital reading technology has been

widely embraced by the Chinese reading
public: everywhere in China these days,
one sees people reading books and news
on mobile phones, e-readers, and other
devices. Now, after a decade characterized by intense competition, the Chinese
e-book market has entered a phase of
fast-paced but orderly expansion.
A Chinese-language keyword search
for e-books in Apple Chinas App Store
currently yields 1,224 results. In addition to various digital reading apps and
software, there is a plethora of online
Chinese bookstores, and a wide variety of
e-readers and devices to cater to the varied needs and interests of Chinese readers. With the increasing popularity of
mobile phones, dedicated e-readers have
lost market share; most mobile phone
users install at least one e-reading app on
their phones, and some mobile carriers
offer phones with such apps pre-installed.
According to the 2014 Eleventh
Annual Nationwide Reading Survey
from the Chinese Academy of Press and
Publication (CAPP), 57.8% of Chinas
adult population reads books, and 50.1%
reads books digitally (this figure includes

adults who read books in a variety of formats, on computers, tablets, mobile
phones, and e-readers). Given the expansion of Chinas mobile Internet sector,
the spread of mobile phones and other
devices, and the changing habits of the
Chinese reading public, the Chinese
e-book market appears poised for rapid
growth in the coming years.
The latest data regarding the scale of
the Chinese e-book market comes from
the Annual Report on Chinas Digital
Publishing Industry, 20132014,
released in July 2014 by CAPP. The
report reveals that in 2013, total annual
revenue for the Chinese digital publishing industry was 254 billion yuan; the
top three sectors, ranked by revenue,
were online advertising, mobile publishing, and online gaming. Revenue from
e-books (including books originally published online) reached 3.8 billion yuan.
The combined revenue for e-books,
online periodicals, and digital newspapers was 6.2 billion yuan; this accounted
for 2.4% of total digital publishing revenue in China, so there is clearly ample
room for growth.
Although e-books account for a small
portion of Chinas digital publishing revenue, e-book sales have been rising faster
than that of any other sector of the digital
publishing industry: between 2006 and
2013, Chinese e-book sales posted an
average annual increase of 78.2%.
DIVERSIFICATION AND
COMPETITION IN CHINAS
E-BOOK MARKET
Rapid development and intensifying
competition have transformed Chinas
e-book market: once small and diffuse, it
now boasts a number of competing
e-book brands that have managed to
attract large readerships and capture the
majority of mobile phone screens.
The tech company Zhangyue started
out in the e-book business six years ago,
but its app has become one of the most
popular mobile e-reader apps in China.
In a recent interview, Zhangyue CEO

Zhang Lingyun revealed that, by the end
of 2014, the total number of Zhangyue
iReader app users had reached 480 million, and, at that time, 15 million people
used the app each day. In early 2015,
Zhangyue spent 100 million yuan on an
advertising campaign featuring a famous
Chinese television host as its spokesman;
the ads, which aired on Chinese television,
caused quite a stir within the industry
few Chinese publishing companies have
embarked on ad campaigns at that scale.
China Telecom, one of Chinas three
major telecom providers, has also established a mobile reading platform, which
has allowed China Telecom to rapidly
expand its e-book operations by leveraging the strength of its existing customer
base. In July 2014, Tianyi Culture Communication Co. Ltd., the China Telecom
subsidiary that operates the mobile reading platform, completed its first round
of equity financing, and it now boasts
three brands: the Tianyibook e-reader,
Oxygen Audiobooks, and Zqread.com,
an online bookstore. According to the
company, users of Tianyis product line
rose from fewer than 10 million in 2011
to more than 230 million in March 2015.
In addition, Tianyis Oxygen Audiobook
platform now has more than 55 million
registered users.
Dangdang, an online bookstore and
retailing platform, offers a mobile reading
app with exclusive access to copyrighted
content. According to Dangdangs management, the platforms current user base
exceeds 15 million, and the number of
new subscribers is expanding by over
200% per year. The average Dangdang
user spends over 50 minutes per day reading with the app. Media reports indicate
that the companys goal is to become the
clear leader in Chinas e-book market,
both in terms of number of users and
number of downloads.
The Jingdong Group (formerly
360Buy), a well-known player in Chinas
e-commerce market, has also been developing its e-book presence. The company is
working on improving its apps user experience and is steadily adding new users.
In addition to domestic e-book companies, there are also global online service
platforms based in China, such as the
CNP eReading, a digital resource business and service platform. CNP eReading
provides integrated promotional and sales
plans for publishers, as well as one-stop
services purchasing, accessing, managing,
and integration for institutional clients.
Amazons e-book business in China
has also posted fairly good results. In
December 2012, when Amazons flagship Kindle store went online in China,
BETWEEN
2006 AND 2013,
CHINESE
E-BOOK
REVENUE
POSTED AN
AVERAGE
ANNUAL
INCREASE OF
78%
the company also launched a Chinese

version of its free Kindle e-reader software for various devices and operating
systems. In 2013 and 2014, Amazon
released three generations of e-readers
and a Fire tablet for the Chinese market.
On Mar. 31, 2015, Amazon announced
the release of a white Kindle e-reader for
the Chinese market. Amazon Chinas
2014 report on online shopping trends
shows that, in terms of sales volume,
Kindle e-books are one of Amazon Chinas
fastest expanding product categories.
GREATER CLARITY ON
COPYRIGHT ENERGIZES
CHINAS E-BOOK MARKET
The Chinese e-book industry benefits
greatly from competition among the
players for securing the best e-book content. In the early days of Chinas e-book
market, copyright infringement and
piracy were rife: a decade ago, piracy was
a problem that impeded the development of Chinas entire e-book industry.
Today, copyright issues in the Chinese
e-book market are gradually being clarified, and corporate and consumer copyright awareness has greatly improved.
In March 2013, China began implementing regulations in three areas of
intellectual property rights law: patents,
trademarks, and copyright. These measures raised the ceiling on fines and penalties for copyright infringement and
created a greater deterrent to piracy.
Thanks to increased government oversight and the active participation of intellectual property rights alliances, Chinas
e-book market has been able to strengthen
copyright protection technology.
Increased awareness of copyright protection has significantly reduced the incidence of piracy and has also prompted
Chinese e-book companies to purchase
more copyrighted works through proper
channels, in a bid to attract more customers by offering higher-quality content.
Zhangyue owns the digital rights to
350,000 copyrighted works, and it distributes more than one billion books per
year through its iReader e-book platform. Zhangyues 2014 Report on the
Reading Habits of Chinese Citizens
shows that 53% of Chinese people born
in the 1990s are active readers, and that
e-books are rekindling an interest in
reading among the younger generation.
The report also shows continued strong
sales of books such as Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live,
Work, and Think, by Viktor MayerSchnberger and Kenneth Cukier, priced
as high as 30 yuan. There is strong
demand for e-books with film and television tie-ins, and most users have become
accustomed to paying for legal, copyrighted versions of books.
A manager at Tianyi Culture says that
the Tianyibook e-book platform currently offers more than 330,000 books,
magazines, comics, and reference works,
and that the Oxygen Audiobook platform offers more than 150,000 hours of
copyrighted high-definition audio content. In 2014, Tianyi acquired rights to
more than 50,000 new books. The same
manager says that although users are
becoming more accepting of and accustomed to reading copyrighted books,
there is a long road ahead, and companies must remain patient.
Dangdang owns the rights to more
than 200,000 e-books. In 2014, the company sold more than 66 million e-books
via its platform, accounting for 20% of
total Dangdang book sales. Purchasing
and reading e-books on mobile phones
has become common practice for Dangdangs customers. At present, the company is buying the rights to more than
100,000 books per year. Of these,
approximately 20% are online-only
works, a share that continues to rise.
Jingdong has rights to about 150,000
titles for its e-book platform. In 2014,
the companys e-book sales exceeded 10
million units, and revenue was over 10
million yuan. Based on its first-quarter
results, Jingdong appears poised in 2015
to beat its 2014 figures. Most of the
e-book content downloaded by the companys users is composed of digital versions of previously published books. In
2015, the number of digital works on
Jingdongs platform is estimated to grow
by between five to eight million. Most of
these titles will be digital versions of previously published books, along with a
small portion of original online content,
and most of Jingdongs e-books will originate with publishers, while some will be
obtained via rights management agencies
and individuals.
More and more Chinese print publishers are requiring that contracts for print
and digital rights be signed simultaneously, especially in the case of new books,
and the number of digital rights contracts is increasing. As of March 2015,
Amazon Chinas Kindle store had more
than 210,000 titles in Chinese and other
languages on offer.
Backed by the strength of the China
National Publications Import and
10 M A Y
2015
IN 2014,
DANGDANG
SOLD
MORE THAN
66
MILLION
E-BOOKS
VIA ITS
PLATFORM,
ACCOUNTING
FOR
20%
OF TOTAL
COMPANY
BOOK SALES
Export Corp.s extensive international
book procurement network, the CNP
eReading platform features nearly 1.7
million Chinese and international books,
8,000 digital periodicals, more than five
million full-text articles, and more than
one million open-access digital resources.
As copyright awareness among traditional publishers and authors improves,
e-book acquisition costs have risen, and
new issues and problems (such as the
duration of e-book rights) have surfaced.
Currently, all links in the Chinese e-book
industry supply chain are collaborating
to resolve copyright issues.
REGULATING
DEVELOPMENT AND
IMPROVING STANDARDS
In the early days of the Chinese e-book
industry, inadequate standards led to
duplicated efforts and difficulties
exchanging digital information, restricting the healthy development of the

industry. But during the past two years,
a series of efforts to establish digitalpublishing standards in China has provided a strong base of support for the
development of the countrys e-book
business.
To speed up the work of creating
e-book standards, the National Committee on Technical Standards for Press and
Publication established the E-book Content Standards Working Group. The
group created six project teams, each
dealing with a specific topic, including
e-book content format, metadata, copyright protection, quality monitoring,
and service platforms. The aim was to
come up with a list of 12 new proposed
standards. In May 2011, the list was
approved by the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film
and Television (SAPPRFT), thus allowing standards development work to officially begin.
In 2011, the E-book Content Standards Working Group began drafting
the 12 proposed standards, and by
November 2013, four of these proposalsthose regarding terminology, standard systems, metadata, and basic format
requirements for e-bookswere
approved by SAPPRFT to be implemented. The remaining eight proposals
have been submitted to SAPPRFT and
are currently pending approval. When
the project is complete, it will fill the gap
in Chinese e-book publishing industry
standards.
At present, with the convergence of
traditional media and new media, many
traditional Chinese publishers are
actively expanding their digital book
divisions. Chinas e-book business is taking advantage of the rapid expansion of
the mobile Internet market to meet rising consumer demand for high-quality
reading material. Whether via e-books or
traditional printed books, reading is still
a ubiquitous pastime in China.
Zhu Yeyang is a media specialist at the
Beijing International Book Fair.
MARKET UPDATE U.S. BOOKS
Chinese Interest
in American Books
Remains Strong
W
BY Z HU Y EYANG
alter
Isaacsons Steve Jobsthe only authorized
biography of the Apple founderwent
on sale in China at 10:05 a.m. Beijing
Time on Oct. 24, 2011. Because of time
differences, the Chinese edition was
available in 30 Chinese traditional retail
bookstores even before it was
available in the United
States. Due to the huge presale demand, China CITIC
Press could not estimate the
size of the initial print run.
The Kite Runner, by
Afghan-born American novelist Khaled Hosseini, was
introduced into the Chinese
market nearly 10 years ago,
and more than 3.5 million
PUBLISHERS
CONTINUE TO
HUNT FOR U.S.
TITLES THAT
APPEAL TO
THE DOMESTIC
MARKET
copies have been printed. Only two other

books have spent longer on Chinas foreign literature bestseller chart. In 2014,
The Kite Runner was the second-highestgrossing book for Amazon Chinas Kindle store, and, at one time, the book had
more than 500,000 comments at another
e-commerce site in China.
Steve Jobs and The Kite
Runner are two representative cases of successful
introductions of American
books into the Chinese market. The U.S. has outstanding authors, extensive
influence, and abundant
material for publishing
books. In recent years,
China has imported more
and more American books, many of

which have become bestsellers. However,
the U.S. publishes hundreds of thousands
of titles every year. How do Chinese publishers sift through the vast sea of American books to determine which should be
introduced to China?
PUBLISHERS DETERMINE
THEIR TARGETS
Different Chinese publishers have different requirements when it comes to
acquiring books from the U.S. Liu Dongmei, the assistant managing editor at the
Anhui Publishing House, says Anhui
ties the foreign books it publishes to its
own product line planning. For example,
in recent years, Anhui has mainly published suspense and mystery works.
Because of this, it pays particular attention to those genres in the U.S. market.
To find titles of interest, Liu says, Anhui
employees browse U.S. newspapers and
other media, paying particular attention
to book reviews and bestseller lists, such
as the New York Times Book Review and
Amazon rankings. Chinese publishers
have long kept up with the more authoritative sources of book information in the
U.S. After taking into account the rights
catalogues from foreign publishers and
agents, as well as recent awards and
reviews information, Chinese publishers
11
MARKET UPDATE U.S. BOOKS
analyze the Chinese market. Only then

are titles purchased and readied for Chinese publication. Recently, Anhui
released Lisa Jacksons bestseller Shiver,
which has had strong sales in China.
Beijings Shiji Wenjing Culture and
Broadcasting Company has a good track
record with books from the U.S. market,
having published translations of The Da
Vinci Code, The Kite Runner, and other
bestsellers. Shiji Wenjing, which focuses
mainly on literature and the social sciences, has acquired a growing number of
U.S. titles in recent years. In an interview
with Foreign Policy in February, Shiji
Wenjing CEO Wang Lei said he has
become very interested in the long-term
sales of The Kite Runner in China, which,
he noted, has not had the
same long-lasting success in
the U.S. as it has in China.
We pay close attention to
the U.S. popular market,
both to trends developing in
the U.S. and in U.S. books
being published abroad,
Wang says. We hope to find
outstanding books with popular appeal.
But Wang also admits
that bestselling American
titles such as The Da Vinci
Code and The Kite Runner are few and far
between, and it is not always easy to
reproduce their success on the Chinese
market. He thinks that one reason for this
is the growing strength of Chinese writers. Readers tastes are also changing, he
notes. In addition, the U.S. success of
many bestsellers depends heavily on their
film adaptations, which sometimes arent
screened in mainland China. For example, film adaptations of Insurgent and Gone
Girl boosted sales of those titles in the
U.S. but had little impact on Chinese
sales.
Wang says that as Chinese editors
English skills improve, they can better
monitor book reviews and rankings in
U.S. media through the Internet and participate in international book exhibitions.
These are all important methods for
understanding American books, and they
12 M A Y
2015
allow publishers to gain access to the latest industry information from the U.S.
LOOKING FOR
AWARD-WINNING
WORKS, FAMOUS
AUTHORS
Every year we introduce more than 200
books, mostly books in English from the
United States, says Tang Jiafang, director of rights at Shanghai Translation
Publishing House. These primarily
include fiction, classical literature, and
works from award-winning authors. In
recent years, Shanghai Translation Publishing House has acquired books by
well-known American authors such as
Philip Roth, Woody Allen,
and Susan Sontag. Popular
American titles such as
Inherent Vice, Masters of Sex,
and First Person Plural: My
Life as a Multiple have all
been well received in China.
Jiangsu Yilin is another
Chinese publisher that has
done well with American
books. The company has
published the memoirs of
presidents Obama and Clinton, as well as the biographies of basketball stars LeBron James
and Dwyane Wade. Zhao Wei, director
of international cooperation, says that
Yilin released more than 170 titles in
China last year, 80 of which were from
the U.S. She notes that Yilin is very
interested in literary fiction, particularly
by authors with the potential to win the
Nobel Prize in Literature, and in the
biographies or autobiographies of Americans who are well known in China. We
have bought almost all the works of
American authors who are considered
likely to win a Nobel Prize, Zhao says,
adding that Chinese publishers closely
follow news about important literary
awards in the U.S. Winners of the
National Book Award, for example, are
focal points, and editors pay close attention to the latest works of renowned
authors.
KEEPING PACE
WITH TECHNICAL
DEVELOPMENTS
Technical publishers in China also
acquire many books from the U.S. As
one of the countrys largest technical
publishing houses, China Machine Press
publishes many technical and scientific
titles. Rights director Chen Jianhui says
that, from an academic perspective, the
U.S. is more scientifically and technologically advanced than China in certain
fields, meaning that there are many
quality titles in those fields to choose
from. More importantly, he adds, we
consult changes and adjustments in
national policy, as well as market
demands, when selecting works to publish. According to Chen, China
Machine Press has recently focused on
titles related to smart household items,
electric cars, and automated smart manufacturing technologies.
Like China Machine Press, the Peoples
Medical Publishing House is interested
in English-language titles that are closely
linked to its focus. Zhang Fengxin,
director of the international department,
says about half of the 100 titles that the
company releases annually are acquired
from the U.S. He believes that China has
a flourishing domestic market, and its
publishing industry has more or less
reached international standards. However, he says, in some areas of medicine,
the U.S. still has comparatively mature
scientific techniques and ideas that are in
the early stages of development in China.
The Peoples Medical Publishing House
is actively pursuing titles in these areas.
Through communication with domestic
medical scholars and experts, the publisher can better understand needs of the
industry and introduce related books
from abroad.
FILLING A VOID IN
CHILDRENS BOOKS
Recently, Jieli Publishing House, a Chinese company that specializes in books
and other materials for young readers,
has introduced bestselling series such as

I Spy and Goosebumps into China from
major American houses like Simon &
Schuster and Penguin Random House.
Bai Bing, the editor-in-chief at Jieli,
believes that these books display powerful imagination and can fill a void in
Chinas market. Goosebumps, for example, is for young readers who enjoy scary
stories, an area where there are very few
strong Chinese authors.
When evaluating titles from the U.S.,
Bai asks five questions: 1) Do the style
and writing display strong creative
thinking, of the sort that is lacking in the
Chinese market? 2) Is it a work of outstanding quality, influential in its home
market, and/or a bestseller or award winner? 3) Is it well received by American
parents and professional book reviewers?
4) Are there special considerations in
exporting this book to other countries,
including factors related to transportation, language, and the effectiveness of
new media? 5) Is the book able to bridge
the historical and cultural gap between
the U.S. and China, and is it a book that
Chinese consumers will be able to appreciate and accept?
Recently the market in China for
childrens books has grown very rapidly,
Bai says. It is perhaps the fastest-growing and fastest-developing market area,
with the greatest potential. This is true
in China, the U.S., and around the
world. He hopes that Jieli can continue
to cooperate with U.S. publishers and
introduce more quality books to China.
I have always held on to a single wish,
which is that young readers in China and
around the world should be able to read
the same books, Bai says. If this happens, I think we can create a positive
foundation for the future of U.S.-Sino
relations. He notes that China also produces many works by outstanding
authors, potentially suitable for young
readers in the West, and hopes U.S. publishers will take note of books that are
popular among young readers in China.
Shu Jinyu is an essayist, critic, and cultural
journalist at China Reading Weekly.
A Yi Broadens
His Audience
B Y E VA E K E R O T H
A Yi is a thinker writing about humanity
hen I first encountered A Yi at a local literary festival

many years ago, he was presented to me as a writer of
criminal novels. The polite but shy A Yi looked furtively
at the people around him as if they were from another
species. Curious about what this guy had written, I
bought his short story collection The Bird Saw Me.
The characters in the short stories of The Bird Saw Me
are dreaming of being heroes but they spend their lives as the ordinary humans
they are born to be. A Yis experience as a former police officer is revealed by
the fact that crime is a common ingredient in his stories, but it is far from the
most important part. Rather, existential matters such as the rootlessness of
humans in a modern society are his source of inspiration.
In the story The Prophet, a man finds an unopened letter in a garbage can, addressed to a researcher at the highly
esteemed Chinese Academy of Social Science. He takes it
with him and reads it on the metro on his way home. Moved
by the letter, he goes to his computer and writes down the
content, believing that he has been blessed with a mission to
spread the truth it contains to everyone in the world.
After reading A Yis short stories, my appetite was whetted, so I continued with his novel, What Should I Do Next?
It is a first-person narrative in which the protagonist, a
19-year-old boy, plans the coldblooded murder of his schoolmate and his flight afterward. The easily duped police force
makes the boy feel bored, and eventually he surrenders himself. We then accompany him through interrogations, a trial, and his verdict.
Surprisingly, its through the secondary characters rather than the protagonist
that we glimpse the immorality that has spread in a society undergoing rapid
economic development. When I read What Should I Do Next?, I could not help
but think of the protagonist of Albert Camuss The Stranger, because the protagonist here is like a stranger in society, trying to find some kind of order in
the absurd chaos called life.
A Yi is not a writer of crime novels; hes a thinker writing about humanity.
I am glad to see that since I started reading his books, he has become
acclaimed by critics and awarded several prizes. A couple of years ago, he
was recognized as one of the 20 best up-and-coming writers by a jury consisting of the most prominent literary critics and writers in Chinaamong
others, Nobel laureate Mo Yan.
Eva Ekeroth is the CEO and founder of Chin Lit, a new independent publishing
house dedicated to bringing Chinese literature to Swedish readers. Previously, she
was the Swedish cultural counselor to China at the Swedish embassy in Beijing.
13
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT
CPG
Introducing China
China Publishing Group Corp. (CPG) is Chinas largest and most influential trade
and professional publishing group. It has been on the Chinese governments list of the countrys top
30 cultural enterprises since 2008, and last year it ranked #14 on the list of the top 50 international
publishing groups. It was the only Chinese publisher to rank among the top 500 brands in Asia. At the
2015 London Book Fair, CPG was presented with the Simon Master Chairmans Award.
CPG boasts 40 publishing companies and imprints, with 96 subsidiaries; together, they release more
than 10,000 books and audio-visual, electronic, and online publications each year. CPG has a 7%
domestic book retail market share, larger than that of any other publisher in China, and it has held the
largest market share for 12 consecutive years. Each year, it secures rights agreements with overseas
publishers for more than 1,000 books and journals. It comprises Chinas biggest import and export
publisher, importing and exporting more than 600,000 titles annually, accounting for 62% and 30% of
the domestic market, respectively. CPG owns 28 overseas publishing houses, bookstore chains, and
offices, with its business extending to more than 130 countries and regions.
CPG includes the longest-established and most prestigious publishing houses in China, and it holds
the biggest share of national publishing programs, national publishing awards, the book retail market,
rights transactions, and key Chinese cultural enterprises. It also has the largest author and reader base,
as well as the richest cultural heritage resources. Among the publishers under its umbrella are the
118-year-old Commercial Press, the 103-year-old Zhonghua Book Co., and the 84-year-old SDX Joint
Publishing Co., as well as the Peoples Literature Publishing House, the Peoples Fine Arts Publishing
House, the Peoples Music Publishing House, and China National Publications Import & Export (Group)
Corp. (CNPIEC), each with more than 60 years of experience.
CPGs strategic goal is to be a major player in the global publishing industry by building a modern,
large-scale media group.
Publishing Group
A CHINESE PUBLISHER
14 M A Y
2015
WITH GLOBAL REACH
China Publishing Groups

headquarters in Beijing.
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT
CPG
CPG Testimonials
round 20 years ago, I visited China for the first time, and Ive been coming
back almost every year ever since. China has been going through some
incredibly transformative years, and the book industry has been experiencing
important changes, too. The region as a whole is becoming increasingly selfconfident, developing strategies for the production and export of its own intellectual
propertyan exciting prospect for Western publishers. But in times of change, it is
imperative to have reliable partners at your side. The China Publishing Groupa key
and outstanding player in the Chinese book industryhas been one of those partners.
The Frankfurt Book Fair has always had strong ties to China and throughout Asia:
the StoryDrive Asia conference, which was held for the third time in Beijing last
year and has already become the most important meeting place in the region for
cross-media and transmedia storytelling, is just one example. The China Publishing
Groupthe sole strategic partner backing the StoryDrive Asia conferencehas
played an important role in the events success. The groups China Publishing and
Media Journal is the leading publishing magazine in China, with which we have
enjoyed over 10 years of fruitful strategic partnership. We work closely with a number of the groups major publishing houses, most notably the Peoples Literature
Publishing House and SDX Joint Publishing Co.
At the 2015 Frankfurt Book Fair, all of the Asian countries will be highly visible and grouped together for the first time in Hall 4, right in the center of the
exhibition area. The main factor driving this change has been the abundant interest shown in Asian publishing internationally, as well as the pace of business at
Asian publishers.
I am sure we will witness more intensive exchange between China and the rest of
the world over the next 10 years. Large and internationally orientated corporations
like the China Publishing Group will shape these developments significantly.
Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurt Book Fair
16 M A Y
2015
enguin Random House has

partnered with China Publishing Group companies often
over the past 10 years. We have
worked with Peoples Literature Publishing House on the Penguin Classics
in Chinese, China Translation & Publishing Corp. on the Great Ideas series,
SDX Joint Publishing Co. on the Penguin Lives series, and the forthcoming
publication of Penguin by Design with
Peoples Fine Arts Publishing Group.
Our longstanding cooperation also
includes imported book sales, rights
deals, and efforts to secure Chinese-language books appropriate for publication
overseas. We look forward to continuing to work closely together with China
Publishing Group as we develop and
grow our business in China. All of us at
Penguin Random House wish CPG and
the China delegation every success as
the guest of honor at the 2015 BEA
Global Market Forum.
Markus Dohle,
CEO of Penguin
Random House
o understand Chinas perspective in publishing, it is helpful

to take a closer look at some of
its leading companies. From
the outside, it might not be easy to
grasp how many houses and initiatives are gathered under one roof, as
the country has approximately 580 publishing conglomerates.
Take China Publishing Group: from an international point
of view, it comes up as one of the leading actors in the going
out strategy, as a partner to many leading international publishers.
With its China National Publications Import & Export
Corp. (CNPIEC), CPG is also the most important gateway for
houses that want to bring their books to the attention of Chinese readers and researchers. In return, many Chinese books
exported overseas are, at first, handled through partnership
programs between CPG and international distributors such as
Baker & Taylor, Gardners, Ingram, and OverDrive. And now
this exchange has been extended to digital as well, with the
CNP eReading platform.
Only a few observers, however, know that the Beijing
International Book Fair, which has become a fixture on the
international calendar of book business events, is also a part of
the organization.
In terms of publishing, I am always amazed by the amount
of diversity and experience gathered under the CPG umbrella.
For instance, you find Commercial Press, originally from
Shanghai, which goes back over 100 years. The Peoples Literature Publishing House, meanwhile, as the name hints, was
created together with the New China of 1949. At book fairs
in London, Frankfurt, and New York, rights directors and
acquiring editors may have no idea that the Chinese publishers they are buying from and selling to are working within
such a wide context.
They would probably be even more surprised to learn that
the automated translation engine used by several of the largest Chinese Internet platforms, including Alibaba and Baidu,
comes from one of the most innovative divisions of CPG.
But in todays world of immensely complex actors in publishing, driven by globalization, digitalization, and strong
forces of consolidation, it will be key for Chinese publishing
groups to present themselves as just as versatile partners as
their international counterparts.
Ruediger Wischenbart, a consultant

and writer specializing in the publishing
industry
ince the London Book Fair welcomed China as its

Market Focus country in 2012, we have continued to
build our relationship with international publishers
seeking to do business with China, and with Chinese
publishers looking to extend their international reach.
Indeed Chinese publishers involvement in LBF has grown
enormously in terms of rights sales, profile, and events.
Although language is still one major challenge facing the outbound growth of Chinas publishing industry, the LBF team
has worked extensively with Chinese publishers such as the
China Publishing Group to help them overcome challenges by
providing a platform to showcase their titles to international
publishers. At this years LBF, 2,000 anthologies showcasing
top Chinese writers in English translation were distributed.
This year, LBF is increasing our joint education initiatives
with key publishing groups like CPG and also with key Chinese publishing events like the Beijing International Book
Fair. LBF has also started a monthly
e-newsletter in Chinese to all the publishers in China, and an official
WeChat channel.
It was fantastic to see five Chinese
companies shortlisted for the independently judged LBF International
Excellence Awards 2015 in April. We
are delighted to be able to showcase
the best that is going on within Chinese publishing at the moment, from
translation to adult publishing to pioneering technology, to an international audience. On the subject of translation, we were really pleased to collaborate with
China Translation & Publishing Corp. (CTPC), a subsidiary of
CPG that provided simultaneous translations for our conferences at LBF 2015.
In November 2014, LBF cohosted a transmedia forum at
the China Shanghai International Childrens Book Fair, bringing in leading international experts from Walker Books and
Penguin Random House, alongside key Chinese publishers.
We found many Chinese childrens publishers who are pioneering new ways to get book content to childrenon the
cutting edge across all media they work with.
With the LBF having launched its first Creative Industries
Day in April, we are looking forward to collaborating with
China Publishing Group on an initial creative industries
forum at the Beijing International Book Fair to coincide with
the 2015 U.K.-China Year of Cultural Exchange.
On a personal note, I find working with our Chinese publishing colleaguesparticularly CPGfascinating, rewarding, and fun. We wish all the Chinese publishers taking part
in BEA the best of luck.
Jacks Thomas, director of the

London Book Fair
17
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT
CPG
Companies Under the CPG

China Fine Arts
Publishing Group
Founded in 1951, the China Fine Arts

Publishing Group consists of Peoples
Fine Arts Publishing House and China
Comic Strip Publishing House, and it
runs 10 journals. It is the arts publishing
house with the widest coverage and the
most prominent brand in China. China
Fine Arts Publishing Group has published a large number of domestically
and internationally renowned works,
including The Complete Collection of Chinese Arts, The Collection of Classified Chinese Fine Arts Works, The Collection of
Ancient Chinese Fine Arts Works, The Masters Series of Modern Chinese Art, Masterworks of Chinese Painting: Chinese Paintings
Over a Century, and The Collection of the
Palace Museum. The China Comic Strip
Publishing House has published several
influential titles, including The Red Ribbon of the Earth, the Red Dragonfly series,
Earthquake Relief, Charm of China, and
others. It has successively won nine Chinese national book awards and 12 international book awards.
China National
Publications Import and
Export (Group) Corp.
Founded in 1949, the China National
Publications Import and Export (Group)
Corp. (CNPIEC) is the largest enterprise
engaged in importing books to and
exporting books from China. CNPIEC
has 36 branches at home and abroad,
total assets valued at over three billion
yuan, and more than two billion yuan of
revenue. In addition to its import and
export business, CNPIEC puts on
domestic and international exhibitions
and is involved in overseas publishing,
overseas network construction, and other
18 M A Y
2015
international trade. CNPIEC imports

more than 370,000 titles per year,
accounting for more than 60% of domestic market share, and it exports more
than 300,000 titles annually, accounting
for about 30% of domestic market share.
CNPIEC has established eight overseas
publishing companiesin Frankfurt,
London, New York, Paris, Seoul, Sydney,
Tokyo, and Vancouverand set up 11
Xinhua bookstores, China Modern
Bookstores, distribution companies, and
branches in the U.S., the U.K., Australia,
Canada, Hong Kong, and other countries
and regions. It is the organizer of Beijing
International Book Fair.
China Translation &

Publishing Corp.
China Translation & Publishing Corp.

was founded in 1973. It has been engaged
in translating documents from the
United Nations and its related institutions into Chinese and printing them,
with translation services specializing in
finance, law, science and technology,
machinery, chemical engineering, medicine, and culture. Types of translation
include consecutive interpretation,
simultaneous interpretation, and exhibition language services. China Translation
& Publishing Corp. publishes reference
works, translations, general books, foreign-language textbooks, and student
readings, as well as such journals as
Motion, Yangtze River Delta, and the Week.
Commercial Press
Founded in 1897, Commercial Press was
Chinas first modern publishing institution. It primarily compiles and publishes
translations of foreign academic works in
philosophy and the social sciences, as
well as Chinese and foreign-language ref-
erence books, research works, textbooks,

and popular books. It also runs two periodicals: The World of English and The
World of Chinese. It has published more
than 40,000 books and periodicals over
the past century, including The Dictionary of Chinese Etymology, The Modern Chinese Dictionary, The Xinhua Dictionary,
The New Age Chinese-English Dictionary,
the 400-title Chinese Translations of
World Academic Masterpieces series,
biographies of world celebrities, the
Knowledge on the History of Chinese
Culture series, the Commercial Press
Library, The Oxford Advanced Learners
English-Chinese Dictionary, and The Longman Advanced American Dictionary. The
Modern Chinese Dictionary, The Xinhua
Dictionary, The Apply Chinese Dictionary,
and The Apply Chinese Mini-Dictionary,
which are all published by Commercial
Press, have been well-received abroad
and serve as a bridge for foreigners to
learn about Chinese culture.
Encyclopedia of China
Publishing House
The Encyclopedia of China Publishing

House was founded in 1978. It publishes
encyclopedias and other reference books,
along with various other kinds of academic works, popular science titles, and
general-interest books. Its subsidiaries
Knowledge Publishing House and Encyclopedia of China Electronic Audio
& Video Publishing House run four
magazines: Encyclopedic Knowledge, Little
Encyclopedia, China Real Estate, and the
English version of City Weekly. Over the
past three decades, Encyclopedia of
China Publishing House has published a
number of general encyclopedias, such as
the 74-volume Encyclopedia of China, as
well as a 12-volume concise edition; the
Chinese edition of the 11-volume Con-
Umbrella
cise Encyclopaedia Britannica, along

with a 20-volume international Chinese
edition; the China Childrens Encyclopedia series; and Encyclopedia of China
(second edition, 32 volumes). The house
has also published almost a number of
professional and regional encyclopedias,
a wide range of reference book series, and
nearly 10,000 popular books.
Joint Publishing
Founded in 1932, Joint Publishing is the
most prominent academic publishing
house in China. It runs Joint Publishing
Lifeweek, Reading, Competitiveness, Love
Music, and other journals. Reading and
the books Fu Leis Letters Home, Essays from
Memory, and Theory of Love have been particularly influential, as have recently
published titles such as Works of Chen
Yinke, Works of Qian Zhongshu, and
JinYongs Works. In addition, Joint
Publishing has published several series,
including the SDX and HYI academic
series, the Joint Publishing Forum, Modern Western Academic Classics, Books &
Reading, and others.
Peoples Literature
Publishing House
Founded in 1951, Peoples Literature

Publishing House (PLPH) is the oldest,
largest, and most influential literary
publishing house in China. It primarily
publishes modern and contemporary
Chinese works, along with classic Chinese literature, classic foreign literature,
and modern foreign literary works.
PLPH has many wholly owned subsidiaries, including Daylight Publishing
House (childrens books), and it runs
Contemporary Era, Selected Chinese Literature, Historical Materials on New
Literature, Chinese Learners Companion,
Literary Stories, and other newspapers

and periodicals. PLPH has published tens
of thousands of books, with a circulation
of over 800 million volumes, including
such classics as Water Margin, Romance of
the Three Kingdoms, and Journey to the West;
the more recent White Deer Plain, Red
Poppies, and Harry Potter series; and collections including the selected works of
Lu Xun, the complete plays of the Yuan
Dynasty, and the complete works of William Shakespeare
Peoples Music
Publishing House
The Peoples Music Publishing House,

founded in 1954, is the largest professional music publishing house in China,
and the most influential internationally.
It has published nearly 10,000 books of
music and works about folk art and
dance. Key titles include A Draft for
History of Chinese Ancient Music, A Music
History of Pre-Qin Dynasty, A Pictorial
Handbook of the History of Chinese Drama,
The Facts on File Dictionary of Music, An
Overview of Chinese Symphonic Music, and
An Image Collection of Music-Dance Artistry in Chinas Grotto Temples, as well as
series such as the Collection of Works
by Contemporary Chinese Composers,
the Collection of Chinese Musical
Works in the 21st Century, the Collection of Classic Translations of Foreign
Musical Works, and Great Music: Traditional Music from a Brilliant Land.
The Peoples Music Publishing House
runs such journals as Music Research,
China Music Education, and The Art of
Piano. Its electronic and audio-visual
publications include Chinese Music Collection (Karaoke), Happy Sunshine, and 60
Years of Childrens MusicChildrens
Songs in New China..
Rongbaozhai
Founded in 1672, Rongbaozhai is a

renowned brand in China and abroad. Its
aim is to popularize and disseminate
Chinese culture, including traditional

Chinese painting and calligraphy. Rongbaozhai primarily publishes works of calligraphy and painting by ancient and
modern masters, as well as titles about
inscription and seal cutting, bookbinding, layout and remounting, calligraphy
and painting repair, woodblock printing,
and other crafts. Titles include Rongbaozhai Painting Annual, Complete Works
of Chinese Calligraphy, Selected Works of
Epitaph Calligraphy, Selected Works of
Statue Inscription Calligraphy, and Precious
Collection from Rongbaozhai. Rongbaozhai
has won two national intangible cultural
heritage awards from Unesco, one Beijing intangible cultural heritage award,
one first-place Chinese government
award for publishing, four national book
awards, and more than 100 other important awards. In 2006, Rongbaozhai was
recognized as a famous trademark of
China by the Trademark Review and
Adjudication Board and re-accredited as
a time-honored brand by the Chinese
Commerce Ministry.
Zhonghua Book Co.
Zhonghua Book Co. was founded

in 1912 and primarily engages in the
collation and publication of ancient
Chinese books and the publication of
relevant academic works, as well as popular books and reference titles. It has
published Chinese Heritage, Chinese Literature and History, the Journal of Literature
and History, and Calligraphy Review, as
well as such books as History as a Mirror,
The Collection of Research on Bone Shell
Inscriptions, The Collection of Inscriptions on
Bronzes in Yin & Zhou, The Tibetan-Language Chinese Tripitaka (Chinese edition),
and The Commentary on Records on the Western Regions of the Great Tang Empire. The
revised editions of The Twenty-Fourth
History and The Manuscript of the History
of Qing Dynasty are among Zhonghuas
critically acclaimed works, as are A Year
of No Significance and Professor Yu Dans
Thinking of the Analects.
19
PUBLISHER SPOTLIGHT
TU PRESS
Tsinghua University Press

Chinese academic
publisher branches
out, publishing for
overseas markets
and developing new
educational resources
A
The Xueyan Building
is the headquarters
of TUP.
20 M A Y
2015
s an integral part of Chinas

prestigious Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Press
has grown to be one of the
countrys leading academic and
higher education publishers.
With about 3,000 new titles
and 20 journals released every year, TUP
publishes in a range subject areas, including science, technology and medicine,
business and management, humanities
and social sciences, foreign-language
teaching, and childrens books.
While introducing overseas titles to
China, TUP has been commissioning
authors around the world and publishing
high-quality English academic titles for
distribution on the world market. TUPs
titles have been licensed to publishers
in the United States, Germany, Japan,
Singapore, South Korea, the United
Kingdom, and elsewhere.
TUP has also developed a digital teaching platform (izhixue.cn) for massive open
online courses (MOOCs). And its digital
publishing portal (wqbook.com), which
provides digital books and journals from
the press and 20 other publishers, has
become a publishing and promotional
platform, covering 1,700 universities and
40,000 registered members. TUP is
carrying out the transition from being a
traditional publisher to becoming an educational resource development and service
provider, and it is devoted to building up
its brand image internationally.
EAST ASIA STUDIES IN MODERN CONTEXT This collection

features works of Chinese and international scholars on the
history and culture of East Asia. The concept of East Asia is
a product of modern times and the Eurocentric imagination.
As the world has become globalized since the 19th century,
we have accepted the term but have also begun to reexamine what East Asia means. This collection is intended
to show the complexity of East Asia in order to allow an
open, pluralistic, tolerant, and ethical study of its culture.
SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS OF CHINESE COSTUME
The most comprehensive book on Chinese costumes
to date, with 2,809 color and 574 b&w illustrations.
Shortlisted for the Chinese Outstanding Publication
Award and supported by the national publication fund,
this key book project of Chinas 12th five-year plan is
a monumental work of historical research and artistic
appreciation. It serves as one of the best reference books
for designers, artists, collectors, and libraries. The rights
have been sold to publishers in Japan and Russia.
PROPERTY LAW: PARADIGMS AND
THEORIESFOCUSING ON EXPLAINING THE
PROPERTY LAW OF PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF
CHINA (TWO VOLUMES) Winner of the 2014
Chinese Government Award for Publishing,
the industrys highest honor in China. The
first volume explains the basic principles of
property and property law. It further describes
the development of property law and the
establishment of Chinas property law. The
second volume outlines the usufructuary right
and discusses its individual subcategories.
The real rights for security are also elaborated
in this volume. The book provides complete
coverage of Chinese property law, with
an analysis of cutting-edge topics and a
discussion of property law doctrines in the
context of the policy and history of China.
MAJOR CHINESE ILLUSTRATORS CLASSIC PICTURE

BOOKS (20 VOLUMES) Each of these traditional
Chinese fairy tales is a masterpiece by a highly
respected Chinese illustratorthe Chinese version of the
U.S.s Little Golden Books series.
BEAUTIFUL CHEMISTRY
A winner of the 2015 Vizzies,
which celebrate the use of visual
media to make scientific research
accessible. This collection is based
on a Web video of the same name,
which examines the stunning
beauty of chemical reactions and
chemical structures.
ANCIENT GARDENS OF CHINA This guide to

traditional Chinese gardens, focusing on ancient
architecture and urban landscaping, is a winner of the
2015 Chinese Outstanding Publication Award.
ANCIENT CAPITALS OF CHINA

Xian, Luoyang, Beijing, Nanjing,
Kaifeng, and Hangzhou each once
served as the capital city of a
united regime or a large regional
regime. Although there are many
books about the cities attractions,
there have been considerably fewer
studies of their urban planning
and architecture. This collection
gives an introduction to the cities, from the perspectives of
architecture, urban planning, and history, emphasizing their
geological conditions and architectural features.
OLD CITY OF BEIJING: ITS GRANDEUR
AND SPLENDORS While in his 60s, Chinese
artist Liu Hongkuan created a 50-meterlong painting. Based on his childhood
memories, field sketches, and research
with historical documents, Liu depicts the
scenery, figures, and things around Beijings
central axis. Streets, shops, scenes, old
city gates, and walls become alive again
in this painting. Regarded as the modern
Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Lius
work presents such a magnificent picture
that readers can almost touch the history.
21
HOT GENRE
SF
Chinese SF Blasts Off
BY JOEL MARTINSEN
cience fiction in China is brimming with energy.

The genres visibility has increased in
recent years, it has won recognition from
the literary mainstream, and leading
writers have produced fascinating, relevant work for a growing readership.
Todays science fiction has its roots in
the late Qing dynasty, a time when Chinese writers translated Jules Verne and
H.G. Wells while penning their own
imaginative tales. Early works either
described futuristic utopias or fantastic
voyages featuring tantalizing depictions
of advanced science and technological
marvels. For most of the 20th century,
Chinese science fiction operated in a
utilitarian mode, calling for national
unity or providing educational, morally
uplifting stories for children.
After the disintegration of the Qing
dynasty, special sections of popular literary journals were devoted to science fiction stories, and several well-known
authors tried their hand at the genre. Lao
She (18991966) set his social satire City
of Cats (1933)translated into English
by William A. Lyell Jr. as Cat Country
(Ohio State Univ., 1970)in a Martian
22 M A Y
2015
Chinas burgeoning science fiction scene has

spawned several big hits in recent years, and
overseas publishers are beginning to take note
cat society whose social problems mirror
those in 1930s China. A handful of stories appeared in the 1940s, before civil
war intervened, and childrens sci-fi
flourished briefly starting in the mid50s, only to disappear again with the
onset of the Cultural Revolution. A
decade later, the older generation of
authors returned, joined by new writers
such as Ye Yonglie, and they were eager
to take advantage of the liberalized climate. Writers moved away from utilitarian fundamentals, adding elements of
fantasy and horror to their stories, skirting close to the boundaries of political
acceptability. Stories from that era have
generally fallen off the mapwith the
exception of Yes Little Smart Roams the
Future (1978), which remains a beloved
childrens classic to this day. The nascent
golden age was cut short, and the genre
was criticized for being decadent and
pseudoscientific during the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign of 1983.
The SF scene struggled for the rest of
the 80s due to the pressures of politics
and marketization, but it was re-energized in the 1990s by writers such as
Han Song, Wang Jinkang, Xing He, and
He Xi, who explored new frontiers in
Chinese SF, introducing social and metaphysical themes, and experimenting
with cyberpunk. The decade saw the
emergence of popular women writers,
including Ling Chen and Zhao Haihong.
Chinese SF expanded its engagement
with the global SF community by hosting international conventions and publishing stories in translation. Outside of
the genre, mainstream authors started
publishing a smattering of near-future
speculative fiction, including the apocalyptic satire Floating City (1992), by

Liang Xiaosheng; the cyberterror thriller
Gate to Doomsday (1995), by air force
political officer Qiao Liang; and the
novellas collected in The Silver Age
(1997), by Wang Xiaobo. Qiaos technothriller now feels a little dated, but the
other two titles hold up quite well.
CHINESE SF GOES
MAINSTREAM
Liu Cixin made a huge splash
at the end of the 90s and is
the most popular author in
the genre today. His career
particularly after the release
of the second and third
volumes of his Three-Body trilogyhas
led to increased mainstream attention to
SF and a growing awareness of the new
perspectives it brings to Chinese literature
in general. Explicitly attempting to
create uniquely Chinese SF, writers such
as Fei Dao and Chang Jia have
reinterpreted historical sources using SF,
and both Lala and Pan Haitian have
published award-winning retellings of an
ancient automaton story. In Future Empire
(2010), Jin He Zai inserts cloned heroes
from the Three Kingdomsera into a tale
of intergalactic conquest, putting his own
spin on the space opera subgenre, which
has never been a big part of Chinese SF,
despite a strong presence in translations
and within the pulpier realm of online
literature. Outside of history, Jiang Bo
has furthered the cause of hard SF, and the
recent work of Stanley Chan Qiufan is
deeply influenced by contemporary issues
in Chinese society.
Science fiction in China is short-story

driven, to the point that many of the most
popular authors in the genre have not
published novels. Science Fiction World, the
leading Chinese SF magazine practically
since its founding in 1979, has a monthly
circulation of around 100,000 copies.
Circulation skyrocketed to around
400,000 at the turn of the century after a
question on the national college entrance
exam mirrored a story that had appeared
in the magazine a few months earlier, and
then it gradually fell back to normal over
the ensuing decade. Although the decline
was to be expected, SFW management
fought back by making some shortsighted advertising and editorial decisions that sought to maximize revenue by
pushing slapdash content directed at a
younger readership. A staff rebellion in
2010 ousted the director and had the
added effect of energizing the fan community.
SFWs chief competitor is New Science
Fiction, which is aimed at a slightly
younger audience and has a smaller, subscription-only circulation. Launched in
1994 as King of Science Fiction, it was frequently dismissed as a home for secondrate stories that would have been rejected
by SFW. Focusing on launching new
authors, including the well-received
Chen Qian, and a substantial redesign
and name change in 2010 have improved
the magazines reputation.
Other magazines have come and gone
from a marketplace that seems unable to
support more than two SF journals, while
fantasy spinoffs have fared better. Novoland, a fantasy project set in a universe
based on classical Chinese mythology,
first appeared in print as a supplement to
SFW and has since expanded to two magazines that publish shared-world stories,
unrelated fantasy, and even SF.
Bookstores that have shelves for Chinese SF separate from fantasy are usually
dominated by the Wisley series of pulp
adventure by Hong Kong author Ni
Kuang. Mainland SF is far outnumbered
by translations, and SF in general is
dwarfed by fantasy and martial arts books.
For many years, the situation was self-
perpetuating: due to the small market,

novels traditionally received small initial
print runs and no promotion, and, as a
result, disappeared soon after publication. Novel-length SF from the pre-Internet age, apart from the work of a few bigname writers, remains largely unknown
to the average reader. The genres association with children means that many novels continue to be put out by publishers
of childrens literature, even though some
are intended for an older audience.
The dominance of SFW, which has
partnered with a variety of publishers,
dates back to a decision in 2002 to start
issuing standalone editions of international sci-fi classics. The first four titles
went into multiple printings after selling
out conservative initial runs of 3,000
copies each. By contrast, SFWs first
attempt at a line of domestic novels was
ill-conceived. Wang Jinkang and Liu
an e-zine that launched in 2009 and has

since published several independent
anthologies. The recently founded World
Chinese Science Fiction Association runs
the Xingyun Awards for its members.
The WCSFA is headed by Wu Yan, an
author most active in the 80s and 90s,
who is also the genres most prominent
academic. Wu launched an SF program
at Beijing Normal University in 1991,
and although enrollment remains small,
it has been a driving force behind science
fiction studies in China. In addition to
his own scholarly publications, Wu has
edited a multivolume series of articles on
a wide variety of SF subjects. The past
few years have seen an upswing in SFrelated criticism, including historical
publications by SF authors Zheng Jun
and Xiao Xinghan, and critical biographies of major SF writers by Dong Renwei. Hong Kongbased writer Sanfeng
It was only with the release of Qian Lifangs

historical SF novel The Will of Heaven... in 2004
that Chinese SF authors began to sell in quantity.
That title has sold around 180,000 copies to date.
Cixin were chosen to kick things off, but
both Humanoid and The Supernova Era
failed to sell out their initial 10,000copy print runs. It was only with the
release of Qian Lifangs historical SF
novel The Will of Heaven, the first volume
of the Nebula series, in 2004 that Chinese SF authors began to sell in quantity.
That title has sold around 180,000 copies to date, according to the publisher.
Dead End (2010), the third volume of
Lius Three-Body trilogy, sold 150,000
copies in under half a year. Still, translated titles continue to dominate the
market: SFWs current catalogue lists
roughly two dozen domestic titles, versus more than 130 translations.
Since the mid-80s, SFW has run the
annual Galaxy Awards for outstanding
SF. Although prizes are occasionally
granted to stories that have appeared
elsewhere, the Galaxy Awards are largely
an in-house competition. The more
broadly focused Sky Awards were created
in 2010 by New Realms of Fantasy & SF,
chronicles a growing fan movement and

is also involved with both New Realms
and the Sky Awards.
Although overviews of the genre have
appeared in various English-language
outlets, few actual Chinese SF stories have
been translated. Science Fiction from China
(1989) anthologized the work of early
80s writers; The Apex Book of World SF
(2009), edited by Lavie Tidhar, includes
stories by Han Song and Yang Ping; a
story by Zhao Haihong appeared in Lady
Churchills Rosebud Wristlet; an excerpt of
Lius novel Ball Lightning (2004) was
published in Words Without Borders
(2009); and stories by several authors
were published in an English-language
insert to the June 2011 issue of Chutzpah
magazine. Beyond that, there are many
Chinese SF books that could sell well in
translated editions.
Joel Martinsen is a contributor to the Paper
Republic Field Guide to Contemporary
Chinese Literature.
23
AUTHOR PROFILE
LIU CIXIN
Coming to America
The first English translation from Chinese

SF bestseller Liu was recently nominated for a Nebula Award
iu Cixin is the leading writer in Chinas small but vibrant science fiction
scene. Hes won numerous literary awards, including Chinas Galaxy
Award, which he took home eight years in a row, from 1999 to 2006, and
received again in 2010. Hes also the top-selling Chinese science fiction
writer, having sold more than 500,000 copies of each novel in his most
popular series, Remembrance of Earths Past (popularly known as the
Three-Body trilogy, after the first title in the series).
A computer engineer by professionuntil 2014, he worked for the
China Power Investment Corp.Liu began writing science fiction as a
hobby, but The Three-Body Problem made him famous. It was initially
serialized in Science Fiction World magazine in 2006 and then published as
a standalone in 2008. The book and the series it belongs to tell an epic
story of alien invasion and of humanitys journey to the stars. It begins
with a secret Mao-era military effort at establishing communications with
extraterrestrials and ends with the end of the universe.
Tor, an imprint of Macmillan, began publishing the English translation
of the Three-Body trilogy in November 2014, and in March The ThreeBody Problem was nominated for a Nebula Award.
BY KEN LIU
Q: How do you feel about the Nebula

nomination?
A: Im honored and overjoyed. As a science fiction fan, the Nebula Award and
the Hugo Award mean a lot to me. If I
had to choose between the Nobel Prize
in literature and the Nebula/Hugo
awards, I would choose the latter without
hesitationthough Im not so arrogant
as to think I could win the Nobel Prize.
But the ultimate goal of my writing has
always been delighting readers, not winning awards. For me, the most valuable
affirmation comes from readers. Thus,
24 M A Y
2015
the best thing about being nominated for

a Nebula is that perhaps more people
will read my novel, and the award will
build more publicity for the two sequels
in English.
How did the English translation of
the Three-Body trilogy come about?
This was mainly the result of a successful
collaboration between Science Fiction
World Publishing, the publisher of Science
Fiction World magazine, and China Education Publications Import & Export Co.
Ltd. (CEPIEC). SFW was the original Chinese publisher, and it laid the groundwork
for the translation and introduction of the
novels to readers in other languages.
CEPIEC, on the other hand, was responsible for the key piece: the translation
itself. At a time when the companys own
finances were rather tight, it invested a
great deal of resources and effort into the
project, successfully overcoming obstacles

during the translation and publishing process. In the end, CEPIEC had to choose
between Amazon and Tor as potential
American partners, and it decided on Tor.
More importantly, CEPIEC found
excellent translators for the series. Ken
Liu [the translator of the first and third
books in the trilogy, who also conducted
and translated this interview] and Joel
Martinsen [the translator for the second
book] both possess deep, comprehensive
linguistic knowledge of Chinese, as well
as the requisite cultural understanding,
and they were thus able to create outstanding translations. After the publication of The Three-Body Problem, Lius
translation was widely praised by readers
and critics. A portion of the success of the
book in the American market should be
attributed to his skill. Collaborating
with such translators is one of the most
fortunate events of my writing career.
What has surprised you most about
the reactions of non-Chinese readers
to the book?
To be honest, before the American
publication of The Three-Body Problem, I
prepared myself for the possibility of
uniformly negative reviews. Science fiction has had more than a century of
development in America, and the tastes
of readers and the level of published
works are very mature. Chinese science
fiction, on the other hand, is still relatively immaturethough Chinese science fiction started fairly early, the
genres development was interrupted
many times. After each interruption,
new writers reviving the genre had to
Youre currently consulting for the film

adaptation of the Three-Body series.
What has that process been like?
Since all of my movie projects involve
confidential commercial information, I
cant reveal too many details. However, I
can say that although the movie version
of the first installment of the Three-Body
series is about to begin filming, most of
the other films based on my fiction are
still only in the planning stages. It will
be some time before filming starts on
those, and some of them may never get
to that stage.
Most of the film projects based on my
fiction require heavy investment, and, as
a result, they are complicated. Compared
to novels, films face many more restrictions, such as the demands of the market
and the censorship regime. Until the day
the cameras start rolling, no one can say
whether a project will actually go through.
The main creators in a film are the director, the producer, and the screenplay
writer. As the novelist behind the original
work, my involvement is limited.
start over without the benefit of lessons
learned by previous writers.
The books in the Three-Body series were
written entirely to the tastes of Chinese
readers and are stylistically quite different from contemporary American science
fiction. The series also suffers from some
obvious literary flawsespecially in the
first book, The Three-Body Problem.
The fact that so many American readers and critics responded to the book
positively was completely unexpected. In
contrast to the kind of crude sarcasm and
abusive language sometimes directed at
my work on the Web in China, even the
critical English comments were very
logical and justified, offering suggestions that will be helpful for me in the
future. The positive reception proved a
belief Ive long held: science fiction is the
most global of literatures, and it is capable of being understood by the peoples of
all nations and states. One day, I hope
that American readers will read my book
not because its Chinese science fiction,
but simply because its science fiction.
Although science fiction movies

dominate the box office in the West,
science fiction books are generally
less popular than those of other
genres. Do you think visual media
are best for expressing science
fiction ideas?
I do think that science fiction ideas are
best expressed through visual media like
film and TV. Realist literature depicts
things that we have seen in life, but science fiction is different: what it depicts
exists only in the authors imagination.
When it comes to science fiction, the
written word is inadequate. Most science
fictional imaginingsespecially truly
original conceptionscan only be
expressed visually.
For several years now Ive been actively
involved in the creation of science fiction
films; some are adapted from my stories,
others are originals. For a writer, this
kind of work is very challenging because
writing a story requires only the writer,
but making a film requires a whole team
and the balancing of multiple opinions.
What are you working on now? And

what can readers expect from you in
the future?
Since I no longer have to go to work, I
stay home all day. Ive been working on
a new novel, but it hasnt been easy. The
main difficulty is finding an idea that
really excites me. We live in an age when
miracles are no longer miracles, and science and the future are losing their sense
of mystery. For science fiction, or at least
the type of science fiction I write, this
development is almost fatal, but Im still
giving it all Ive got.
No matter what, my main career in the
future will be writing science fiction. Im
a science fiction author who started as a
science fiction fan: I came from science
fiction, and to science fiction I shall
return.
Translated by Ken Liu
Ken Liu is a writer and translator. His debut

novel, The Grace of Kings, was published
by Simon & Schusters Saga imprint in
April 2015.
25
AUTHOR PROFILE
MAI JIA
Decoding the Modern

Chinese Spy Novel
Mais spy novels have made him one of Chinas most popular authors
later, in 2008, In the Dark won the Mao
Dun prize for literature. After another six
years, Decoded and In the Dark were
launched on the world stage. I sat down
with Mai to find out how things have
changed since he started writing all those
years ago.
Q: Your work really grew in popular-
BY SHU JINYU
fter meeting Mai Jia for

the first time in 2002, I wrote this
description of him in my diary: Buzzed
hair, glasses. A young writer of few
words. Hes not self-aggrandizing, but
his unmatched confidence leaves a very
strong impression.
And now, 12 years later, Mai is still a
very humble personeven though hes
climbed to the very top of the literary
world. In March 2014, the English translation of Mais novel Decoded was published in the United States, the U.K.,
and elsewhere.
Mais writing process seems to run in
six-year cycles. After starting to write in
1986, it took him six years to find his
place. In 1992, he began to write Decoded,
which didnt come out until 2002. As a
television series based on the book grew
in popularity, Mai became somewhat
nonplussed by his celebrity. Six years
26 M A Y
2015
ity following Decoded, In the Dark,

and The Messagebut before this
you had written many more literary works. What prompted you to
turn to spy fiction?
A: I grew up in the countryside. When
I started to write in 1986, I wrote literary
works about topics like the countryside
and the land, but no one read any of
them. Its said that being poor changes
your thinking authors always hope to
have more readers. Later I began to sift
through things again, and I discovered I
actually had a pretty unique life, so I
turned to what people call espionage
novels and started to write Decoded.
Decoded took 10 years to get published. What happened during that
time?
I started Decoded right before I
graduated from the Army Art
Academy. The topic was very
hard to grasp. First, no one
had written about it before,
and second, there were a lot of
things to consider: how to
keep military secrets, and how to toe the

party line without crossing it. It was difficult. When the book finally came out
in 2002, I had received 17 rejections over
a period of 11 years. One reason was that
my technique was underdeveloped; a second was that the topic was sensitive; a
third was that I myself spent a lot of time
fumbling around. I could draw on others
experience when I was writing about different topics, but writing espionage fiction I had to rely entirely on myself.
Decoded was my whetting stone. My will,
technique, and ability were all rigorously
tested. All this is to say: Decoded isnt just
my first work, its also my most treasured. The first two rejections were a
huge shock. I almost had a breakdown: I
packed a bag and got on a train. I had no
idea where I was going to go. My attitude
was one of complete self-exile. Walking
and walking, I suddenly realized: I had
to find a topic I liked. After that, even
when I was making changes midway,
adding content, or getting rejected, I was
relatively calm. Decoded was a life-changing book.
When you were stuck, were
there any people or books
that influenced you and
helped you realize what you
needed to do?
Shifting from rural topics to
espionage was partly inspired
by books. Most people think
best out there, but they are literature.

Even after being adapted into television
series, they still retain literary qualities.
spy novels are a form of popular literature

that is unrelated to pure literature. One
day, I was reading novels written by
Borges and Poe, and I was inspired. Even
though they both wrote detective storieswith characters including horse
thieves and intelligence officersno one
in the literary world would dare to look
down on them. So what you write isnt
important; what matters is how you write.
So I decided to try writing spy novels.
So who discovered Decoded? And
how was it published?
I gave it to Dangdais editors Hong
Qingbo and Zhou Changyi. They liked
it, and Dangdai released it first. The draft
of the book was passed on to Li Shidong
at China Youth Press. According to him,
the day he got the draft, the weather was
fantastic. As he passed a riverbank on his
way home, he decided hed read the first
few pages. He didnt expect hed end up
reading the whole thing in one sitting.

That night, Li called me and said it was
well written, so I didnt make any more
changes. Writing does take some encouragement. I got more attention through
Decoded, my confidence increased, and
my writing process became more relaxed.
In the Dark won the Mao Dun Literary Prize. It was criticized by quite a
few people who say that you cant
tell stories. However, I think that your
prose is quite ambitious.
My general theory is this: people who say
my work does not have literary qualities
havent read themand I dont mean
that in a boastful way. The media has
labeled me the father of the [Chinese] spy
novel. That kind of praise causes people
to rebel in a way, saying my work is just
popular fiction. If they were to read my
novels, I think theyd change their
minds. I dont think my novels are the
Going back to that comment about

being the father of the Chinese spy
novel... Does it bother you that critics call you that?
If it were possible, I would deny it. These
kinds of labels are like brand names
theyre meant to increase your popularity.
The Economist just wrote a report about me
saying that Decoded is a great Chinese
novel, that it was the best Chinese novel
in 35 years. It read, Mai has been labeled
the Dan Brown of China because both
have sold millions of books, but there the
comparison ends. This novel has the
expansive sweep of Gabriel Garca
Mrquezs magical realism; like Peter
Carey, he plunges fully into a new world...
It is an absolute joy to read. Maybe he
really liked the book, but its also possible
he doesnt understand Chinese literature.
Ive just run into an admirer, thats all.
His words might influence a few people,
but they wont influence me. The novel
wont be any better as a result of his
review, and it wont be any worse if a bad
review comes out. Theres one issue a
writer must face: after your book is published, some people will hold you in high
esteem and others will belittle you. Dont
feel proud or ashamed because of it. Any
book is the writers before its finished,
but once its done, its not.
In 2011, when Knifepoint came out,
I heard you had stopped writingis
that true?
I stopped writing spy novels. I had written espionage books for many years. My
stores of emotion and material were
almost empty. If I had kept writing, I
would have repeated myself. There are
enough spy dramas on television; the
genre has been done to the point of
exhaustion. I wanted to challenge myself
before I got too old.
Translated by Hallie Treadway

27
AUTHOR PROFILE
LIU ZHENYUN
Making Friends
Liu finds friends inside and outside of his books
BY SHU JINYU
28 M A Y
2015
ost of the time, Liu Zhenyun plays

things cool. Immersed in his own
little world, he appears composedsometimes he looks
directly at you, while at other
times he just stares off into space.
Occasionally, it may seem as
though hes speaking to himself.
Even during a regular conversation, Liu develops dialogue unlike
any other writer.
Liu knows how to write a story
and how to tell one. The success
of movies such as Party A and
Party B, Cell Phone, and My Name
Is Liu Yuejin secured him a spot as
a writer for China Film Group.
So what makes Liu so special? Ive been
puzzling over that question for some time
now. Liu appears to be an ordinary guy.
He doesnt seem to need a job, and he has
a pretty relaxed lifestyle. He gets up at
6:30 a.m. each morning and jogs for an
hour and a half before writing for a couple
of hours. In the afternoon, he puts pen to
paper for another two and a half hours and
then goes to bed at 9:30 p.m. When he
isnt writing, he reads, and if he wants to
see people, he goes to the market to chat
with the friends hes made there. He likes
people who know how to live, irrespective of their professions.
In many ways, Lius not an ordinary
man at all. He bought 20 copies of The
Analects, and he can summarize Confuciuss three most important principles.

I dont know if Liu will offend any of
his friends by claiming that A Word is
Worth Ten Thousand Words is an important
book. He describes the book succinctly,
saying that there are two murderers, and
one really wants to find the other so he
can have a heart-to-heart with him.
The idea that a single word can be
worth 10,000 comes from something Lin
Biao said in 1966. Why did Liu use it as
a title 43 years later? When I say that
sentence today, the meaning is different,
he says. Lin was using it in a political
context for political aims, while Im
referring to life. Its all about the people
in my bookthe tofu vendor, the barber,
the butcher, the donkey seller, the funeral
singer, the cloth dyer, the food-stall
owner, and the murderers. I am speaking
to them sincerely.
Liu says that writing a novel is all
about making friends: When I wrote A
Word Is Worth Ten Thousand Words, Yang
Baishun and Niu Aiguo [the two protagonists of the novel] told me that
friends can be dangerous. I think that
makes sense, since Ive experienced that
myself. He adds that the greatest attraction that writing has to offer is being able
to find close friends in the book. Those
friends arent the same as friends in real
life. The ones in the book are unfailingly
patient, and you could say theyre my

closest confidants. Whenever I need
them, theyre there waiting for me. And
that is the reason he writes.
When asked about his unique way of
thinking and expressing himself, Liu
attributes it all to his ability to mull over
questions for an extended period of time.
Really good writers are actually thinkers. He says that experience is the most
straightforward way to assess a writer.
Writers work with the same strategies.
As a result, their writing is not really
important; what matters is what they do
before they sit down to write. Its all
about whether an authors experience is
different. All good authors have had
experiences that others havent.
I dont
understand a
lot of things
my friends say.
But after I take
a good look at
something,
I can
understand it.
After spending some time with Liu,

Id agree with his assessment that he is
exceptionally good at mulling over questions and finding answers. And he is keen
to learn. He tells me sincerely: Im not
being modest when I say I really dont
understand a lot about the world. If you
dont know much, but you pretend to
know a lot, its easy to fall flat on your
face. I dont understand a lot of things
my friends say. But after I take a good
look at something, I can understand it.
So, Liu takes the time to sit down and
chat to people, learning as he goes.
In the film Party A and Party B, Liu
plays the part of a frustrated youth, and
in My Name Is Liu Yuejin, he plays a halfhidden yawner. Although he appears in
only a few scenes, he says that he learned
a tremendous amount from the experience: My greatest realization was that
movie dialogue is really lively. In fiction
writing, everything tends to be predictable. Conversations go like this: Have
you eaten? Yeah. What did you have?
Stewed pork. Movie dialogue isnt the
same. The reply to What did you have?
might be That guy Zhang is a real asshole! And after that it might be, Lis had
a lot going on these past few days.
Theres a lot of concentrated information
communicated there, and its really lively
too. If you replicate that in a novel, its
even livelier. So, its good to learn from
places other than books. I got something
else out of it too: I came into contact with
people I wouldnt otherwise get to know,
like directors, actors, cinematographers,
and the props guys. Id never met people
like that before. Since theyre in different
professions than me, they talk and work
differently, too. That was useful for me
[to experience] in two ways: it gave me a
broader understanding of life, and it
made me realize that everyone is a philosopher. The props guys, the extras...
you cant underestimate them. The way
they think about the world can be very
enlightening.
Translated by Eleanor Goodman

29
BEA 2015: China GMF

Guest of Honor Author Events
WEDNESDAY, MAY 27
China-America Literary
Symposium 2015: Reading
Contemporary China
SUNY Global Center
(116 E. 55th St.), 58 p.m.
With Liu Zhenyun, Bi Feiyu,
Feng Tang, Xu Zechen, Lan Lan,
Cao Wenxuan, He Jianming,
and Zhao Lihong.
New Films from China:
Fly with the Crane
Brooklyn Public Library
(10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn,
N.Y.), 79 p.m.
Followed by q&a with author/
coproducer Su Tong.
Decoded Event with Mai Jia
Barnes & Noble (82nd St. &
Broadway), 79 p.m.
Moderated by Liesl Schillinger.
THURSDAY, MAY 28
Intercultural Translation and the
Publication of Literary Works in
the Age of New Media
Meeting Room 1E02, Javits Center,
910:30 a.m.
With Feng Tang, A Yi,
Sheng Keyi, and Su Kui.
Childrens and Young Adults
Literature in China and America
11 a.m.12:30 p.m.
With Cao Wenxuan and
Sonya Hartnett.
Legend Art Book Launch
1:302:30 p.m.
With Zhao Lihong.
30 M A Y
2015
East to West: Seminar of Children

Writers from China and the U.S.
Meeting Room 1E03,
Javits Center, 23 p.m.
With Anne Ursu, Mei Zihan,
and Wu Meizhen.
FRIDAY, MAY 29
Chinese Authors Salon
The United Nations
(405 East 42nd St.), 23 p.m.
With Liu Zhenyun, He Jianming,
Li Er, A Yi, Wang Xufeng, Mai Jia.
The Writing Is Flat: 2+2:
A Conversation Between
Young Writers of China
and American
Guest of Honor Zone, Javits Center,
2:403:40 p.m.
With Jhumpa Lahiri, Eric
Abrahamsen, Xu Zechen and
Sheng Keyi.
Film Screening: A Cherry
on the Pomegranate Tree
Queens Library (89-11 Merrick
Blvd., Queens, N.Y.),
46:30 p.m.
With Li Er.
Feng Tang in Conversation
with Xu Zechen
Barnes & Noble
(82nd St. & Broadway),
79 p.m.
The authors discuss their recent
books about Beijing.
Film Screening: Back to 1942
Asia Society (725 Park Ave.),
6:309:20 p.m
Plus q&a with author Liu Zhenyun.
Xu Zechen
A Perfect Crime
The Center for Fiction
(7 E. 47th St.), 7 p.m.
With A Yi and John Freeman.
SATURDAY, MAY 30
Literature and Film
Brooklyn Public Library
(10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn,
N.Y.), 11 a.m.1 p.m.
With Liu Zhenyun, Su Tong,
and Mai Jia.
Di An
Chinese and American

Poetry Reading
Bowery Poetry Club, 12:30 p.m.
With Lan Lan, Zhao Lihong,
Edwin Frank, Canaan Morse,
and Peter Gizzi. Moderated
by Eleanor Goodman.
Cao Wenxuan
Writing About China Today:

A Dialogue with Chinas
Leading Authors I
China Institute Library &
Classroom (125 E. 65th Street),
36 p.m.
With Liu Zhenyun, Mai Jia,
Sheng Keyi, Xu Zechen,
and Su Tong.
Writing About China Today:
A Dialogue with Chinas
Leading Authors II
China Institute Library &
Classroom (125 E. 65th St.),
5:307:30 p.m.
With Su Kui, Cao Wenxuan,
Lan Lan, Li Er, Xu Zechen, and A Yi.
Su Tong
Wu Meizhen
May 15 - Publishers WeeklyV5-OL.pdf
5/18/15
10:03 AM

China Plans Big Splash at BEA

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China Plans Big Splash at BEA

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May 2015

China Plans Big

More than 500 members of the Chinese

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

AN INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER ROOTED IN CHINA

educational training, online courses and digital publishing have enabled

To know more about us, please visit en.fltrp.com.

China Has Ambitious Plans for BEA

he 2015 edition of BookExpo America will

China Plans Big

To reflect all the activity that is occurring in Chinas

Over 500 members of the Chinese publishing

Authors appearing on the cover (in alphabetical order): A Yi,

After a period of rapid

Publishing more than

Liu is one of Chinas

U.S. Books Draw

Author Liu Zhenyun

Sales at physical bookstores bounced back in the year,

Had a Healthy 2014

Medium- to large-scale stores displayed

performed well in both marketsparticularly the former two categories.

ries. These variances are directly related

Bestsellers have always had a major

ANNUAL SALES GROWTH BY CATEGORY

Growth rate in 2012

Growth rate in 2013

Science & Languages

Growth rate in 2014

selling merchandise; users rarely even

they offer their products. 

TOP 10 BESTSELLERS AT PHYSICAL

Charlie IX and Dodomo, Vol. 21:

New Words by Zhijiang

The Diary of the Smiling Cat: The

Charlie IX and Dodomo, Vol. 22:

Totto Chan: The Little

One Hundred Years of Solitude

The Kite Runner

Charlie IX and Dodomo, Vol. 23:

Book Collection Series of Shen Shixi:

TOP 10 BESTSELLERS AT ONLINE

One Hundred Years of Solitude

As Long as You Are Here

China CITIC Press

A Good Mother Is Better Than a

The Kite Runner

Diary of a Naughty Boy:

Diary of a Naughty Boy: Come On!

Diary of a Naughty Boy:

Diary of a Naughty Boy: Never

igital reading technology has been

reads books digitally (this figure includes

In a recent interview, Zhangyue CEO

the company also launched a Chinese

exchanging digital information, restricting the healthy development of the

MARKET UPDATE U.S. BOOKS

copies have been printed. Only two other

and more American books, many of

MARKET UPDATE U.S. BOOKS

analyze the Chinese market. Only then

has introduced bestselling series such as

A Yi is a thinker writing about humanity

hen I first encountered A Yi at a local literary festival

they offer their products.