The publisher of the autobiography of China's last emperor is
seeking for the book's copyright to be declared an "intestate
property" in order to resolve a longstanding ownership dispute.
The Beijing-based Qunzhong Publishing House filed suit at the
People's Court of Beijing's Xicheng District, applying for
intestate status on the copyright of "The First Half of My Life
-- From Emperor to Citizen", a long-time bestseller by former
child ruler Aisin Giorro Puyi.
The court published a proclamation in the People's Court
Daily on Sep. 25, after verifying the application, saying, "The
copyright will transfer to the state if no one claims ownership
within a year, and profits from the book sales will be nationalized
according to the law."
The publishing house would not comment on why it is seeking the
declaration, but it comes after reports that Puyi's younger
brother, Jin Youzhi, originally named Aisin Giorro Puren, was
seeking to claim the copyright.
An editor of the publishing house surnamed Xu declined to
comment on the issue, but told Xinhua that "the copyright ownership
is under dispute".
The publishing house had a long dispute with the 89-year-old
Jin, according to previous news reports.
In December last year, Jin lost a lawsuit claiming ownership of
the copyright on Puyi's image after the Palace Museum held an
exhibition on Puyi's life.
But the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled that
Puyi was a public figure whose life was "closely connected with
China's history", and reproductions of his image did not infringe
on the family's rights.
Wang Qingxiang, a research fellow with northeast China's Jilin
Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, said Puyi was not the
biological brother of Jin, who was adopted as the stepson of the
Qing emperor in 1908.
The autobiography, a memoir of the first half of the 20th
Century seen through Puyi's eyes, depicts his changes in fortune
after the last dynasty of China collapsed in 1911.
Puyi started the book in 1957 and the government published it in
1964 after many historians and experts edited it. About 1.87
million copies in 21 editions have been sold over the past four
decades.
Puyi died of illness in Beijing in 1967 and his wife Li Shuxian
held the copyright until she died in 1997. But the couple left no
legal will and had no offspring to take over the ownership.
In 1908, when Puyi was almost three years old, he ascended the
imperial throne as the 10th ruler of the Qing Dynasty, the last
dynasty of China's feudal system. Less than three years later, the
1911 Revolution forced his abdication.
After being expelled from Beijing's Imperial Palace in November
1924, Puyi and his family and entourage fled to Tianjin.
He was enthroned by Japanese invaders in China as a puppet
emperor in the early 1930s, but was dethroned by revolutionaries
after a three-year reign, bringing to an end the 2,000-plus years
of feudalism in China.
(Xinhua News Agency October 11, 2007)
