The Chinese version of Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows is going on sale at 9:00 AM?on October 28. The
publisher, the People's Literature Publishing House, disclosed that
the price is about 66 yuan but the Chinese title is still a secret.
To be sure the mainland version will be different from the Hong
Kong and Taiwan versions. Special paper has been readied for
hundreds of thousands more copies of Deathly Hallows to be
printed.
Hong Kong traditional
Chinese version was already on sale on October 20, 2007.
Sun Shunlin, who is in charge of the publishing of Deathly
Hallows, explained that the book has been printed by 4
printing houses with the help of two bookbinding factories. So
far?one million copies have been printed. The first orders
from Beijing bookstores have reached 180,000 copies.?
According to a Beijing News report on October 23, the
Wangfujing Book Store and Beijing Book Building have ordered 2,000
and 7,600 copies respectively. These orders have exceeded Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (5,900 copies). They also
have prepared the badges given out to readers who order the books.
The readers who buy their books on October 28 will get a free set
of Harry Potter bookplates.
Before disclosing the end of Deathly Hallows, J. K.
Rowling said she was planning to write a Harry Potter
Encyclopedia to introduce all the Harry Potter
characters. But others have already snatched her idea. New Star
Press has obtained the Harry Potter Encyclopedia, written
together by 10 experts from China, Japan, America, Korea, etc. New
Star Press will release it before the release of the Harry
Potter 7 book on October 28.????
This encyclopedia will help ordinary Harry Potter fans
to better understand Harry Potter's world. It will explain some
terms not clearly explained in Harry Potter, including why
the school of witchcraft and wizardry is called "Hogwarts", the
meanings of the incantations and the background stories of the
wizards, spirits and all the magical creatures. It will analyze the
characters and explain the relationship between the wizards'
background, experience, personality and names and Greek mythology,
Roman mythology and the Bible stories in detail.??
In order to satisfy public curiosity about the incantations, the
encyclopedia will also interpret the wizardry, incantations and
nicknames from the Latin, English, French and German etymological
point of view.???
The chief editor believes that this encyclopedia will help the
"Harry Potter fans" to find clues to all unanswered
questions.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, October 24, 2007)
