Li Xiao, 18, is a Beijing girl from a middle-class family in her
last year at middle school. Early June is a crazy time for Li and
her classmates as they are knuckling down to prepare for the
university entrance exams. But once class is over, chatter among
the girls quickly strays from the hypnotic tedium of textbooks to
the eagerly anticipated new Harry Potter novel. They are all aware
that this is the last time their much loved young wizard will wave
his magic wand in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts.
"I've reserved the new Potter book's English version from a
bookstore, which will be available on July 21 for his fans all over
the world. I will definitely be buying the Chinese version later
too. I cannot wait to read the final chapter," Li told Beijing
Review. Like millions of Potter fans, Li has read the books,
watched the movies, discussed the adventures with friends, visited
fanclub websites and collected her boy hero's posters and
souvenirs. Her Potter memorabilia is so vast that even her mom
wears the scarlet and gold scarf of Gryffindor, Harry Potter's
school house.
It is still a month before the global launch of the English
version of the final book, temporarily entitled Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, on July 21. Most Chinese fans have
opted to pre-order copies of the English version, as it is expected
that a Chinese translation may be four months down the line-and for
Potter fans the wait is not an option. These readers are confident
their English ability is good enough to follow the adventures and
possible demise of Potter, as hinted by author J.K. Rowling.
More than just a book
Not only a kid's read, Harry Potter books have captivated Chinese
readers of all ages. The mainstream fan base is young and
well-educated and their speech is peppered with words such as
Quidditch (Wizard's national sport), Hogwarts (School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry) and Muggles (Persons totally without magical powers
who lives in ignorance of the world of wizards and witches). These
terms have even crept into Chinese."They are being included in the
Chinese vocabulary because Potter has gone far beyond just reading
fever. He has become a cultural phenomenon for this generation."
said Ye Xianlin, editor of the Potter books' Chinese version with
the Beijing-based People's Literature Publishing House.
Ye, who is working with the department of children's book at the
prestigious publishing house known as the "cradle of literature
publishing of new China," told Beijing Review how the Potter books
were imported and published to cater for Chinese readers. He
believes these stories have even enlightened the imagination of
fans about a world previously unknown to them.
"Frankly speaking, we were still ignorant about the publishing
business outside China in 2000 when the computer industry was
primitive here and the Internet remained something unconnected with
daily life in China."
In those days, said Ye, there was only one computer in the
publishing house with access to the Internet.
"I noticed the Potter books from the articles on Bookseller and
New York Times Book Review accidentally and proposed the title for
consideration of our press's management."
According to Ye, a number of publishing houses in China had also
noticed the title in 2000, when the Potter books were gradually
becoming bestsellers worldwide. While other publishing houses were
pressured from senior editors to refuse the buying rights, alleging
that the stories of wizards would have a negative impact on Chinese
children, People's Literature Publishing House was quick off the
mark and went ahead with their negotiations.
"Amazingly, we did not encounter any warning, neither from our
management nor from the publishing authorities," said Ye after the
decision was made to publish the Chinese version.
Purchasing rights was really something new for Chinese
publishers at that time, as China had just joined the Berne
Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in
1995. Not knowing how to contact the copyright owner, they sought
help from overseas literary agents to finally contact Bloomsbury,
the British publisher of the books. After much scrutiny, the go
ahead to make an offer came from Bloomsbury after two months
waiting on tenterhooks.
A market miracle
Ye's press bought the single copyright of the version in
simplified Chinese, for world distribution, of three
titles-Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry
Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban. Though it was normal for children's
titles to have a print run of 10,000 copies at most in China, Ye
and his management decided to go for broke by printing 200,000
copies for each of the Potter books. The market response was beyond
Ye's wildest imagination-the books flew off the shelves in big
cities and pirated prints soon appeared to fill the vacuum in
remote areas.
The market is huge and readers are hungry. Ye's publishing house
was running red hot while other presses looked on green with envy.
After the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire, People's Literature Publishing House bought the rights
soon after Rowling finished writing, going for a print run of
400,000 copies and doubling this to 800,000 copies for the fifth
book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and sixth
book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince respectively.
It's a publishing miracle, said Ye, declining to reveal the
earnings the books have brought in.
Translating wizardry a challenge
The world of wizardry is something completely foreign to China
and translating the Potter books, which feature extensive
references to wizard culture, is something of a challenge to a
fiction editor and vital to the books' success.
An experienced publisher devoted to publishing Chinese and
foreign literary classics for more than 50 years, People's
Literature Publishing House has provided generations of Chinese
readers with the works of nearly all the Western classic writers
such as Victor Hugo, Thomas Hardy, Virginia Woolf, O.Henry (William
Sydney Porter), Franz Kafka, Hans Christian Anderson and so forth.
A legion of good translators have worked for the press. Five
translators were involved in the work of the previous six volumes
of Harry Potter. Correctly translating the original, keeping the
storytelling style, while enabling it to be fully understood by
Chinese readers is a hard job. Ye said translating some of the
special terms, and especially the curses, would often take days of
discussion, before eventually finding a satisfactory Chinese
equivalent.
"The six translated Potter books are wonderful for their
coherence of episodes, names and expressions. The editorial work is
very professional," commented Shen Xiaoxi, an interpreter with a
travel agency in Beijing and also a Potter fan.
Ye explained that the story in the first six volumes is so long
and the episodes are so complicated that coherence was a big
challenge.
His team has now compiled a glossary book of names of people,
places, events and special terms used in the books, which functions
as a dictionary. "We do not think the translation is perfect and
there must have been some mistakes based on misunderstanding of the
original," said Ye. However he has received positive feedback from
the English publisher, which has made regular checks of the
translated version.
Embracing all things new
The publication of the Harry Potter series of books in China is
a milestone. The publishing industry has begun to sense a changing
readership which is extremely open-minded, curious and has an
insatiable appetite for imported children's titles.
Li said, "I even like to use the terms and expressions of Potter
books in my English written papers to make my writing style
fashionable."
Tang Dongdong (14), a middle-school student, said he has grown
up with the six Potter books published each year in the past six
years. "I was enthralled by the story ever since I read the first
volume. I've never thought the story alien and I regard Harry as
one of us."
"This is a new generation with a different view of the world,"
said Ye, "They have breakfast in McDonald's, they watch Hollywood
movies and they know every NBA star. It's a generation to whom
surfing the Internet is as natural as breathing, and to whom the
entire world is their backyard.
"Whatever best-selling titles from the world market we import,
we are confident the new wave of Chinese youth will embrace them,"
said Ye.
That may be the reason why Ye and his publishing house are
rubbing their hands together in anticipation of sales from
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. "The market of the
final book will far surpass the fifth and sixth because everyone is
eager to know the final installment of the Harry Potter saga," Ye
said. The marketing approach will see several changes in order to
avoid the avalanche of pirated copies, something that is no doubt
bound to follow.
It is generally accepted that the Potter impact on China has
been huge. "Harry Potter is like an injection for the Chinese
publishing industry and those producing children's books in
particular," said Ye. He fully expects more foreign titles like
this will be imported by Chinese publishers, who are now mature in
international operation and cooperation and have a brighter view of
the book market inside and outside China. Western fairy tales and
stories of fantasy are now part of the Chinese youth mindset,
thanks to the boy wizard, Harry Potter, said Ye.
(Beijing
Review by Jiang Wandi June 5, 2007)
