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"Sydney 2000," by Wang Jinjun, published
by the Chinese Writers Publishing House, 423 pages. Price: 20 yuan
(US$2.4).
When Wang Jinjun got the idea to write the book
"Sydney 2000" three years ago, he did not expect it to
be so popular in China that it would attract such intense attention
from readers and the media both.
The book is selling well in bookstores across
the country.
About 100 newspapers, magazines, radio and TV
stations have given coverage of Wang and his new book on the Sydney
Olympic Games. More than 20 newspapers across the country have been
reprinting chapters of the book.
"Why is my book so well-received? The right
timing is the major factor," said Wang, 44.
On August 28, 2000, the International Olympic
Committee Executive Board selected five official candidate cities,
namely Beijing, Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto, to battle it
out to host the world's most coveted sporting event in 2008.
The host city will be selected at the International
Olympic Committee session when the final votes are cast next July
in Moscow.
"Beijing now enters the second phase in
its bid for the 2008 summer Olympic Games," said Wang. "Chinese
people around the world are showing more and more enthusiasm about
the Games."
A large number of them will fly to Sydney to
cheer for Chinese Olympic teams in mid-September.
Reportedly the book is the only one about the
2000 Sydney Olympic Games on China's book market.
"The book serves as a guide for people
interested in the year's biggest international sports event,"
said Wang.
Wang, from the Tujia ethnic group in Hunan Province,
has been a farmer, soldier, photo-journalist, newspaper editor and
once studied mass communications in Australia.
As a member of the Chinese Writers Association
and Chinese Professional Photographers Association, Wang has published
a couple of books since the early 1980s, including poem and essay
collections, books of photographs and three best-selling non-fiction
works - "Hong Kong: My 1997," "Macao: My 1999"
and "Australia Through My Eyes."
In the preface to the book "Sydney 2000,"
Anthony Taylor, Cultural Counselor of the Australian Embassy in
Beijing, writes: "In this, his second book on Australia, Wang
Jinjun reports on the city itself, the people who live there, and
the many twists and turns of the story that will have as its closing
chapter the staging of the Games.
After the book "Sydney 2000," Wang
plans to write another one about Beijing's bid for the Olympics
2008. He has already set up close relations with the Chinese Olympics
Committee and the Beijing in 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee.
(21DNN 11/29/2000)
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