By Mark Godfrey
Vladimir Putin, David Beckham and Hillary Clinton seem unlikely bedfellows, but behind the doors of Chinese bookstores where all three are flavor of the month. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is another favorite, judging by bookshelves in Beijing and provincial capitals. Self-help and business books are also top sellers at Chinese bookshop.
Weather-beaten posters of a smiling Hillary Clinton hung on paper stalls and curbside magazine stands around China this summer. Hillary sells everywhere. Over 600,000 copies of Living History have sold in China, 200,000 of them in the book's first month of sale. Translations of phenomenally successful books from the West such as Who Moved My Cheese? and Harry Potter have all also topped Chinese bestseller lists. Popstar Madonna's children's book Roses has done well too. Recent best selling authors in China are rarely Chinese but international names like David Beckham, who held the top slot on China's winter bestsellers list in 2003.
My Side, which Beckham penned with sports writer Tom Watt, was released in 14 Chinese cities in early November, only two months after its English version. In its debut week, the book topped the national bestseller list. Chinese book publishers have become quicker off the mark in producing real-time translations of English-language bestsellers. A translation of The Bridges of Madison County in 1994 by People's Literature Publishing House was launched in China while the novel was still topping bestseller lists in the West. Publishing houses hesitated on whether to buy the translation rights to the book but People's Literature took a chance and sold 6 million copies of the book in China.
"In the past, we would usually import classics rather than contemporary books," says Sun Shunlin, director of design at the People's Literature Publishing House. "We've begun to pay more and more attention to works that are currently popular among foreign readers. We also concentrate on contemporary masterpieces, like Nobel prizewinning works."
The success of The Bridges of Madison County opened the floodgates. Other titles that have sold millions include The Horse Whisperer, Tuesdays with Morrie and A Brief History of Time. Price tags for Chinese translations of books like David Beckham's are cheaper in China than in Western bookshops. My Side is priced at 30 yuan in Beijing's high-end bookshops, which puts it at the higher end of the local book trade. The profit incentives are obvious for China's publishing industry.
Yilin Press is the government-owned publisher which bought the rights to Hilary Clinton's autobiography. China City Press, a relative newcomer to the translations market, beat its rivals Yilin Press and the People's Literature Publishing House to the rights for My Side in China bought from British publisher Harper Collins. According to chief editor Li Yue, the release of Beckham's autobiography has brought in enough revenue to give City Press the courage to import more bestsellers.
Established in 1951, People's Literature Publishing House has introduced many foreign books to Chinese readers. Titles translated by the firm in the past were limited to the classics, but after the success of The Bridges of Madison County, the publishing house led the way in bringing hundreds of bestsellers to China. The company's recent translation of the Harry Potter series topped all its previous sales records. The first four print runs of the first Harry Potter book sold over 2 million copies in China, a figure that multiplied on the film of the book's release in China.
Sun Shunlin at the People's Literature Publishing House says that world bestsellers have prompted book merchants to import original-edition books in English, French and German. He believes that more than 90 percent of China's publishing houses now import foreign books.
Some blockbusters have also flopped in China. Stephen King wasn't a hit. World bestseller The Alchemist sold only 10,000 copies in its Chinese translation. Sun Shunlin blames poor packaging and marketing - both relatively new concepts in China, a country that began phasing out its command economy only two decades ago.
Poor translation quality is a problem perpetuated by some Chinese publishing houses. Translation flaws in Jack: Straight From the Gut, the best-selling book by former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch, totaled an embarrassing 2,000. Yet more than 600,000 copies of the book sold in China. A Yilin Press translation of James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake bears a fleeting resemblance to the original text.
"Shoddy translations are caused by publishers taking less time to translate books," says Sun Shunlin. "Some publishing houses sacrifice translation quality to get books out ahead of their competitors. Some translators finish a book in weeks. The poor quality of translation undoubtedly hinders a book's salability."
Sun places his hopes in the readers' discretion and self-regulation in the industry. "Chinese readers are becoming more sophisticated and they'll be able to judge the good from the bad," he says.
Selling translation rights to China is an added bonus for publishing houses in the West, but for China's publishers, it's an opportunity to make massive profits. At the Shanghai international book fair in August of 2003, three hundred and sixty publishing firms from China and abroad displayed their wares and negotiated translation rights. The number of deals signed at the fair was up on the previous year's figures.
The traffic is not all one way. English translations of Chinese classics such as Dream of Red Mansions sell well in China and abroad while modern titles such as Wild Swans and Xin Ran's The Good Women of China have also done very well on foreign book markets. This is obviously a time to gain from translation while the going is good.
Mark Godfrey is an Irish journalist currently based in China.
(China Today February 18, 2004)
