Buying Chinese Fiction: Penguin's Strategy

Penguin China division has been co-publishing Penguin Classic, Children's books and biographies with Chinese local publishing houses since 2005. And its market share is expanding. The division also helps to find Chinese fiction locally and to publish in English in the UK and the US.

Li Jihong (李继宏), English-to-Chinese translator of best sellers The Kite Runner (《追风筝的人》) and Conversations with God (《与神对话》), has just interviewed Penguin CEO John Makinson for Shanghai's Oriental Daily.

At the end of the interview, Li Jihong poses a question about how Penguin chooses the novels it sources in China and publishes in English. He points out that several of Penguin's recent purchases such as English (《英格力士》) by Wang Gang, A Civil Servant's Notes (《公务员笔记》) by Wang Xiaofang, and He Jiahong's Blood Crimes (《血之罪》) are hardly excellent works -- in the China context -- either in terms of market performance or content. This particular question is answered by Jo Lusby, Managing Director of Penguin China.

Her answer is quite interesting:

"When we choose a book, our starting point is principally the tastes of the Western reader; our standard is not the preferences of the Chinese reader. A good-selling book in China is not necessarily appropriate for the Western reader, and will not necessarily sell well in the UK or the US. Our consideration is that we want to select things that will pique the interest of the Western reader. For example, in the eyes of the Western reader, the Chinese government is quite mysterious, so we chose Wang Xiaofang's A Civil Servant's Notes. We believe it is a good book that could only have been written by a Chinese. It provides an insider's perspective, and allows the reader to understand China in depth. Even if this type of book is not well viewed and is not popular [in China], we still believe it is of interest and is worthy of translation into English."

"I don't mind if people say the books we choose aren't first class. We do not seek to [translate and] publish books that were best sellers in China. We want to publish those books capable of changing Western readers' views of China."

By Bruce Humes

See the full interview -- in Chinese, click  here

Northwest Style Cold Noddle

I had a wonderful time last year when I visited my parents, brothers and friends in China. It''s the first time within  five years my family members gathering together. Since it's hot summer, my sister-in-law made delicious northwest style cold noddle(凉面), which took  me back to my memorable childhood in my hometown. Last two days, the city I am living is very hot, it's unusual this year.  What should I make for the dinner? I asked myself. Well, let's make cold noddle this time! So, here is that day's dinner. Enjoy!

Lisa See And Her New Book "Dreams of Joy"

After publishing three Red Princess series (Flower Net, The Interior, and Dragon Bones), and then two in-depth studies of the lives of Chinese women in the 19th and 17th centuries respectively (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love), the Chinese American writer Lisa See wrote a novel Shanghai Girls. In the book, Pearl and May escaped the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in the nineteen thirties. The sisters fled to California. Lisa See's new book Dreams of Joy continues the story of the two Chinese sisters : Pearl is forced to return to Shanghai on a search for her daughter.

Dreams of Joy takes place in the nineteen fifties. Pearl’s nineteen- year-old daughter, Joy, is angry at her mother and her Aunt May. So she runs away to China to find the father she has never met. She not only finds him but becomes involved with the changes taking place in the country. Lisa See says this situation was not uncommon at the time. She says many young Chinese were sympathetic to the country’s new government.

LISA SEE: “Actually, there were a lot of Chinese going back to the People’s Republic of China at that time, ninety thousand in one year from Fukien province alone. But also a lot of other people who weren’t Chinese, who were going to China kind of inspired by what was going on there, or even hoping to start a business.”*

Lisa See has written several best-selling novels about Chinese-related subjects. She says those themes have special appeal for her.

LISA SEE: “I’m part Chinese. But I have red hair and freckles so I don’t look very Chinese, but I did grow up in a very traditional Chinese American family. I live in Los Angeles and today, in Los Angeles, I have about four hundred relatives, of which the majority of them are still full Chinese and there there’s this spectrum with me on one end – there are about a dozen that look like me – but then, sort of, this spectrum all the way up to the majority being full Chinese.”

She says she is also part Irish. Like most Americans, she celebrates her ethnicities.

LISA SEE: “I think all of us here in the United States, we all had someone in our families who was brave enough, scared enough, dumb enough, crazy enough to leave their home country to come here. But there is still a part of us that is tied to our original homeland and we all share in that feeling no matter where you came from.”

Lisa See is already at work on her next book. It deals with Chinese American culture from the first half of the twentieth century. Both Shanghai Girls and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan received honorable mentions from the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature. And one of her books has already made it to Hollywood. “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” will be released in movie theaters across America on July fifteenth.

* All quotes from VOA
Find more about the author and her works, please look at her site

Being A Master: Mountain Dew Shaolin Temple Commerical

I saw this Mountain Dew TV commercial a couple of years ago. The product is an American soft drink, but Chinese Kung Fu is used as an advertising concept. They developed the story and the scene that make people feel the spirit of Chinese Kung Fu (功夫): work hard to be a master. You cannot "do the dew" unless you become a master. The commercial is interesting and really touches people's heart in someway.