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