Breakout stage for Chinese books
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Chinese literature has a long, rich history steeped in culture and tradition. From childhood, most Chinese become familiar with the four great classical novels of Chinese literature -- "A Dream of Red Mansions," "Water Margin," "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and, of course, "Journey to the West," also known as "Monkey King."
With such a long-standing literary tradition, why is it that few people outside of China have never heard of any famous Chinese novels, let alone read one?
Modern Chinese literature is at best a niche interest overseas, breaking through only occasionally in the form of books like Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum," first published in Chinese in 1987, then English in 1993, and made into a film by Oscar-nominated director Zhang Yimou that same year.
However, this situation seems to be taking a positive turn. Since the 1990s, many Chinese novels have been translated into English and other foreign languages.
Jiang Rong's "Wolf Totem," first published in Chinese in 2004, became a national bestseller and was then translated into English in 2008. "Wolf Totem" won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007 and is a multimillion copy bestseller. Yu Hua's "Brothers," written in 2005 and 2006 (in two volumes) was short-listed for the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and was translated and released in English in March 2009.
The emergence of these books marks a growing trend of Chinese novels increasing in popularity. Although Chinese authors write prolifically, this increasing trend has only occurred relatively recently. This was due to numerous challenges Chinese literature faced in reaching an international audience.
Firstly, the overseas literary market is dominated by the tastes of publishers geared toward English, French, Russian, and Spanish-reading markets.
"Usually other languages are more accepting of translation. With Chinese, some readers feel that something is lost in translation," says Jo Lusby, general manager of Penguin Publishing China.
Publishers and their acquisition editors are more likely to consider purchasing a foreign book they have read in the original. Since there are fewer publishers who can read Chinese, that means someone must first invest in translating an excerpt from a work before it can capture the interest of many publishers in the West.
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