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From my ten years of experience in copyright trading, I find that publishers and agents in Europe and America are interested in Chinese books. However, they will become very cautious when mentioning the publishing, which is caused by their suffering from it before. For example, in German, the copyright of a group of Chinese books had been introduced in the 1990s. But the final result was not so ideal, which even made some publishers trap into the dilemma situation. In this respect, American publishers and copyright agents do much better. Practice has proved that they are more experienced with much more thorough understanding of cultural transmission.
With Universal Values or Not
Since they are interested in Chinese books, we should give them works suitable for publishing. So what works for their readers? Subjects with universal values are most popular because they exist and could be understood in any country and nation all over the world.
For instance, love story may be regarded as an eternal theme of literature subjects. Under the Hawthorn Tree tells the love story of two young people during the Cultural Revolution. With the influence of film, the copyright of the book is sold to a dozen countries and regions including Japan and the United States. “Bridges Trilogy” of America are fairly popular around the world, whose copyrights are all sold to dozens of countries and regions and the sales of finished books reach millions of copies. One more example, novels focusing on women’s life, especially those performing women’s strong characters, also sell well. Such as Please Look After Mom written by Xin Jingshu from Korea, whose copyright is sold to more than thirty countries. Furthermore, the book was on the New York Times bestseller list. It is self-evident that anyone has a mother with her own unique story. Thus, a reader must like to read such works if he has an international perspective. Foreign readers are looking forward such kind of Chinese excellent works describing one’s own mothers, because books that reflect universal human emotions are always welcome. Then another example, food novels are also quite popular as enjoying food is the preference of most people in this world. Such as Tongue written by the Korean writer Zhao Jinglan is extremely popular, which tells the love and revenge story of a woman cook. It is worth mentioning that the book introduces the practice of many Korean dishes, which is extremely attractive. It is said that in almost all Korean novels, both female fiction or other fictions, there are a lot of cooking plot descriptions. A novel will must be popular if it introduces some mouthwatering and unique recipes or cooking methods. Then another more example, novels with the introduction of life and love in a distant nation and region also can resonate with readers of different countries and regions, such as The Last Shaman of East Ewenki (also called On the Right Bank of Arguna River) written by our writer Chi Zijian. The copyright of this long novel about the current situation and centuries' vicissitudes of Northeast minority Ewenki people has been sold in five or six countries and regions. The reason why this novel is so charming owes to the author’s super language skills. Anyone who has read this novel will be convinced by his language ingenuity because everyone has his heart in beautiful things. In fact, the popularity of such subjects is not strange, Wolf Totem is another evidence. With the lives of dozens of young intellectuals, it describes the beautiful Mongolian steppe, which makes European and American readers so obsessed. Moreover, it is said that the sales are quite good.
Of course, themes popular in Europe and America are far more than these. Such as works inspiring teenagers to struggle with dark forces are also very popular with a successful model of British Harry potter, whose copyright is sold to many countries and regions although without an exact figure. However, once the publication of a new episode, the enthusiastic pursuit of readers from various countries will be not uncommon. In a word, good and beautiful things are liked in any corner of the world. Thus, works describing goodness and beauty, even with a social and geographical background that yon do not know, will make readers flock to as long as the story is vivid and attractive. Furthermore, the unfamiliar historical and geographical background may also stimulates readers to read on and fondle admiringly.
Soda Water in Chinese Bottles (The Importance of the Effective Methods for the Culture Promotion)
Of course, sometimes book promotion is not enough just by relying on the form of books themselves, other forces of methods are also needed such as movies. If a book is adapted into a movie, which can be shown internationally, it will greatly promote the sales of the copyright. Besides, if this work sells pretty well domestically and has won big awards, the copyright will also be much easier because one that has won an award must have been recognized by the local readers. However, it needs to be reminded that however excellent the original version is, it will lose the original charm once translated into English or other language, and the copyright will become not easy to sell. So the language style is as important as the story style of the original book. The translations need to fit Western readers, otherwise even the best works will be difficult to spread. So, one may ask “Is it enough for a country’s culture by just owning things with universal values? Should not they have their own unique things?” Some people may think that only the unique things are the true values of a country’s culture, but I am not agree with them. Let me draw an analogy: if you use bottles made in Chine to contain Chinese medicine and give them to European and American friends, maybe they will not accept, however, if you give them soda still contained in those bottles, I estimate they will probably accept. They do not understand Chinese medicine and feel hard to swallow, however, soda is familiar by the whole world and easy to accept. Since they accept them, your purpose of culture transmission is achieved because this bottle of soda is from China and given by Chinese people thus Chinese culture is passed to them. Culture transmission does not lie in the form nor the content but rather the people who transmit it. Culture carried by the things extended belong to people who extend them.
With Universal Values or Not
Since they are interested in Chinese books, we should give them works suitable for publishing. So what works for their readers? Subjects with universal values are most popular because they exist and could be understood in any country and nation all over the world.
For instance, love story may be regarded as an eternal theme of literature subjects. Under the Hawthorn Tree tells the love story of two young people during the Cultural Revolution. With the influence of film, the copyright of the book is sold to a dozen countries and regions including Japan and the United States. “Bridges Trilogy” of America are fairly popular around the world, whose copyrights are all sold to dozens of countries and regions and the sales of finished books reach millions of copies. One more example, novels focusing on women’s life, especially those performing women’s strong characters, also sell well. Such as Please Look After Mom written by Xin Jingshu from Korea, whose copyright is sold to more than thirty countries. Furthermore, the book was on the New York Times bestseller list. It is self-evident that anyone has a mother with her own unique story. Thus, a reader must like to read such works if he has an international perspective. Foreign readers are looking forward such kind of Chinese excellent works describing one’s own mothers, because books that reflect universal human emotions are always welcome. Then another example, food novels are also quite popular as enjoying food is the preference of most people in this world. Such as Tongue written by the Korean writer Zhao Jinglan is extremely popular, which tells the love and revenge story of a woman cook. It is worth mentioning that the book introduces the practice of many Korean dishes, which is extremely attractive. It is said that in almost all Korean novels, both female fiction or other fictions, there are a lot of cooking plot descriptions. A novel will must be popular if it introduces some mouthwatering and unique recipes or cooking methods. Then another more example, novels with the introduction of life and love in a distant nation and region also can resonate with readers of different countries and regions, such as The Last Shaman of East Ewenki (also called On the Right Bank of Arguna River) written by our writer Chi Zijian. The copyright of this long novel about the current situation and centuries' vicissitudes of Northeast minority Ewenki people has been sold in five or six countries and regions. The reason why this novel is so charming owes to the author’s super language skills. Anyone who has read this novel will be convinced by his language ingenuity because everyone has his heart in beautiful things. In fact, the popularity of such subjects is not strange, Wolf Totem is another evidence. With the lives of dozens of young intellectuals, it describes the beautiful Mongolian steppe, which makes European and American readers so obsessed. Moreover, it is said that the sales are quite good.
Of course, themes popular in Europe and America are far more than these. Such as works inspiring teenagers to struggle with dark forces are also very popular with a successful model of British Harry potter, whose copyright is sold to many countries and regions although without an exact figure. However, once the publication of a new episode, the enthusiastic pursuit of readers from various countries will be not uncommon. In a word, good and beautiful things are liked in any corner of the world. Thus, works describing goodness and beauty, even with a social and geographical background that yon do not know, will make readers flock to as long as the story is vivid and attractive. Furthermore, the unfamiliar historical and geographical background may also stimulates readers to read on and fondle admiringly.
Soda Water in Chinese Bottles (The Importance of the Effective Methods for the Culture Promotion)
Of course, sometimes book promotion is not enough just by relying on the form of books themselves, other forces of methods are also needed such as movies. If a book is adapted into a movie, which can be shown internationally, it will greatly promote the sales of the copyright. Besides, if this work sells pretty well domestically and has won big awards, the copyright will also be much easier because one that has won an award must have been recognized by the local readers. However, it needs to be reminded that however excellent the original version is, it will lose the original charm once translated into English or other language, and the copyright will become not easy to sell. So the language style is as important as the story style of the original book. The translations need to fit Western readers, otherwise even the best works will be difficult to spread. So, one may ask “Is it enough for a country’s culture by just owning things with universal values? Should not they have their own unique things?” Some people may think that only the unique things are the true values of a country’s culture, but I am not agree with them. Let me draw an analogy: if you use bottles made in Chine to contain Chinese medicine and give them to European and American friends, maybe they will not accept, however, if you give them soda still contained in those bottles, I estimate they will probably accept. They do not understand Chinese medicine and feel hard to swallow, however, soda is familiar by the whole world and easy to accept. Since they accept them, your purpose of culture transmission is achieved because this bottle of soda is from China and given by Chinese people thus Chinese culture is passed to them. Culture transmission does not lie in the form nor the content but rather the people who transmit it. Culture carried by the things extended belong to people who extend them.