At a public library in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu. Image – iStockphoto: Plej
y Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
World Book Day Deals Fuel the Charts
In Beijing, our partners at OpenBook on our monthly China bestsellers lists tell us that book sets saw a bump in sales in April courtesy of World Book Day, thanks to promotional pushes in physical and online retail outlets. During these promotions, 50-percent discounts are spotted, especially in offers of two or three related titles as a bundle or set.In China, as in most international settings, World Book Day is observed on April 23. (In the UK and Ireland, it’s on the first Thursday of March.)
‘The Three-Body Problem’
One effect you’ll see in our China lists for April is a jump to the top of the fiction list for Liu Cixin’s science-fiction work. For example, The Three-Body Problem, always ubiquitous in popular reading among Chinese consumers, rose to No. 1 on OpenBook’s overall rankings, followed by Cixin’s The Dark Forest at No. 2 and Death’s End at No. 3.
What’s more, Lu Yao’s Ordinary World moved up eight places to the No. 5 spot, just under Yu hua’s To Live.
When it comes to new entries on the fiction list, Mai Jia’s Life is Like an Ocean enters at No. 21. This work is a departure from Mai Jia’s usual work. Here, he’s interested in the life of a town from a teen’s viewpoint.
‘L’Étranger’ from Jiangsu Literature & Art Press
And of some irony, perhaps, to Western readers, the other “new” book to the China bestsellers fiction ranking is by Albert Camus. L’Étranger, The Stranger, one of the most influential books from the French existentialist school—Camus felt happier with it in the absurdists’ camp than the existentialists’—has shown up on the fiction list for April as The Outsider, at No. 19. The book originally was published in 1942 in France by Gallimard, then in 1946 in the UK by Hamish Hamilton.
Our colleague Rainy Liu points out that Camus’ L’Étranger has had multiple editions in the past in China, but this is the first time the book has entered the bestseller rankings.
It’s thought that the promotional material for the book—this edition was released in February—is giving it its marketing traction. The publisher, Jiangsu Literature & Art Press, is using the slogan, “If you feel out of place in the crowd, you must read The Outsider.”
‘L’Étranger’ in the Gallimard original, 1942
Of course, as Publishing Perspectives readers know from our bestseller lists of more than a year, classics from other countries play heavily into China’s reading trends. This month, for example, our foreign authors lists includes two works of Gabriel García Márquez, plus titles from Paulo Coelho and Haruki Murakami.
Contemporary work from other cultures, however, is being read, too, with the Scottish author Claire McFall’s titles holding three spots on the foreign-authors fiction list, alongside Norway’s Jostein Gaarder and the American author Celeste Ng, whose Little Fires Everywhere is being adapted to television (a 2020 series of eight episodes) for Hulu with Lynn Shelton directing and Reese Witherspoon starring.
Ng is represented on China’s lists in April by Everything I Never Told You, her first book.
‘No More Than Skins,’ No. 1 in nonfiction
And in nonfiction, the World Book Day promotions seem to have been effective, as they were in fiction. Da Bing, for example, moved to the list with no fewer than four titles—I Won’t, Goodwill, May You, and Take It Easy. Similarly, Yuval Noah Harari seems to have benefitted, with both Homo Deus and Sapiens charting.
Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from (month) of bestsellers in fiction and nonfiction, followed by its lists of bestselling fiction and nonfiction in China by authors from outside the country.
At the end of our article, as always, you’ll find notes on how the lists are constructed.
OpenBook Overall Fiction China Bestsellers, April 2019
| March 2019 Ranking | April 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 2 | 1 | 9787536692930 | 2008-01 | The Three-Body Problem | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 3 | 2 | 9787536693968 | 2008-05 | The Dark Forest | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 4 | 3 | 9787229030933 | 2010-11 | Death’s End | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 1 | 4 | 9787506365437 | 2010-06 | To Live | Yu hua | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 13 | 5 | 9787530216781 | 2017-06 | Ordinary Word (3 Volumns) | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 6 | 6 | 9787500601593 | 2005-08 | Red Crag | Luo Guangbin,Yang Yiyan | China Youth Press |
| 10 | 7 | 9787544270878 | 2014-04 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 7 | 8 | 9787208061644 | 2006-04 | The Kite Runner (2018 Edition) | Khaled Hosseini | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 16 | 9 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 15 | 10 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Version) | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 11 | 11 | 9787540487645 | 2018-06 | Moments We Shared | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 5 | 12 | 9787511360809 | 2016-06 | The Wandering Earth | Liu Cixin | China Overseas Chinese Press |
| 8 | 13 | 9787550013247 | 2015-05 | Ferryman | Claire McFall | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 9 | 14 | 9787020090006 | 2012-07 | Fortress Besieged | Qian Zhongshu | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 26 | 15 | 9787544277617 | 2015-06 | Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 21 | 16 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 12 | 17 | 9787530215593 | 2017-06 | To Live | Yu hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 22 | 18 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787559427434 | 2019-02 | The Outsider | Albert Camus | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 14 | 20 | 9787559620187 | 2018-10 | Ran Freely | Wu Zhe | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Not Ranked | 21 | 9787530219218 | 2019-03 | Life is Like Ocean | Mai Jia | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 28 | 22 | 9787506365680 | 2012-12 | Chronicle of a Blood Merchant | Yu hua | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 23 | 9787532776771 | 201803 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 25 | 24 | 9787544291224 | 2017-08 | After School (2017 Version) | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 18 | 25 | 9787541151736 | 2018-12 | Uninhibited | Mo Xiang Tong Xiu | Sichuan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 26 | 9787559614636 | 2017-12 | Fang Si-Qi’s First Love Paradise | Lin Yihan | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 9787540458027 | 2013-10 | I Belonged to You | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 17 | 28 | 9787020002207 | 1998-07 | Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 29 | 9787530211564 | 2012-03 | Life | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 23 | 30 | 9787544384636 | 201809 | The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | Hainan Publishing House |
OpenBook Overall Nonfiction China Bestsellers, April 2019
| March 2019 Ranking | April 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | 9787201088945 | 2014-12 | No More Than Skins | Cai Chongda | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 7 | 2 | 9787503565397 | 2019-02 | Xi Jinping in Zhengding | Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C | Central Party School Press |
| 4 | 3 | 9787201094014 | 2015-09 | Six Records of a Floating Life | Shen Fu | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 8 | 4 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline | Jane Nelsen | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 19 | 5 | 9787508660752 | 2017-02 | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 6 | 6 | 9787559620125 | 2018-05 | Genius on the Left, Lunatic on the Right (Full Version)(New Edition) | Gao Ming | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 23 | 7 | 9787540487669 | 2018-05 | You Are Bad | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 16 | 8 | 9787508689586 | 2018-07 | Economics Lecture Notes | Xue Zhaofeng | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 15 | 9 | 9787508684031 | 2017-12 | Principles | Ray Dalio | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 9 | 10 | 9787108063106 | 2018-06 | We Three (Third Edition) | Yang Jiang | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 2 | 11 | 9787559401007 | 2017-04 | Good Loneliness | Chen Guo | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 12 | 9787540484880 | 2018-01 | The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (Commemorative Edition) | Lin Yutang | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 24 | 13 | 9787535732309 | 2001-11 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen W.Hawking | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| 22 | 14 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B.Rosenberg | Huaxia Publishing House |
| 13 | 15 | 9787544382045 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (2) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 11 | 16 | 9787559418111 | 2018-04 | 30 Minutes of World History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 12 | 17 | 9787544382052 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (3) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 10 | 18 | 9787539999883 | 2017-03 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 17 | 19 | 9787201088822 | 2014-09 | How to Win Friends & Influence People | Dale Carnegie | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787508672069 | 2017-01 | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Yuval Noah Harari | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 21 | 21 | 9787535488473 | 2016-05 | Walk Alone Freely | Jia Pingwa | Changjiang Literature & Art Press Co.,Ltd. |
| 3 | 22 | 9787511553645 | 2018-04 | Good Love: Love Philosophy of Chen Guo | Chen Guo | People Daily Publishing House |
| 25 | 23 | 9787220102912 | 2017-09 | Rich Dad, Poor Dad | Robert T.Kiyosaki | Sichuan People’s Publishing House |
| 14 | 24 | 9787540481551 | 2018-11 | The Emotional Quotient Lesson of Kevin Tsai: Live for Yourself for One Time | Kevin Tsai | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 30 | 25 | 9787540482190 | 2017-08 | I Won’t | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 26 | 9787108009821 | 1998-07 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 9787540468798 | 2014-09 | Take It Easy | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 18 | 28 | 9787549550173 | 2014-01 | Seeing Off | Long Yingtai | Guangxi Normal University Press |
| Not Ranked | 29 | 9787540472238 | 2015-07 | May You | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 30 | 9787540476892 | 2016-07 | Goodwill | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
Foreign Author Fiction China Bestsellers, April 2019
| March 2019 Ranking | April 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 3 | 1 | 9787544270878 | 2014-04 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 1 | 2 | 9787208061644 | 2018-02 | The Kite Runner (2018 Edition) | Khaled Hosseini | United States of America | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 5 | 3 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 4 | 4 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Version) | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 2 | 5 | 9787550013247 | 2015-05 | Ferryman | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 12 | 6 | 9787544277617 | 2015-06 | Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 8 | 7 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 9 | 8 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 9 | 9787559427434 | 2019-02 | The Outsider | Albert Camus | France | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 19 | 10 | 9787532776771 | 2018-03 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Japan | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 11 | 11 | 9787544291224 | 2017-08 | After School (2017 Version) | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 10 | 12 | 9787544384636 | 2018-09 | The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | Hainan Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787530217054 | 2017-12 | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | Brazil | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 14 | 9787550032125 | 2019-04 | Outcasts | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 7 | 15 | 9787550024212 | 2017-09 | Trespassers | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 14 | 16 | 9787544281102 | 2016-01 | Newcomer | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 20 | 17 | 9787539971810 | 2015-04 | The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry | Gabrielle Zevin | United States of America | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 16 | 18 | 9787201116693 | 2017-05 | My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry | Fredrik Backman | Sweden | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 13 | 19 | 9787506394864 | 2017-09 | Sophie’s World (New Edition) | Jostein Gaarder | Norway | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 18 | 20 | 9787539982830 | 2015-06 | Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng | United States of America | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
Foreign Author Nonfiction China Bestsellers, April 2019
| March 2019 Ranking | April 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline | Jane Nelsen | United States of America | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 4 | 2 | 9787508660752 | 2017-02 | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 2 | 3 | 9787508684031 | 2017-12 | Principles | Ray Dalio | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 6 | 4 | 9787535732309 | 2001-11 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen W.Hawking | Britain | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| 5 | 5 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B.Rosenberg | United States of America | Huaxia Publishing House |
| 3 | 6 | 9787201088822 | 2014-09 | How to Win Friends & Influence People | Dale Carnegie | United States of America | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 10 | 7 | 9787508672069 | 2017-01 | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 7 | 8 | 9787220102912 | 2017-09 | Rich Dad, Poor Dad | Robert T.Kiyosaki | United States of America | Sichuan People’s Publishing House |
| 9 | 9 | 9787108009821 | 2014-03 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | United States of America | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 8 | 10 | 9787514219203 | 2017-09 | The Willpower Instinct (New Edition) | Kelly McGonigal | United States of America | Cultural Development Publishing House |
| 11 | 11 | 9787508692098 | 2018-07 | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 13 | 12 | 9787508650890 | 2015-05 | Who Moved My Cheese? | Spencer Johnson | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787535796943 | 2019-02 | Brief Answers to the Big Questions | Stephen W.Hawking | Britain | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| 12 | 14 | 9787301109489 | 2006-10 | A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century (Vol.1) | L. S. Stavrianos | United States of America | Peking University Press |
| 14 | 15 | 9787301110522 | 2006-10 | A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century (Vol.2) | L. S. Stavrianos | United States of America | Peking University Press |
| 20 | 16 | 9787800875830 | 1999-09 | How to Win Friends and Influence Others & How to Stop Worrying and Start Living | Dale Carnegie | United States of America | China Development Press |
| 19 | 17 | 9787020116133 | 2017-06 | Red Star Over China | Edgar Snow | United States of America | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 18 | 18 | 9787535733597 | 2002-02 | The Universe in a Nutshell | Stephen W.Hawking | Britain | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787544762885 | 2016-04 | 84, Charing Cross Road | Helene Hanff | United States of America | Yilin Press |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787540489304 | 2019-01 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Japan | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
Notes on the Charts
OpenBook
is a privately owned industry-data research firm based in Beijing. It functions somewhat as Nielsen and NDP do from the West, and Nielsen Book Research International has worked with OpenBook in Asian operations. With authoritative data and information resources, OpenBook is able to deliver consulting service to partners who would like to explore the Chinese book market and identify suitable partners.
Trajectory
, based near Boston, is an importer of Western-language ebooks and audiobooks into China. Trajectory is also helping China’s largest publishers export their books and audiobooks through a proprietary global ebook distribution network that includes hundreds of retailers as well as library and school distributors. Trajectory recently has added copyright services, both for content going into China and for exports from China to the rest of the world.
Up until July 1, 2019, this data has been estimated by OpenBook to represent some 50 percent of the total sales activity in China. OpenBook draws point-of-sale data from more than 6,000 bookstores in China, including a total 3,496 physical bookstores representative of all the provinces in China except Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Retail outlets include:
- Traditional bookstores
- Supermarkets
- Campus bookstores
- “Professional” stores, said to be small stores with a specific industrial or trade focus
- Airport stores
In addition, OpenBook is drawing data from online bookstores of three main types:
- The “Tmall” stores of Alibaba (Tmall is described as a marketplace of companies that create storefronts online to sell products including books)
- The “JingDong” Stores of JD.com (similar to Tmall as a marketplace of both individual companies and bookstores operated by JD.com)
- Ten independent online bookselling retailers
China has some 500 or more publishers in operation today. Most of them, Trajectory CEO James Bryant clarifies, are government-owned. Private publishers are required to generate ISBNs for their titles from a publishing company that is government-owned—which, in other words, creates a system in which all ISBNs are in one way or another registered through government channels. The government approves each book published in China.
More China bestseller reports from Publishing Perspectives are here.