Filmgoers in a rainy Chongqing in Sichuan Province. Image – iStockphoto: URF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
A 4-Year-Old Story Is Reborn on Film
The October bestseller charts developed by Beijing OpenBook show us an interesting trend.As you may be aware, there are huge followings in China and several other Asian markets for long-running serials written on Internet platforms by authors who sometimes become quite famous and wealthy for their storytelling. The general and hardly glamorous term for this is “online writing.”
‘Underachieve’
In our China bestsellers for July, in fact, we saw two such pieces cross over to television, one of them with the disarming title, Go Go Squid. And this month, we’re seeing the same thing occur this time with the crossover taking the content to book publication.
In our OpenBook fiction rankings, you’ll see these books entering the charts for the first time:
- Better Days by Jiu Yuexi, ranked No. 11
- Underachieve (2) by Mu Gua Huang, ranked No. 19
- Underachieve by Mu Gua Huang, ranked No. 25
These are cases in which publishers—Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House for the Jiu Yuexi title and Beijing Times Chinese Press for the two Mu Gua Huang titles—have decided that the market potential for book-format treatments of these series looks good enough to have the content redeveloped and published. It should be interesting to see how they fare on the charts after such auspicious starts.
‘Underachieve,’ second volume
And otherwise, October is when we see once more the heavy impact on the Chinese charts of the educational calendar. With school fully in sway once more, four classics that were being read during summer breaks for extra course credit from curriculum lists are now plunging in the rankings:
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, ranked third last month, has dropped 14 places to No. 17. And Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, and Water Margin by Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong have also tumbled by more than 10 places in October.
Our colleagues in Beijing also have pointed out the connection often seen between film, television, and books in the Chinese market—and the occasion involves one of those newly active titles.
Better Days for ‘Better Days’
Better Days by Jiu Yuexi surged in sales in October, making it No. 11 on the list thanks to a well-received film adaptation. The film stars Yi Yang Qian Xi and Zhou Dongyu and was both a critical and popular success. Rainy Liu, our associate with OpenBook, tells us that within three days of its release, the film’s box office take exceeded 500 million RMB (US$71 million).
As of November 7, the cumulative box office had reached 1.256 billion RMB (US$178 million), among the Top 10 domestic films of 2019. And the film has also generated discussion around topics of campus bullying and other challenges of juvenile development.
All this has raised the profile of the novel Better Days, which first appeared online on the platform Jinjiang Literary City in 2015. A print edition was published in 2016, but didn’t draw much market attention at the time.
Three years later, a new edition of Better Days with illustrations has been on the market since February. And with the runaway success of the film, we’re watching to see how the book fares, newly spotted by readers and cinema fans.
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’s Fiction Bestsellers in China, October 2019
| September 2019 Ranking | October 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | 9787506365437 | 2010-06 | To Live | Yu hua | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 2 | 2 | 9787500601593 | 2005-08 | Red Crag | Luo Guangbin,Yang Yiyan | China Youth Press |
| 4 | 3 | 9787530216781 | 2017-06 | Ordinary Word (3 Volumes) | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 5 | 4 | 9787536692930 | 2008-01 | The Three-Body Problem | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 7 | 5 | 9787536693968 | 2008-05 | The Dark Forest | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 6 | 6 | 9787229030933 | 2010-11 | Death’s End | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 9 | 7 | 9787544270878 | 2014-04 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 8 | 8 | 9787208061644 | 2006-04 | The Kite Runner (2018 Edition) | Khaled Hosseini | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 14 | 9 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Edition) | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 11 | 10 | 9787540487645 | 2018-06 | Moments We Shared | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 11 | 9787550022577 | 2019-02 | Better Days | Jiu Yuexi | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 16 | 12 | 9787559620187 | 2018-10 | Ran Freely | Wu Zhe | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 20 | 13 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 15 | 14 | 9787020090006 | 2012-07 | Fortress Besieged | Qian Zhongshu | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 17 | 15 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 18 | 16 | 9787530215593 | 2017-06 | To Live | Yu hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 3 | 17 | 9787020008735 | 1998-07 | Journey to the West | Wu Cheng’en | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 25 | 18 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787569930344 | 2019-08 | Underachieve (2) | Mu Gua Huang | Bejing Times Chinese Press |
| 22 | 20 | 9787506365680 | 2012-12 | Chronicle of a Blood Merchant | Yu hua | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 27 | 21 | 9787530219218 | 2019-02 | Life is Like Ocean | Mai Jia | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 10 | 22 | 9787020002207 | 1998-07 | Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 23 | 9787544277617 | 2015-06 | Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 13 | 24 | 9787020008728 | 1998-07 | Romance of the Three Kingdoms | Luo Guanzhong | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 25 | 9787569930337 | 2019-06 | Underachieve | Mu Gua Huang | Bejing Times Chinese Press |
| 29 | 26 | 9787532776771 | 2018-03 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 30 | 27 | 9787530211564 | 2012-03 | Life | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 23 | 28 | 9787550032125 | 2019-02 | Outcasts | Claire McFall | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 24 | 29 | 9787550013247 | 2015-05 | Ferryman | Claire McFall | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 12 | 30 | 9787020008742 | 1998-07 | Water Margin | Shi Nai’an,Luo Guanzhong | People’s Literature Publishing House |
OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers in China, October 2019
| September 2019 Ranking | October 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 5 | 1 | 9787509837412 | 20160-6 | CPC Ninety Years (3 volumes) | Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee | Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 2 | 9787544387866 | 2019-09 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (4) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 2 | 3 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline | Jane Nelsen | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 6 | 4 | 9787539999883 | 2017-03 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 9 | 5 | 9787544382052 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (3) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 8 | 6 | 9787544382045 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (2) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 10 | 7 | 9787559418111 | 20180-4 | 30 Minutes of World History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 14 | 8 | 9787559436184 | 2019-05 | 30 Minutes of Tang Poetry in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 9 | 9787559435552 | 2019-09 | 30 Minutes of Tang Poetry in Cartoon (2) | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 11 | 10 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B.Rosenberg | Huaxia Publishing House |
| 12 | 11 | 9787520710350 | 2019-07 | The 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China | Zhang Shiyi | Orient Press |
| Not Ranked | 12 | 9787544387873 | 2019-08 | 30 Minutes of Economics in Cartoon: Common Sense of Life | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787515356822 | 2019-07 | Course on Chinese Culture | Yu Qiuyu | China Youth Press |
| 4 | 14 | 9787540492380 | 201-906 | The Kids | Da Bing | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 3 | 15 | 9787020116133 | 2016-06 | Red Star Over China | Edgar Snow | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 15 | 16 | 9787201088822 | 2014-09 | How to Win Friends & Influence People | Dale Carnegie | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 16 | 17 | 9787559620125 | 2018-05 | Genius on the Left, Lunatic on the Right (Full Version)(New Edition) | Gao Ming | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 13 | 18 | 9787201094014 | 2015-09 | Six Records of a Floating Life | Shen Fu | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 28 | 19 | 9787201088945 | 2014-12 | No More Than Skins | Cai Chongda | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787506379236 | 2015-05 | The Tough Brilliance (Revised Edition) | Jin Yinan | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 19 | 21 | 9787503561634 | 2017-08 | Xi Jinping’s Seven Years as an Educated Youth | Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C | Central Party School Press |
| 22 | 22 | 9787506376631 | 2014-11 | A Good Mother is More Important than a Good Teacher (5 Million Volumes Commemorative Edition) | Yin Jianli | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 1 | 23 | 9787101127867 | 2017-09 | Translation and Annotation of the Analects of Confucius | Zhonghua Book Company | |
| 7 | 24 | 9787540484880 | 2018-01 | The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (Commemorative Edition) | Lin Yutang | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 20 | 25 | 9787540489304 | 2019-01 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 29 | 26 | 9787108063106 | 2018-06 | We Three (Third Edition) | Yang Jiang | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 18 | 27 | 9787535447340 | 2014-02 | The Poignant Culture Traveling | Yu Qiuyu | Changjiang Literature & Art Press Co.,Ltd. |
| Not Ranked | 28 | 9787108009821 | 1998-07 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 17 | 29 | 9787549550173 | 2014-01 | Seeing Off | Long Yingtai | Guangxi Normal University Press |
| 21 | 30 | 9787530214787 | 2017-04 | The Stories of the Sahara | Echo | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers in China, October 2019
| September 2019 Ranking | october 2019 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 2 | 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 |
| 3 | 3 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Edition) | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 6 | 4 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 4 | 5 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 10 | 6 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 12 | 7 | 9787544277617 | 2015-06 | Love in the Time of Cholera | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 11 | 8 | 9787532776771 | 2018-03 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Japan | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 8 | 9 | 9787550032125 | 2019-02 | Outcasts | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 9 | 10 | 9787550013247 | 2015-05 | Ferryman | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 7 | 11 | 9787530217054 | 2017-12 | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | Brazil | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 13 | 12 | 9787544280020 | 2019-08 | What Life You Want to Have | Yoshino Genzaburo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 15 | 13 | 9787544291224 | 2017-08 | After School (2017 Edition) | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 16 | 14 | 9787544281102 | 2016-01 | Newcomer | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 15 | 9787550033566 | 2019-09 | Weathering with You | Shinkai Makoto | Japan | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 17 | 16 | 9787559427434 | 2019-02 | The Outsider | Albert Camus | France | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 5 | 17 | 9787506394864 | 2017-09 | Sophie’s World (New Edition) | Jostein Gaarder | Norway | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 14 | 18 | 9787550024212 | 2017-09 | Trespassers | Claire McFall | Britain | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787544384636 | 2018-09 | The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | United States of America | Hainan Publishing House |
| 20 | 20 | 9787544766500 | 2017-01 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | United States of America | Yilin Press |
Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, October 2019
| September 2019 Ranking | October 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. |
| 3 | 2 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B.Rosenberg | United States of America | Huaxia Publishing House |
| 2 | 3 | 9787020116133 | 2017-06 | Red Star Over China | Edgar Snow | United States of America | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 4 | 4 | 9787201088822 | 2014-09 | How to Win Friends & Influence People | Dale Carnegie | United States of America | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 5 | 5 | 9787540489304 | 2019-01 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Japan | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 9 | 6 | 9787108009821 | 2014-03 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | United States of America | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 6 | 7 | 9787514219203 | 2017-09 | The Willpower Instinct (New Edition) | Kelly McGonigal | United States of America | Cultural Development Publishing House |
| 8 | 8 | 9787508660752 | 2017-02 | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 7 | 9 | 9787535732309 | 2001-11 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen W.Hawking | Britain | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| 11 | 10 | 9787508684031 | 2017-12 | Principles | Ray Dalio | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 10 | 11 | 9787521702415 | 2019-02 | The American Trap | Frederic Pierucci,Matthieu Aron | France | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 13 | 12 | 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 | 13 | 9787301110522 | 2006-10 | A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century (Vol.2) | L. S. Stavrianos | United States of America | Peking University Press |
| 12 | 14 | 9787508672069 | 2017-01 | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 16 | 15 | 9787508650890 | 2015-5 | Who Moved My Cheese? | Spencer Johnson | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 20 | 16 | 9787514208788 | 2013-07 | The Willpower Instinct (Hardcover) | Kelly McGonigal | United States of America | Cultural Development Publishing House |
| 17 | 17 | 9787508692098 | 2018-07 | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 18 | 18 | 9787544762885 | 2016-04 | 84, Charing Cross Road | Helene Hanff | United States of America | Yilin Press |
| 19 | 19 | 9787210094906 | 2017-07 | The Scroll Marked | Dale Carnegie,Yang Yi | United States of America | Jiangxi People’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787512505032 | 2019-09 | A Biography of Mao Tse-tung | Dick Wilson | Britain | International Culture Publishing Corporation |
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.
As of July 1, this data is estimated by OpenBook to represent some 60 percent of the total sales activity in China. OpenBook draws point-of-sale data from more than 7,000 bookstores in China, including a total 4,151 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 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.