In Shanghai, an April 8 shot. Image – iStockphoto: Robert Wei
A ‘Key Opinion Leader’ Rocks a Book Release
When we looked at the March bestsellers in China, the familiar patterns of the coronavirus COVID-19’s damage were in evidence, although the Chinese market had been the first to undergo them, of course.
Image: Worldometer, June 11, 2020
Bookstores had been shuttered, some valiantly trying to manage with special delivery to customers. And Beijing OpenBook, our partner in producing these reports, expected to see some real energy return to the charts in April.
As Matthew C. Klein was reporting for Barron’s in the latter part of April, “The big headline was that China’s gross domestic product was 9.8 percent lower in the first three months of the year than it was at the end of 2019. That’s equivalent to a 34-percent drop at an annual rate.”
An extraordinary test of most of Wuhan’s population at the end of May revealed, as Reuters reported, what officials said were no new confirmed cases and some 300 asymptomatic carriers of the virus. And as this story is published, the early June 11 update at Worldometer reports China to be 18th in the world for caseloads, with 84,209 cases and 4,638 deaths.
What can be seen in the book market, OpenBook’s information tells us, is new energy behind both some consumer favorites and some more recent titles.
In fiction, for example, Life is Like Ocean by Mai Jia rose nine places to the top of the fiction list. This big jump is attributed to the efforts of Wei Ya, a “KOL”—a “key opinion leader”—on the Taobao platform, who staged a live online program on April 12 in support of Mai Jia’s book.
And so popular is this kind of retail influence among many Chinese young adults that in some recent surveys, it’s reported that as many as half the respondents said they’d like to become “key opinion leaders,” themselves.
But in no market, it seems, do China’s readers get far from the popular and prolific Japanese author Higashino Keigo.
As it happens, Keigo has yet another new release in China and that latest title, Silent Parade, entered at No. 6 in April—no KOL needed, thank you very much. “Higashino Heat” is a thing, at least among our associates at Beijing OpenBook. They’ve watched this super-seller’s reception grow for years.
Silent Parade was first published in 2018 in Japanese, and was released in Chinese in March. After a dearth of new books in February and March because of the pandemic, the consumer base apparently was primed for new Keigo content.
Silent Parade is off to major sales in both physical and online retail channels, we’re told.
And at No. 23, you see the return to the chart of a title first seen there in 2017, To Kill a Mockingbird. While the Chinese book market as we see it in April is not yet “back to normal”–and that massive testing of millions in Wuhan was a preventive against fears of new infection clusters–what this sighting of Harper Lee’s 1960 title does represent is an abiding curiosity among many Chinese readers for prominent American literature.
Because Jean Louise Finch in the book is six years old, China’s primary and secondary schools recommend the book for students, our OpenBook advisers say.
And World Book Day on April 23 played a role in the showing the title made, with Mockingbird promotions from digital retail outlets highlighting it as a classic consumers’ choice.
In nonfiction, not to be missed in April: two new books on the journey of Xi Jinping to his arrival as president of the People’s Republic, Xi Jinping in Ningda move onto the chart for the first time at No. 8, and Xi Jinping in Xiamen entered at No. 23.
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, April 2020
| March 2020 Ranking | April 2020 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 10 | 1 | 9787530219218 | 2019-02 | Life is Like Ocean | Mai Jia | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 3 | 2 | 9787536692930 | 2008-01 | The Three-Body Problem | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 5 | 3 | 9787536693968 | 2008-05 | The Dark Forest | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 4 | 4 | 9787229030933 | 2010-11 | Death’s End | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 2 | 5 | 9787500601593 | 2005-08 | Red Crag | Luo Guangbin,Yang Yiyan | China Youth Press |
| Not Ranked | 6 | 9787544280662 | 2020-03 | Silent Parade | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 9 | 7 | 9787530216781 | 2017-06 | Ordinary Word (3 Volumns) | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 1 | 8 | 9787506365437 | 2010-06 | To Live | Yu hua | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 6 | 9 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 7 | 10 | 9787540487645 | 2018-06 | Moments We Shared | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 11 | 9787559614636 | 2017-12 | Fang Si-Qi’s First Love Paradise | Lin Yihan | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 29 | 12 | 9787530216774 | 2017-07 | Ordinary Word | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 8 | 13 | 9787208061644 | 2006-04 | The Kite Runner (2018 Edition) | Khaled Hosseini | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 23 | 14 | 9787500680239 | 2009-01 | Pioneering | Liu Qing | China Youth Press |
| 16 | 15 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Edition) | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 14 | 16 | 9787544270878 | 2014-04 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 26 | 17 | 9787559620187 | 2018-10 | Ran Freely | Wu Zhe | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 11 | 18 | 9787020002207 | 1998-07 | Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 28 | 19 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 13 | 20 | 9787020090006 | 2012-07 | Fortress Besieged | Qian Zhongshu | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 30 | 21 | 9787020127894 | 2017-07 | Fortress Besieged | Qian Zhongshu | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 22 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 23 | 9787544766500 | 2017-01 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Yilin Press |
| 25 | 24 | 9787506394864 | 2017-09 | Sophie’s World (New Edition) | Jostein Gaarder | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 21 | 25 | 9787020008728 | 1998-07 | Romance of the Three Kingdoms | Luo Guanzhong | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 20 | 26 | 9787532776771 | 2018-03 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 22 | 27 | 9787530215593 | 2017-06 | To Live | Yu hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 17 | 28 | 9787020008735 | 1998-07 | Journey to the West | Wu Cheng’en | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 27 | 29 | 9787020008742 | 1998-07 | Water Margin | Shi Nai’an,Luo Guanzhong | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 30 | 9787201116693 | 2017-05 | My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry | Fredrik Backman | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, April 2020
| March 2020 Ranking | April 2020 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | 9787544276986 | 2019-10 | Educated: A Memoir | Tara Westover | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 2 | 2 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline | Jane Nelsen | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 3 | 3 | 9787201088945 | 2014-12 | No More Than Skins | Cai Chongda | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 6 | 4 | 9787540489304 | 2019-01 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 4 | 5 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B.Rosenberg | Huaxia Publishing House |
| 12 | 6 | 9787559620125 | 2018-05 | Genius on the Left, Lunatic on the Right (Full Version)(New Edition) | Gao Ming | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 5 | 7 | 9787544387866 | 2019-09 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (4) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 8 | 9787503567292 | 2020-01 | Xi Jinping in Ningde | Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C | Central Party School Press |
| 11 | 9 | 9787108063106 | 2018-06 | We Three (Third Edition) | Yang Jiang | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 7 | 10 | 9787539999883 | 2017-03 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 22 | 11 | 9787559435552 | 2019-09 | 30 Minutes of Tang Poetry in Cartoon (2) | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 8 | 12 | 9787544382052 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (3) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 10 | 13 | 9787544382045 | 2018-05 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon (2) | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 23 | 14 | 9787559436184 | 2019-05 | 30 Minutes of Tang Poetry in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 15 | 15 | 9787559418111 | 2018-04 | 30 Minutes of World History in Cartoon | Chen Lei | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 13 | 16 | 9787508660752 | 2017-02 | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 14 | 17 | 9787508689586 | 2018-07 | Economics Lecture Notes | Xue Zhaofeng | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 24 | 18 | 9787544387873 | 2019-08 | 30 Minutes of Economics in Cartoon: Common Sense of Life | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 29 | 19 | 9787530216590 | 2017-04 | Silent Majority | Wang Xiaobo | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 18 | 20 | 9787540484880 | 2018-01 | The Gay Genius: The Life and Times of Su Tungpo (Commemorative Edition) | Lin Yutang | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 25 | 21 | 9787544388672 | 2019-09 | 30 Minutes of Economics in Cartoon: Financial Crisis | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| 21 | 22 | 9787521708554 | 2019-09 | Style | Wu Jun | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| Not Ranked | 23 | 9787503567285 | 2020-01 | Xi Jinping in Xiamen | Party School of the Central Committee of C.P.C | Central Party School Press |
| 26 | 24 | 9787530214787 | 2017-04 | The Stories of the Sahara | Echo | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 25 | 9787530216712 | 2017-04 | A Unique Pig | Wang Xiaobo | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 20 | 26 | 9787544389372 | 2019-11 | 30 Minutes of Chinese History in Cartoon: Traditional Chinese Festivals | Chen Lei | Hainan Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 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 |
| 16 | 28 | 9787540481551 | 2018-11 | The Emotional Quotient Lesson of Kevin Tsai: Live for Yourself for One Time | Kevin Tsai | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 27 | 29 | 9787535732309 | 2001-11 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen W.Hawking | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| 17 | 30 | 9787540493691 | 2019-11 | Because This is Your Life | Kevin Tsai | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers, April 2020
| March 2020 Ranking | April 2020 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| Not Ranked | 1 | 9787544280662 | 2020-03 | Silent Parade | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 1 | 2 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 2 | 3 | 9787208061644 | 2018-02 | The Kite Runner (2018 Edition) | Khaled Hosseini | USA | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 7 | 4 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Edition) | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 5 | 5 | 9787544270878 | 2014-04 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 12 | 6 | 9787544285148 | 2016-10 | Malice | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 4 | 7 | 9787544280020 | 2019-08 | What Life You Want to Have | Yoshino Genzaburo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 15 | 8 | 9787544267618 | 2014-06 | The Devotion of Suspect X | Higashino Keigo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 17 | 9 | 9787544766500 | 2017-01 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | USA | Yilin Press |
| 11 | 10 | 9787506394864 | 2017-09 | Sophie’s World (New Edition) | Jostein Gaarder | Norway | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 11 | 9787221153159 | 2019-08 | Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 | Cho Nam-Joo | Korea | Guizhou People’s Publishing House |
| 10 | 12 | 9787532776771 | 2018-03 | Norwegian Wood (30th Anniversary Edition) | Haruki Murakami | Japan | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787544297059 | 2020-03 | Love in the Time of Cholera (Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 19 | 14 | 9787201116693 | 2017-05 | My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry | Fredrik Backman | Sweden | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 9 | 15 | 9787539983295 | 2015-10 | Foundation | Isaac Asimov | USA | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 13 | 16 | 9787544384636 | 2018-09 | The Long Goodbye | Raymond Chandler | USA | Hainan Publishing House |
| 8 | 17 | 9787550013247 | 2015-05 | Ferryman | Claire McFall | UK | Baihuazhou Literature & Art Publishing House |
| 14 | 18 | 9787539982830 | 2015-06 | Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng | USA | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787530217054 | 2017-12 | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | Brazil | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 16 | 20 | 9787539971810 | 2015-04 | The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry | Gabrielle Zevin | USA | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, April 2020
| March 2020 Ranking | April 2020 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 2 | 1 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline | Jane Nelsen | USA | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 5 | 2 | 9787540489304 | 2019-01 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Japan | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 3 | 3 | 9787508095226 | 2018-09 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B. Rosenberg | USA | Huaxia Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 4 | 9787807639817 | 2013-07 | Danshari | Yamashita Eiko | Japan | Guangxi Science & Technology Press |
| 4 | 5 | 9787540471194 | 2019-02 | Relationship: Bridge to the Soul | Christoper Moon | Canada | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 8 | 6 | 9787508687216 | 2018-08 | Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty | Abhijit V.Banerjee, Esther Duflo | USA | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| Not Ranked | 7 | 9787547734315 | 2019-09 | Life is Worth Living | Nakamura Tsuneko | Japan | Beijing daily publishing house |
| Not Ranked | 8 | 9787220114045 | 2019-07 | Rich Dad Poor Dad | Robert T. Kiyosaki | USA | Sichuan People’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 9 | 9787532772322 | 2016-08 | Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies | Jared Diamond | USA | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| 9 | 10 | 9787514219203 | 2017-09 | The Willpower Instinct (New Edition) | Kelly McGonigal | USA | Cultural Development Publishing House |
| 6 | 11 | 9787201088822 | 2014-09 | How to Win Friends & Influence People | Dale Carnegie | USA | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 7 | 12 | 9787508660752 | 2017-02 | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787111551287 | 2016-10 | Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise | Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool | USA | China Machine Press |
| Not Ranked | 14 | 9787210096528 | 2017-09 | Mindset: The New Psychology of Success | Carol S.Dweck | USA | Jiangxi People’s Publishing House |
| 10 | 15 | 9787508684031 | 2017-12 | Principles | Ray Dalio | USA | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 14 | 16 | 9787108009821 | 2014-03 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | USA | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| 11 | 17 | 9787535732309 | 2001-11 | A Brief History of Time | Stephen W. Hawking | UK | Hunan Science & Technology Press |
| Not Ranked | 18 | 9787201151304 | 2019-09 | One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science | George Gamow | USA | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 16 | 19 | 9787508672069 | 2017-01 | Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow | Yuval Noah Harari | Israel | CITIC Publishing House Co.,Ltd |
| 12 | 20 | 9787301109489 | 2006-10 | A Global History: From Prehistory to the 21st Century (Vol.1) | L. S. Stavrianos | USA | Peking University 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.
Jiang Boyan LLC advises authors and right’s holders on global intellectual property and investment opportunities. 
As of January 1, 2020, OpenBook monitored more than 10,000 online and offline bookstores.
The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores. The offline channels include 4,495 bookstores. Coverage includes most of the state-owned and influential privately owned bookstores in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are not included in OpenBook’s system.
In 2019, OpenBook tracked around 71.72 billion RMB in sales (US$10.1 billion).
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. And more from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here and at the CORONAVIRUS tab at the top of each page of our site.