Jun 09
April 2010:
China’s Best Selling Fiction
Ranking Compiled by OpenBook
Published by China Publishing Today
(Comments by Bruce Humes)
| Rank
(sales) |
English Title/Author
(for reference only—many have no English title) |
Original Title/Author | China Publisher | Comments/links to English Sites |
| 1 | Story of Lala’s Promotion/Li Ke | 杜拉拉升职／李可 | Shaanxi Normal University Press | Why Office Politics Sells in China, and the latest on the movie adaptation, Go Lala Go! |
| 2 | Tiny Times 2.0/Guo Jingming | 小时代 2.0 虚铜时代／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | NPR’s interview with one of China’s youngest and highest earning authors. The hardback sold almost 40,000 copies online in a single day when launched end 2009. |
| 3 | Lost Symbol/Dan Brown | Lost Symbol/Dan Brown | People’s Literature & Art Press | |
| 4 | Picturing My Love, Honey/Anthony | 这些都是你给我的爱／安东尼 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 5 | Lala (2) huanian sishui/Li Ke | 杜拉拉 （2）华年似水／李可 | Shaanxi Normal University Press | |
| 6 | Lala (3) : My Struggle This Year/Li Ke | 我在这斗争的一年里／李可 | Shaanxi Normal University Press | |
| 7 | Snail House/Liu Liu | 蜗居／六六 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | The novel about China’s urban mortgage slaves is hot, but the TV show is banned. |
| 8 | The Autumn Boy/Li Feng | 燃烧的男孩／李枫 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 9 | Story of Lala’s Promotion (2 volumes)/Li Ke | 杜拉拉升职（全二册）／李可 | Shaanxi Normal University Press | |
| 10 | Desert Wolf—Jedi Exploration /Nanpai Sanshu | 大漠苍狼－绝地勘探／南派三叔 | Shidai Wenyi Publishing | |
| 11 | Tiny Times 1.5 (1)/Guo Jing-Ming | 小时代 1.5青木 时代（2）／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 12 | Tiny Times 1.0/Guo Jing-Ming | 小时代 1.0 折纸时代／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 13 | Twilight/Stephanie Meyer | Twilight/Stephanie Meyer | Jieli Publishing House | Could it be the footnotes? |
| 14 | Tiny Times 1.5 (2)/Guo Jing-Ming | 小时代 1.5青木 时代（2）／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 15 | Eclipse/Stephanie Meyer | Eclipse/Stephanie Meyer | Jieli Publishing House | Could it be the footnotes? |
| 16 | Breaking Dawn/Stephanie Meyer | Breaking Dawn/Stephanie Meyer | Jieli Publishing House | Could it be the footnotes? |
| 17 | Wolf Totem/Jiang Rong | 狼图腾／姜戎 | Out now in English from Penguin, which reportedly paid the author $100,000 for the rights. Analysis of the work in the China context and a book review. | |
| 18 | Before You Get Lost/Xiao Kaiyin | 迷津／萧凯茵 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 19 | Meet the Unknown You/Zhang Defen | 遇见未知的自己／张德芬 | Huaxia Publishing House | |
| 20 | New Moon/Stephanie Meyer | New Moon/Stephanie Meyer | Jieli Publishing House | Could it be the footnotes? |
| 21 | City of Fantasy/Guo Jing-Ming | 幻城／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | Melds fantasy and traditional Chinese martial arts fiction. Sold more than a million copies, despite charges of being highly derivative. But the author has been fined for plagiarism by a court in China for another work. |
| 22 | Red Crag/Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan | 红岩／罗广斌，杨益言 | China Youth Publishing | 1961 novel about the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. |
| 23 | Until the Last Word/Lu Lili | 直到最后一句／卢丽莉 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 24 | Hawthorn Tree Forever/Ai Mi | 山楂树之恋／艾米 | Jiangsu People’s Publishing | Rights sold to buyers in EU, Brazil and Canada. |
| 25 | Cry Me a River/Guo Jingming | 悲伤逆流成河／郭敬明 | Changjiang Literature & Art Press | |
| 26 | Striking it Rich: Diary of China’s Poorest Guy/Lao Kang | 全中国最穷的小伙子发财日记／重庆老康 | Shanghai Brilliant Publishing | Read a synopsis |
| 27 | Little Reunion/Eileen Chang | 小团员／张爱玲 | Beijing October Arts & Literature Publishing House | “Little Reunion, written in 1976, is the love story of a traditional Chinese girl and a married national traitor. It greatly resembles that of Eileen Chang and her first husband Hu Lancheng…” |
| 28 | Rush to the Dead Summer/Guo Jingming | 1995-2005 夏至末至／郭敬明 | Chunfeng Literature & Art Press | |
| 29 | In the Courts of the Sun/Brian d’Amato | 2012： 玛雅末日预言／Brian d’Amato | Volumes Publishing Company | |
| 30 | The Kite Runner/Khaled Hosseini | The Kite Runner／Khaled Hosseini | Shanghai People’s Publishing | To find out what happens when a world bestseller is translated into Chinese, read An Afghan Childhood Re-packaged for the Middle Kingdom |
e for fiction. American Stephanie Meyer, vampire novelist, and Guo Jingming, reputedly the Middle Kingdom’s best-earning writer in 2008, both boast an impressive four titles within the Top 30 this month. But surviving in the corporate jungle and realizing those enticing white-collar dreams are not forgotten either, as shown by the popularity of Lala’s Promotion (Number 1 nationwide) and eerily titled Lurking in the Office. Wolf Totem, set in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, is showing real staying power, and the newly released Tibetan epic, King Gesar–in Chinese–has climbed the charts quickly. Six of the books are new to the list, and I’ve been reading one, Love in Lijiang, that is set in multi-ethnic Yunnan’s Lijiang. Kinda cute… 
Just when the long-winded best-seller Tibet Code (藏地密码)– all seven volumes! — had just about fallen off the radar, along comes another heavyweight novel sure to rekindle interest in the region: King Gesar (
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