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James Madison in Shanghai?
Inside China's Children's Book Industry
By Florrie Binford Kichler
How does a small children's book publisher born and raised in the Midwest get the opportunity to travel halfway around the world with colleagues from six countries to get an insider's view of the fastest-growing book market on the planet?
She joins the Stanford University Publishing Program's weeklong Travel-Study Tour to China for publishers. I traveled with eighteen fellow publishers for eight days in late August to visit Chinese publishers and bookstores, participate in seminars with our Chinese colleagues, and explore the Beijing International Book Fair. The chance for a rare glimpse of the Chinese book industry from the inside out was only exceeded by the sheer adventure of visiting a country described by one native has having "changed more in the last ten years than in the previous five hundred."
My goals for making the trip were both personal and professional. Leaping out of one's comfort zone is scary, but I was ready to face the challenge of traveling fifteen hours on a plane (one way) to a country where culture, language, and government were so totally different than what I was used to. To say nothing of spending the week with a group of strangers—book-loving, publisher strangers—but still strangers.
Professionally, I wanted to learn—about the industry, about the culture, about doing business, and, on a micro level, about whether the Chinese market would have any interest in my series of children's historical fiction about famous Americans.
Let the journey begin. . . .
Bookstores
Book superstores exist and thrive in the larger Chinese cities and the majority are government owned, although privately owned stores have emerged in the last few years. Unlike in the U.S., however, there are no national chains of bookstores, nor is there a national book distributor. Chain stores are regional, as are book distributors, and, according to one Chinese industry professional, small bookstores are not only surviving but growing. As economies of scale become more and more important to maintain China's economic growth, it will be interesting to see if the large bookstores go national and the small bookstores begin facing the same competitive challenges as those in the U.S.
Our group visited the Foreign Language Bookstore in Shanghai, where the display, setup, and breadth of stock carried rivaled any large chain in the U.S. Many books were in English only, but there were dual Chinese/English editions as well. Chinese books are priced significantly lower than in the U.S.—the average price of a children's paperback is 10% of its counterpart in this country.
I was surprised and delighted to see a series of books for children about the American presidents (imagine seeing James Madison written in Chinese characters!) and another series featuring American heroes—including Davy Crockett! During our meeting with the Editor of China Book Business Report in Beijing, we learned that in China, unlike in the U.S., schools don't buy educational books for their students, parents do. He also pointed out that the demand for books that teach English is increasing.
Copyright—a word about Harry
Deservedly, piracy is a major concern in China and was the topic of our keynote address during the Stanford-China Publishers Seminar, in which our group of international publishers met with more than thirty Chinese publishers and government officials to discuss the status of the industry. The Vice General Director of the National Copyright Administration of China assured us that the government took piracy seriously and was continuing to pursue copyright violators.
We've all read the many stories in the press about illegal copying of the Harry Potter series. The Chinese editions of the five previous Harry Potter titles have sold more than 7.14 million copies so far in that country, and, to defend against pirates, in volume six the publisher used a special green paper created with the use of nuclear technology!
Still, author J. K. Rowling and the Chinese publisher recently felt it necessary to issue a formal public statement asserting that Ms. Rowling is the sole legal copyright owner and the People's Literature Publishing House in China is the exclusive legal publisher. Victoria Sutherland, publisher of ForeWord magazine and exhibitor at the Beijing Book Fair, remarked that upon accompanying the Chinese publisher of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People "on a visit to Beijing's largest bookstore (state owned), he pointed to his book—it shared the shelf with eight other 'illegal' versions!" Clearly there is still work to be done.
Series Sell
As of September 2005, thirteen of the top fifteen best-selling children's books were series titles, and the name Potter didn't appear! Titles like Happy Star: Adventure of a Computer, Happy Star: Happy Forever, and Panda Monium 1 (through 7) point out what the industry newsletter China Publishing1 observes—publishers are enabled to achieve greater market portions relying on series books. This is further enhanced by the continuity of children's book readers. As a publisher of a children's book series, I certainly agree with both statements—if we don't achieve greater market portions (market share) we are out of business, and we count on our young readers to keep coming back for more. I would add that the comfort and familiarity of meeting old friends in the form of recurring characters also add to the popularity of series titles.
Clearly, what influences children to read in Shanghai and Shelbyville (Indiana) is not necessarily a world apart.
And in the end . . .
In between visits to Chinese publishers, printers, and bookstores, we managed to climb the Great Wall, tour the Forbidden City, and gaze in awe at the giant portrait of Mao smiling benignly down on Tiananmen Square. Our last official visit as a group was to Cultural Relics Publishing, whose mission is to preserve and disseminate Chinese art and history. As we toured their museum of ancient Chinese manuscripts and artifacts, followed by a visit to their modern offices and printing plant, it struck me that this particular company was a symbol of China itself—a contrast between the old and the new, focusing on the future but unable to ignore the past, struggling to preserve a society and government in the face of pressures brought by the western capitalist invasion.
Whether the Chinese government can keep the lid on society will ultimately determine its survival, and it is the children of today's China who, as they explore despite an Internet that the best efforts at censorship knows no territorial boundaries, will ultimately transform that country. And of course, whether electronic or printed, words in the form of information will be at the heart of the transformation.
On a personal note, the real value of my visit to China with the Stanford Publishing Travel/Study Tour was not learning the Chinese children's book business. Nor was it participating in seminars, or visiting the Beijing Book Fair, or even exploring a new market for my own company's books, although all those opportunities were indeed extraordinary.
It was looking out my hotel window the first morning in Shanghai and seeing a crowd practicing T'ai Chi in the square below.
It was the smile on the face of my Chinese colleague who was so proud to converse in English.
It was the opportunity to meet and learn from an international group of publishing colleagues.
Throughout my life, books have so often opened new worlds to me, and, once again, it was due to books that I traveled to China. The insight into a culture so different was only exceeded by the perspective I gained on my own. •
1 China Publishing, September 2005, CNPIEC Information Technology Co., Ltd. www.cnpeak.com/eng (return to article)
Florrie Binford Kichler is the founder of Patria Press, Inc., publisher of the award-winning Young Patriots Series of historical fiction for young readers. Patria Press, Inc. is a member of CBC, and Ms. Kichler serves on the boards of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the ACLU of Indiana, and the Women's MBA Alumni Advisory Board of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
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About the author:
Florrie Binford Kichler is the founder of Patria Press, Inc., publisher of the award-winning Young Patriots Series of historical fiction for young readers. Patria Press, Inc. is a member of CBC, and Ms. Kichler serves on the boards of PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, the ACLU of Indiana, and the Women's MBA Alumni Advisory Board of the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
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