| Publishing China Week | A generally low-key London Book Fair (LBF), which was largely dominated by Middle Eastern publishers, still gave considerable promotional space to forthcoming books about China. These new titles span myriad genres, from fiction to academia, travel guides to environmental reports and cultural revolution studies to contemporary Chinese art. In addition, the Publishers' Association held a wide-ranging China Publishing Forum, and live author interviews included Tony Parsons (My Favourite Wife) and Xinran (The Good Women of China, Sky Burial and Miss Chopsticks). Here are some of the titles you will be reading about in the coming months.

The headline China publishing story of LBF centred on Macmillan paying a record GBP100,000 for the rights to Professor Yu Dan Explains the Analects of Confucius, which will be published in summer 2009. The deal, abysmally compared by the publisher as the Chinese Chicken Soup for the Soul, almost doubles the previous highest figure paid for the English language rights to a Chinese book - which was held by Jiang Rong's Man Asian Booker Prize Winner, Wolf Totem - in September 2005.

The Most Creative LBF Stand Display award was easily won by artsy publisher Taschen, whose 360-page China: Portrait of a Country showcases the contemporary works of 62 Chinese photographers, together with a chronology listing of all the major political events in China since 1949.

Conversely, the gong for Most Understated Display of a Potential Big Seller must go to Rider Books - an imprint of Random House - whose China: The Truth About Its Human Rights Record, by Frank Ching, was so poorly promoted that booth staff could not even provide a press release.

Upcoming titles of interest include The Cost of Pollution in China: Estimates of Economic and Physical Damage, a highly sensitive, multi-sector report by the World Bank about China's ability to tackle three decades of ecological destruction. The book is currently being rigourously scrutinised in Beijing, and publication has consequently been delayed, but expect to see it in June. The World Bank has also published a report on a relatively under-reported economic zone: China's and India's Challenge to Latin America.

A lower key release, due for publication in June, is China Returns to Africa by Christopher Alden, Daniel Large and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, published by Hurst. This 400-page book provides an academic interpretation of "China's deepening reengagement with Africa." The same publisher is also responsible for last year's Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, by James Millward, which may get a renewed marketing push following recent events unfolding in the region, and Changing Clothes in China, by Antonia Finnane, described glowingly as "an authoritative and definitive study of fashion in modern China."

Several Olympic-themes titles were on display at LBF, most of which warrant very little attention. Harvard University Press is, however, co-promoting its Olympic Dreams: China and Sports 1895-2008, by Xu Guoqi with two other complementary titles: Geremie R. Barme's The Forbidden City and Michael Dutton's Beijing Time.

On the fiction side, Quercus will publish David Wingrove's multi-volume novel, Chung Kuo, which is set 200 years in the future in a world dominated by China. Proud, but wayward, publishing talk from the Quercus Editorial Director describes the new book series as "fusing Shogun and Blade Runner."

Two of the most culturally interesting books on display are both currently without English-language rights deals. Ontario-based Mosaic publishing is seeking bidders for translated version of both Contemporary Chinese Dance and China in the Movies (1978-2006), the latter compiled by Zheng Dafeng and Li Ershi.

The travel section at LBF featured scores of glossily produced new China travel guides, though publishers still seem convinced that there are actually only two cities in the whole nation. Beyond the multitude of doorstep-sized, pan-China hand-holders, the only Chinese city guides on offer were for Beijing and Shanghai. Small credit at least, then, to Insight Guides for also producing a detailed city map to Xi'an. Of the travel guide pack, Harper Collins - which recently opened a Beijing office and is "scouting for Chinese titles to translate into English" - has at least tried to reframe the rapidly ageing, and internet-challenged, guidebook format with its forthcoming Travel Around China, which apparently includes "information on more than 1,200 tourist attractions and a three-dimensional map." We expect to spot a fair share of Olympic tourists on Dongchang'an Dajie holding this one up to the summer sun and asking themselves "So, just where is Tiananmen Square, then?"

Last update : Friday, 18 April 2008

Keywords : London Book Fair, China Week, Publishing, London

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