Last week Xinhua reported that a book called ‘Ten Thousand Letters’ (一万封信) about the HIV/AIDS situation in China’s countryside won the first Chinese Publications and Media Awards for the best book of 2004. The awards were organized by the newspapers The Beijing News and Southern Metropolitan News.
The author is Gao Yaojie, an 80-year-old retired doctor. She has been working as an AIDS / HIV activist since the 1990s, and was one of the people responsible for making the government come clean about the Henan blood transfusion scandal.
Her book is a compilation of letters from AIDS sufferers. She says that she will donate the 50,000 yuan prize to AIDS education.
In 2001, Gao was awarded the Jonathan Mann Award from the Global Health Council.
Xinhua’s English report on the award notes that the book is not exactly a bestseller:
Despite high praise from the media, Gao’s book received little response from the market. In the Beijing Book Building, less than 10 books were sold in the first month. In Shanghai, only two books were sold at its largest bookstore, the Shanghai Book City. The book is not even available from online bookstores like dangdang.com.
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