{"id":1566,"date":"2005-07-09T10:19:50","date_gmt":"2005-07-09T02:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danwei.webfactional.com\/?p=1566"},"modified":"2005-07-09T10:19:50","modified_gmt":"2005-07-09T02:19:50","slug":"beijing_bestsellers_initial_d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laodanwei.org\/wp\/media-and-advertising\/beijing_bestsellers_initial_d.php","title":{"rendered":"Beijing Bestsellers: Initial D<\/i>, Jonathan Spence, and Chrysanthemum<\/i> translations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"JDM050708initials.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Jay Chou and Edison Chen on the cover of the celebrated classic, Initial D<\/i>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Teenage readers put two new books into the overall top ten list this week. Pictured is Initial D: The Movie Book<\/i> (#4), which according to the publisher, contains “a fascinating story, images from the film, dialogue and interviews, and behind-the-scenes tidbits, all in one volume. Also included with Initial D: The Movie Book<\/i> is a valuable, collectable movie poster.”<\/p>\n

New at #10 is The Basement<\/i>, the third novel in the “Island” series put out by Guo Jingming’s publisher (the second was Finally We Are No One<\/i> by Luoluo). The author goes by the name BENJAMIN and has published several award-winning graphic novels in recent years. The Basement<\/i> is the story of rock musicians and their lives and loves. The remainder of the overall bestseller list is pretty much the same as last week’s, with the joint history text giving up the top spot to Dan Brown.<\/p>\n

Most of the academic bestsellers list is made up of translations of foreign books. Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon<\/i> is at the top for the second week, while the remainder of the list contains such varied authors as Jane Jacobs, Ruth Benedict, Jonathan Spence, Raymond Williams, and Machiavelli.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"JDM050708spences.jpg\"<\/a><\/div>\n

The Shanghai Far East Publishing House has been reissuing uniform editions of previously translated works by Jonathan Spence. Most of them have been on the academic bestsellers list at one time or another; in the first week of June there were four Jonathan Spence books in the top ten. The Search for Modern China<\/i> (#8) has been on the list pretty regularly since early this year, with the other books (Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-Hsi Emperor<\/i>, The Death of Woman Wang<\/i>, Treason by the Book<\/i>, Chinese Roundabout<\/i>, and The Emperor of China<\/i>) rotating in and out. The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci<\/i>, The Chan’s Great Continent<\/i>, and God’s Chinese Son<\/i> have also been translated. The translators preface to The Gate of Heavenly Peace<\/i> (published in English in 1982; mainland translation in 1998 after an earlier translation from Taiwan) reads:<\/p>\n

Of course, due to ideological differences between East and West, it is impossible for the views of an American historian on the Chinese revolution to have no differences from our own. We trust that readers will be aware of this point…Moreover, during the course of translation and editing, we have dealt with certain unsuitable paragraphs through necessary deletions or technical alterations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Naturally, Spence’s biography of Mao, translated and published by Taiwan’s Left Bank in 2002, is absent from his collected works on the mainland.<\/p>\n

\"JDM050708chrysb.jpg\"<\/a>\"JDM050708chrysc.jpg\"<\/a>\"JDM050708chrysa.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Three versions of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Another popular work in translation is The Chrysanthemum and the Sword<\/i>, the classic analysis of wartime Japan by the American cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict. It occupies the third position on the academic chart this week. Or, at least the version published by The Commercial Press does (far right). There are actually three separate translations currently in print, all of them legal since international copyright expired on the book expired in 1998. The Commercial Press translation was originally published in 1990 while the copyright was still in effect. The current printing uses the same plates, so it’s still quite cheap.<\/p>\n

The other versions came out just this year to take advantage of the country’s fascination with and distaste for things Japanese. They include wartime photos and images of Japanese art, and hence are two or three times more expensive than the plain-text Commercial Press edition. The teaser text on the cover of the edition published by China Social Press (far right) somewhat oversells the content, promising to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

Why did Japan invade China?<\/p>\n

Why did America drop the atomic bomb?<\/p>\n

Why then did America help Japan rebuild?<\/p>\n

Will Japan once again turn its butcher blade on Asia?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The academic bestseller list for the week of 7\/2–7\/9:<\/p>\n

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  1. (1) The Western Canon<\/i> by Harold Bloom. (\u5e03\u9c81\u59c6, \u300a\u897f\u65b9\u6b63\u5178\u300b)<\/li>\n
  2. (-) The Death and Life of Great American Cities<\/i> by Jane Jacobs. (\u96c5\u5404\u5e03\u65af, \u300a\u7f8e\u56fd\u57ce\u5e02\u7684\u6b7b\u4e0e\u751f\u300b)<\/li>\n
  3. (2) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword<\/i> by Ruth Benedict. (\u672c\u5c3c\u8fea\u514b\u7279,\u300a\u83ca\u4e0e\u5200\u300b)<\/li>\n
  4. (3) Classroom Lectures on Research into the History of Thought<\/i> by Ge Zhaoguang. Subtitled Scope, perspective, and methodology<\/i>. (\u845b\u5146\u5149, \u300a\u601d\u60f3\u53f2\u7814\u7a76\u8bfe\u5802\u8bb2\u5f55\u300b)<\/li>\n
  5. (4) Ts’ao Yin and the K’ang-Hsi Emperor<\/i> by Jonathan Spence. (\u53f2\u666f\u8fc1, \u300a\u66f9\u5bc5\u4e0e\u5eb7\u7199\u300b)<\/li>\n
  6. (6) Keywords<\/i> by Raymond Williams. (\u5a01\u5ec9\u65af, \u300a\u5173\u952e\u8bcd\u300b)<\/li>\n
  7. (5) Discourses on Livy<\/i> by Niccol\u00f2 Machiavelli. (\u9a6c\u57fa\u96c5\u7ef4\u91cc, \u300a\u8bba\u674e\u7ef4\u300b)<\/li>\n
  8. (9) The Search for Modern China<\/i> by Jonathan Spence. (\u53f2\u666f\u8fc1, \u300a\u8ffd\u5bfb\u73b0\u4ee3\u4e2d\u56fd\u300b)<\/li>\n
  9. (7) Stepping Backwards<\/i> by Chen Danqing, an artist who spent the 1980s and 90s in New York. This book contains his thoughts over the past five years on the question of “progress” in Chinese art. “Danqing” in his name means “painting.” (\u9648\u4e39\u9752, \u300a\u9000\u6b65\u96c6\u300b)<\/li>\n
  10. (10) A Biography of the Historian Chen Yinke<\/i> by Wang Rongzu. Chen Yinke (1890-1969) was a Tsinghua professor who refused to follow the Marxist historical model after the revolution. When his books began to be republished in the 1980s, he became a model for the type of independent scholarship that had been missing in the previous decades. (\u6c6a\u8363\u7956, \u300a\u53f2\u5bb6\u9648\u5bc5\u606a\u4f20\u300b)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The overall bestseller list for the week of 7\/2–7\/9:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. (3) The Da Vinci Code<\/i> by Dan Brown: For the past few months this novel has been a best-seller shared by the mainland, Taiwan, and the United States. Digital Fortress<\/i> is a perennial on the fiction list, too. (\u4e39\u00b7\u5e03\u90ce,\u300a\u8fbe\u00b7\u82ac\u5947\u5bc6\u7801\u300b)<\/li>\n
    2. (1) Modern and Contemporary History of Three East Asian Countries<\/i>: The new textbook jointly edited by scholars from China, South Korea, and Japan. Danwei recently reviewed<\/a> the book. (\u300a\u4e1c\u4e9a\u4e09\u56fd\u7684\u8fd1\u73b0\u4ee3\u53f2\u300b)<\/li>\n
    3. (2) About Going to Work<\/i> by Zhu Deyong: The author is a cartoonist from Taiwan whose earlier work was the inspiration for the incredibly popular television series Pink Ladies<\/i>. A sample of Work<\/i> is available on Sina<\/a>. (\u6731\u5fb7\u5eb8,\u300a\u5173\u4e8e\u4e0a\u73ed\u8fd9\u4ef6\u4e8b\u300b)<\/li>\n
    4. (-) Initial D: The Movie Book<\/i>. Pictures<\/a> are available on QQ.com. (\u300a\u5934\u6587\u5b57D\u7535\u5f71\u5199\u771f\u4e66\u300b)<\/li>\n
    5. (4) Wolf Totem<\/i> by Jiang Rong: Another long-running best-seller, this loosely-plotted novel is being made into a movie (mentioned earlier<\/a> on Danwei). (\u59dc\u620e,\u300a\u72fc\u56fe\u817e\u300b)<\/li>\n
    6. (9) 1995-2005 Not Yet Summer Solstice<\/i> by Guo Jingming: Young writer is still hot despite losing a plagiarism case. Novel is serialized on Sina<\/a>. Danwei has previous<\/a> stories<\/a> on Guo Jingming. (\u90ed\u656c\u660e,\u300a1995-2005\u590f\u81f3\u672a\u81f3\u300b)<\/li>\n
    7. (7) Angels and Demons<\/i> by Dan Brown (\u4e39\u00b7\u5e03\u90ce,\u300a\u5929\u4f7f\u4e0e\u9b54\u9b3c\u300b)<\/li>\n
    8. (6) Short Stories, Great Truths<\/i> edited by Ya Qin: 500 classic parables. (\u96c5\u7434,\u300a\u5c0f\u6545\u4e8b\uff0c\u5927\u9053\u7406\u300b)<\/li>\n
    9. (8) Tell the World, I Can Do It!<\/i> by Lu Qin: Educator writes from a child’s perspective about problems they might face while growing up. See this earlier Bestsellers post<\/a> on Danwei for more information about Lu Qin. (\u5362\u52e4,\u300a\u544a\u8bc9\u4e16\u754c\uff0c\u6211\u80fd\u884c\u300b)<\/li>\n
    10. (-) The Basement<\/i> by BENJAMIN. (BENJAMIN, \u300a\u5730\u4e0b\u5ba4\u300b)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Bestseller rankings are taken from the Friday Book Review section in <\/em>The Beijing News, which compiles its data from the city’s major online and brick & mortar bookstores.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Links and Sources<\/div>\n
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