A collaborative work by two stars of the talent competition My Show (我型我SHOW) is at the top of the bestseller list in Beijing this week. Junjun and Jacky Xue (two of China's 50 most beautiful people) are listed as the authors of Close Call (谦君一发), which carries on that delightful custom of Chinese pop stars choosing puns on their names as concert and release titles. The book casts one star as an angel and the other as a demon to tell the pair's odyssey from obscurity to fame.

Movie star Xu Jinglei published a book of blog posts earlier this year, but its sales have failed to match the popularity of her blog's online version. Xu's book made a brief appearance on the top-ten list in late May, but the jump was due to a book-signing appearance she made that week rather than any change in Beijingers' overall attitude toward bloggers' books (see this selection of translations at Global Voices or Danwei's previous look at blogging books for more information). This just goes to show how volatile these statistics are - this is the first week in months, if not years, that Dan Brown has failed to make the top ten, but I doubt if the quality of the film adaptation of The DaVinci Code has had that large of an effect on Beijing book buyers.

Wang Meng, the dean of contemporary Chinese authors, has started publishing his autobiography. The first volume, An Eventful Half-Life (serialized on Sina), has risen to #5 on the general non-fiction list this week. Wang Meng discusses his early life in the book, including the circumstances surrounding his early stories Long Live Youth and A Young Newcomer to the Organization Department. He also talks for the first time about his experiences in Xinjiang after he was branded a rightist in the late 1950s.

The autobiography kicked up a minor storm online when an intrepid forum commenter posted a provacative essay that attempted to explain Wang Meng's reticence concerning his father. In "Questions about Autobiography of Wang Meng: Was Wang Meng's father Wang Jindi a traitor?" the poster reviewed various historical materials, memoirs, and autobiographical stories, and concluded that Wang Meng was hiding the fact that his father had been a representative in the collaborationist Nanjing government headed by Wang Jingwei during the Japanese occupation. Defenders of Wang Meng pointed out that Wang and his wife have talked about Wang Jindi's wartime experiences on several occasions in the past, while other commentors praised the original poster's "literary archeology" as being just what academia needs right now. Wang Meng himself has not yet responded to the claims.

They're not bestsellers yet, but a few more science fiction and fantasy novels have made an appearance in the review pages of mainstream media. Frank Herbert's Dune (沙丘), Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (黑质三部曲), and George Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (冰与火之歌) are recent releases that have received a bit of media attention.

But will they become bestsellers? Huang Yuning, vice-director of the literature office of Shanghai Yiwen Publishing House, has the following analysis:

The His Dark Materials trilogy surpasses Harry Potter in terms of systematic rigor and breadth of perspective. But its threshold is a bit higher than Harry for today's youth, so they may not sucked in as quickly; the series' joys and sorrows are a bit further removed from them. If, however, they can get into the books, they may become fans of the sort that even Harry Potter would find it hard to create.

Wen Min, the mainland translator of Stephen King's Dark Tower series (see this earlier Danwei post), sees those novels as having more potential with Chinese audiences. As for whether the translations will have any effect on domestic writers, opinions are divided. SF witers like Xing He and Ling Chen quoted in TBN think that domestic SF and fantasy is poised for a new wave, but Science Fiction World editor A Lai is more pessimistic:

What we see is that for the most part, whatever is popular is what people swarm to write. More pointedly, what they are worried about is what publishers are marketing. I know a few fantasy writers who have the skills to break out - they don't read those classics. What their quick success has revealed is not only their own short-sightedness, but more importantly the short-sightedness of the publishing and media sectors. Fantasy literature very likely is just a flash in the pan - when it's over, it's over.

---

The overall bestseller list for the week of 05/26--06/01:

1. (-) Close Call by Junjun and Xue Zhiqian. Two of China's 50 most beautiful people write a book. Fans go crazy and send it to the top. (君君，薛之谦《谦君一发》)
2. (2) Brothers (part II) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》下)
3. (-) Capital by Karl Marx. A new, abridged, illustrated translation. (马克思, 《资本论》)
4. (4) Ji Xianlin talks about life by Ji Xianlin. (季羡林, 《季羡林谈人生》)
5. (5) Beiping Beacon Fire by Du Liang. Author of bestsellers Flashing Swords and Crimson Romance (see this short note). (都梁, 《狼烟北平》)
6. (6) Yi Zhongtian Evaluates Han Dynasty Figures by Yi Zhongtian. (易中天, 《易中天品读汉代风云人物》)
7. (7) Be Your Personal Best by Li Kaifu: motivational book and DVD by Google's new China head. (李开复, 《做最好有自己》)
8. (8) Who are you working for? by Chen Kaiyuan. (陈凯元, 《你在为谁工作》)
9. (10) Human Body User's Manual by Wu Qingzhong. (吴清忠, 《人体使用手册》
10. (9) Padma by Annie Baby. (安妮宝贝, 《莲花》)

---

The overall bestseller list for the week of 05/19--05/25:

1. (1) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
2. (2) Brothers (part II) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》下)
3. (-) Xu Jinglei's Blog by Xu Jinglei. (徐静蕾, 《老徐的博客》)
4. (3) Ji Xianlin talks about life by Ji Xianlin. (季羡林, 《季羡林谈人生》)
5. (-) Beiping Beacon Fire by Du Liang. Author of bestsellers Flashing Swords and Crimson Romance (see this short note). (都梁, 《狼烟北平》)
6. (-) Yi Zhongtian Evaluates Han Dynasty Figures by Yi Zhongtian. (易中天, 《易中天品读汉代风云人物》)
7. (6) Be Your Personal Best by Li Kaifu: motivational book and DVD by Google's new China head. (李开复, 《做最好有自己》)
8. (-) Who are you working for? by Chen Kaiyuan. (陈凯元, 《你在为谁工作》)
9. (-) Padma by Annie Baby. (安妮宝贝, 《莲花》)
10. (-) Human Body User's Manual by Wu Qingzhong. (吴清忠, 《人体使用手册》

---

The overall bestseller list for the week of 04/28--05/11:

1. (5) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
2. (1) Brothers (part II) by Yu Hua. (余华, 《兄弟》下)
3. (-) Ji Xianlin talks about life by Ji Xianlin. (季羡林, 《季羡林谈人生》)
4. (10) Capital by Karl Marx. A new, abridged, illustrated translation. (马克思, 《资本论》)
5. (9) Deception Point by Dan Brown. (丹·布朗, 《骗局》)
6. (-) Be Your Personal Best by Li Kaifu: motivational book and DVD by Google's new China head. (李开复, 《做最好有自己》)
7. (2) Fight like a man by Huang Jianxiang. (黄健翔, 《像男人那样去战斗》)
8. (-) Guo Degang on Beijing by Guo Degang: Crosstalk star. (郭德纲, 《郭德纲话说北京》)
9. (3) Pan Shiyi's Blog by Pan Shiyi. (潘石屹, 《潘石屹的博客》)
10. (7) Mao: A Biography by Ross Terrill. There's a brief note here. (特里尔, 《毛泽东传》)

---

Bestseller rankings are taken from the Friday Book Review section in The Beijing News, which compiles its data from the city's major online and brick & mortar bookstores.