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Books
Bootleg faithPosted by Joel Martinsen, October 31, 2006 12:10 PM
In this week's Oriental Outlook, Jilin resident Zhang Yunmei writes about an interesting experience buying bootleg books:
Er Hei, who noted that street booksellers were trading in bootleg Bibles back in 2005, offers this assessment:
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Comments on Bootleg faith
Exact. About a year ago, in Beijing, not far from the Workers' stadium, in the posh area, at my favorite's book bootleger (where Wolf Totem even came in 2 bootleged formats) there was bootlged bibles including one in English (or bilingual, I forgot) together with a few mass market pocket books in English such as Da Vinci Code (these guys know how to adapt to their market; they sell also fake cigars). I guess the astute and ecumenical vendor felt the need to put the bible next to the controversial Da Vinci Code. For the record, what looks like bootleged books in English at these little street vendors are most probably genuine cheap editions discreetly printed in the PRC for Western publishers (who apparently illegally forget to print 'made in China' on their books). A few boxes of these genuine cheap books usually fall from the back of the truck...
What would be nice as a pirated bible would be the TaiPing 太平天国 version. Hong's (洪秀全) startling corrections to the text, including his account of Jesus helping him beat Confucious with a stick up in Heaven, would be just desserts for those buying a pirated version. (English speakers not familar with the story may enjoy Jonathon Spence's God's Chinese Son).