Dangdai, December 2007 (long-form fiction)

It's December—time for the 2007 "best-of" lists! This month's issue of the literary journal Dangdai ranks the year's top novels as determined by critics and sales figures.

For the critics' list, Bai Ye, Li Jingze, Yan Jingming, Zhang Yiwu, Lei Da, Meng Fanhua, and Chen Xiaoming were each asked to nominate three novels. Topping the list with four nominations was Mai Jia's Sound of Wind (风声), a Rashomon-style tale of codebreakers in the early 1940s (more on this novel in a future Danwei post).

In second place was Jia Pingwa's Gaoxing, mentioned by three critics. I Am Liu Yuejin (我叫刘跃进) by Liu Zhenyun, author of Cell Phone, was chosen by two critics, as was Everlasting (天长地久) by paraplegic role model Zhang Haidi.

The best-seller list is for the six months from May through October, 2007, and is drawn from a point-of-sale monitoring system:

The data for this sales ranking comes from sample data from the OpenBook Market Monitor System, run by OpenBook Market Research. By the end of 2005 the system had 1093 retailers in 232 cities enrolled in the system [the current stats show 1400 retailers].

The list ought to reflect real trends in the national book retail marketplace, as well as that of the retail fiction market. The figures may not be exact, but they are 100 times more accurate than the print number found on a book's copyright page or the sales figures trumpeted in the media.

This list provides readers with a relatively realistic reference for fiction sales.

The data is definitely incomplete: sales figures on this chart top out at 47,000 copies, and popular YA authors like Han Han and Guo Jingming are nowhere to be found.

According to the system's website, in order to participate in the monitoring system, Xinhua bookstores are required to have at least 1000 square meters of floor space; privately-owned bookstores must be larger than 600 square meters. Both must offer at least 30,000 titles for sale. These conditions exclude smaller bookstores, newsstands, and online retailers.

Nevertheless, it's still an interesting snapshot of one part of China's fiction market in the second half of 2007—the part dominated by adventure stories about grave-robbing. Here's the list, with links to the Douban page for each book.

1. Simple Years, Extravagant Times by Annie Baobei. A collection of essays and fiction by a popular romance writer. (安妮宝贝, 《素年锦时》)
2. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong. Winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize. (姜戎, 《狼图腾》)
3. The Female Psychologist (part 1) by Bi Shumin. Bi drew from her experiences working as a psychologist to write this novel. (毕淑敏, 《女心理师》上)
4. Ghost Blows Out the Light: The Ancient City by Tianxia Bachang. The first volume of the rollicking grave-robbing adventure series. (天下霸唱, 《盗墓者的诡异经历--鬼吹灯之精绝古城》)
5. Notes on Grave-Robbing (1) by Nanpai Sanshu. The first volume of another rollicking grave-robbing adventure series. (南派三叔, 《盗墓笔记》壹)
6. Notes on Grave-Robbing (2) by Nanpai Sanshu. The next volume. (南派三叔, 《盗墓笔记》贰)
7. Female Psychologist (part 2) by Bi Shumin. (毕淑敏, 《女心理师》下)
8. Stationed in Beijing (part 1) by Wang Xiaofang. Political intrigue vs. the rule of law as the representative of a city government makes his way through Beijing's rarefied circles. (王晓方, 《驻京办主任》)
9. Ghost Blows Out the Light: The Insect Valley of Yunnan by Tianxia Bachang. The third volume. (天下霸唱, 《鬼吹灯之云南虫谷》)
10. Ghost Blows Out the Light: The Divine Palace of Kunlun by Tianxia Bachang. The second volume. (天下霸唱, 《鬼吹灯之昆仑神宫》)
11. Execution of the Immortals (8) by Xiao Ding. The conclusion to the wildly-popular online fantasy wuxia series. (萧鼎, 《诛仙8》)
12. Ghost Blows Out the Light: The Hidden Cave of Dragon Mountain by Tianxia Bachang. The second volume. (天下霸唱, 《鬼吹灯之龙岭迷窟》)
13. Ghost Blows Out the Light II: The Grave of the Yellow Weasel by Tianxia Bachang. The first volume of the second series. (天下霸唱, 《鬼吹灯2之黄皮子坟》)
14. Lose & Win by Fu Yao. The thrilling story of the sales teams of two rival companies going to war. (付遥, 《输赢》)
15. Stationed in Beijing (part 2) by Wang Xiaofang. Political intrigue vs. the rule of law as the representative of a city government makes his way through Beijing's rarefied circles. (王晓方, 《驻京办主任》)
16. To Live by Yu Hua. Shanghai Literature and Arts Press edition. (余华, 《活着》)
17. Dancer (Fire) by Hai Yan. Volume 1 of a romance. (海岩, 《舞者（火卷）》)
18. Dancer (Ice) by Hai Yan. Volume 2. (海岩, 《舞者（冰卷）》)
19. The Stock Pickers by Hua Rong. A tale the challenges faced by three stock players. (花荣, 《操盘手》)
20. So by Chi Li. From the Cultural Revolution through the present day, a writer learns how to be independent and come to terms with men, the world, and her mother. (池莉, 《所以》)
21. Red Dew by Amy Cheung Siu-Han. A bittersweet story of love and regret among trendy young people in Hong Kong. This is the mainland edition of the 2006 Hong Kong bestseller. (张小娴, 《红颜露水》)
22. The Fund Manager by Zhao Di. Behind the scenes at a securities firm. (赵迪, 《基金经理》)
23. Tibetan Mastiff (2) by Yang Zhijun. Like Wolf Totem, but in Tibet instead of Mongolia. (杨志军, 《藏獒二》)
24. Flashing Swords by Du Liang. Military fiction; adapted into a popular TV show. (都梁, 《亮剑》)

Of course, Dangdai contains actual fiction in addition to these rankings. The first novel in this issue is I Am Your Son (我是你儿子) by Sun Rui (孙睿). This story of a son's relationship with his father was published in a standalone edition back in August. Sun's title brings to mind Wang Shuo's 1992 novel I Am Your Dad; a one-line summary in the Beijing Youth Daily called Sun's book "a Wang Shuo story told in a Wang Shuo style."

The second novel is Peerless Talent (英特迈往) by Han Dong (韩东), a poet and novelist whose most recent work was the short-story collection The Dollar is Tougher Than the RMB. The standalone version is called Men of Town: Peerless Talent (小城好汉之英特迈往); media reports have remarked on the obscurity of the idiom Han chose for his title (which he explains in an endnote for those of us not up on Song Dynasty history).

Here's one typical exchange, from an interview with Timeout:

Q: The first impression of your new novel is that its title is quite original. Even though you explain the meaning of the words in an endnote, I still would like to hear your own personal understanding of the title.
A: At first it was called "Men of Town," but later I felt this wasn't satisfying. Then I ran across 英特迈往 ("peerless talent"), and had no more reservations. Calling the novel Men of Town: Peerless Talent was because I was afraid that the idiom 英特迈往 would be too obscure for the readers. I think that 英特迈往 is a great word that should come back into use. These four characters are incredibly beautiful and resound with force when joined. It ought to be popularized. Many of my friends didn't know this idiom; they thought it was a transliteration of some foreign phrase, like "Internet." One person connected it to "International"—that's an interesting misunderstanding.