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Beijing Bestsellers: Korean teen lit, essays, and memoirsPosted by Joel Martinsen on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 at 11:57 PM
We'll take a look at general non-fiction this week since there's little change on the overall chart this time round. Once again fiction is king, but it's slightly differently arranged. Lin Yutang's Moment in Peking apparently peaked at #2 its first week; it's back down at #9 on fiction list. Ba Jin's Random Thoughts (#8, #1 general NF) continues to sell well in the new 46-yuan edition published by the Writers Publishing House (the older version from Joint Publishing cost 29 yuan; that publisher also put out a Selected Random Thoughts for 31.8 yuan). The author's most famous novels are assigned and recommended reading in schools, and versions have been filmed for television and the big screen, so there's been no huge rush on them. Essays are not as easy to film, and since Ba Jin's plea to "speak the truth" has been brought up again and again in articles eulogizing his life, perhaps readers are looking to see what truth he had to say. ![]() A coin and a jade ring on the cover of Our Qian Yuan. Another big name from the older generation is Yang Jiang, whose new memoir, Our Qian Yuan, follows her 2003 bestseller The Three of Us. That book told of her life with noted author Qian Zhongshu (A City Besieged) and their daughter Qian Yuan; this new one concentrates on their daughter, who was a professor in the English department at Beijing Normal University. The book's cover features a drawing of two discs (shown at left) which Qian Yuan used as a sort of signature. At top is a coin (钱), and at bottom is a pierced jade (瑗). The Three of Us used a similar device on the cover. Qian Yuan's childhood nickname, Yuanyuan, was written using the character meaning "round" followed by a circle: 圆〇. The new novel on the list this week is a translation of the Korean book Outsider (#2) by Gwiyeoni. The author made a name for herself writing online fiction using popular net slang peppered with emoticons. Her That Guy Was Cool was a huge hit last year and spawned legions of imitators. The author, whose real name is Lee Yoon-se, writes about slightly out-of-place girls who fall in love with dashing guys. The twist in this novel is that the girl is faced with not one but two prospects. Propelling the book up the charts are several factors. Aside from the general trendiness of all things Korean and online, the author's fans have been waiting for this one to come out in Chinese ever since the original version was announced. And last week there was a booksigning at the launch. Since several of Gwiyeoni's previous properties have been filmed, we probably can expect a movie of this one soon. The non-fiction bestseller list for the week of 11/04--11/10:
The overall bestseller list for the week of 11/04--11/10:
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. Links and Sources
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