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Beijing Bestsellers: History, Lu Qin, and Magistrate Bao

This week Danwei adds a new feature: a list of the week's bestselling books in Beijing. The list is 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. We are still tinkering with the format; please send comments to joel (at) danwei (dot) org.
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For the second week in a row, the new history text jointly edited by scholars from China, South Korea, and Japan is atop the list, and the remainder are largely self-help books, including three books by "Intimate Sister" Lu Qin.

Lu Qin, pictured here on the cover of this week's #8 book, Good Parents, Good Child, is the assistant editor-in-chief of the China Children's Press and Publications Group. She writes the "Intimate Sister" column for the paper Chinese Teenagers News, and her books have reported sales of more than 5 million.

Last year's bestseller, Tell Your Child, You're Great contained advice on parenting. On Children's Day (1 June) this year, it was followed by a companion volume, Tell the World, I Can Do It. From a child's perspective, Lu Qin addresses 50 difficulties children may face while growing up. Topics include "Facing a Step-mother," "Facing a Single Parent," and "Facing a Crush."

New to the general non-fiction list this week is The Remains of Magistrate Bao by Chen Guidi and Chun Tao, the authors of Chinese Peasants: An Investigation. Danwei previously ran a post on the publication of Magistrate Bao.

Here's the mixed-genre bestseller list for this week:

  1. Modern and Contemporary History of Three East Asian Countries: The new textbook jointly edited by scholars from China, South Korea, and Japan. Danwei recently reviewed the book. (《东亚三国的近现代史》)
  2. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: For the past few months this novel has been a best-seller shared by the mainland, Taiwan, and the United States. This week it is pushed off the US charts by graduation-related gift books, but stays strong in Chinese markets. Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress are perennials on the fiction list, too. (丹·布郎,《达·芬奇密码》)
  3. About Going to Work by Zhu Deyong: The author is a cartoonist from Taiwan whose earlier work was the inspiration for the incredibly popular television series Pink Ladies. A sample of Work is available on Sina. (朱德庸,《关于上班这件事》)
  4. Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong: Another long-running best-seller, this loosely-plotted novel is being made into a movie (mentioned earlier on Danwei). (姜戎,《狼图腾》)
  5. Tell the World, I Can Do It! by Lu Qin (卢勤,《告诉世界,我能行》)
  6. Tell Your Child, You're Great! by Lu Qin (卢勤,《告诉孩子,你真棒》)
  7. Short Stories, Great Truths edited by Ya Qin: 500 classic parables. (雅琴,《小故事,大道理》)
  8. Good Parents, Good Child by Lu Qin (卢勤,《好父母,好孩子》)
  9. Detail is the Key of Success by Wang Zhongqiu: Business-related self-help book which has expanded into a lecture series available on VCD. The English title on the most common pirated version, ironically, is misspelled. (汪中求,《细节决定成败》)
  10. One Crucial Step to Success by Liu Yong, a prolific inspirational writer from Taiwan. This is his fifth book to be published in the mainland this year. (刘墉,《跨一步,就成功》)
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Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
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