From classics like Anderson Fairy Tales and Jane Eyre to modern fiction like Norwegian Wood, literature from abroad floods China's market every year. With the spread of best-selling book lists, international literature prizes such as the annual Nobel Literature Prize and the biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award, and frequent visits by Nobel laureates to the Chinese mainland, the domestic market is continuously opening up for foreign literature.
With the recent announcement of the shortlist for the fourth Fu Lei Translation Award, China's prestigious French-to-Chinese translation contest, literature is again on readers' radar. A total of 10 books translated from French originals including Anthology of Camus and The Second Sex made the shortlist.
"The market for foreign literature is on the rise," said Gu Aibin, president of Yilin Press, one of China's leading publishing companies established in 1988 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. "We have a group of die-hard foreign literature fans in the country."
Despite the era of the Internet, foreign classic literature is irreplaceable.
"Avid readers keep up with the latest development of foreign writers," said Gu. "They have a higher standard of the books than they did before," he told the Global Times.
Gu said that from the book's translation to its graphic design, every aspect of publishing involving foreign literature must be complete. Readers are no longer willing to accept a simple translation.
"This reflects the quality of our readers, but at the same time brings us a sense of competition," he said.
Fierce competition
As the Chinese government encourages the transformation of the cultural industry, many State-owned publishers and emerging private book houses are expanding. A spot in the literature market is becoming increasingly coveted.
Apart from established professional publishers like Yilin Press and Shanghai Translation Publishing House (STPH), both of which have a long history of introducing foreign literature, new players like Thinkingdom House in Beijing, 99 Read and Wenjing Book in Shanghai are emerging.
Besides the substantial demographic of readers in the country, increasing interest in this sector is due to the low-risk factor for publishers, in introducing work that is already popular in other countries.
"Many domestic publishers are publishing translated literature as a way to strengthen their status," said Han Weidong, president of STPH. "These works have been tested in the foreign market."
As for current competition in foreign literature, according to the analysis of Huang Yuhai, president of 99 Read, 60 to 70 percent of the foreign literature market is occupied by private publishers like Thinkingdom House, 99 Read and Wenjing Book.
Domestic publishers who previously focused on Chinese books are now also eying this market, such as Tianjin Huawen Tianxia Book Company and Citic Press Corporation.
The fierce competition parallels surging copyright royalties.
"The purchasing cost used to be in the thousands, but now this number has risen to the millions over recent years," said Gu.
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