China’s January Bestsellers: Managing Business and Education

January’s China bestseller lists show business and the education that supports it drawing book consumers in a changing economy.

Image Getty – ImTmPhoto

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

See also: Seven years of China Bestsellers in our Archives

A Dynamic in Nonfiction and Children’s Books

In an interesting article by Yoko Kubota on February 17 in the Wall Street Journal, Kubota wrote, “Luxury’s luster is fading in China. A sluggish economy, the austere political mood, and the feeling among some consumers that pricey brands are passé have combined to end the boom that has propelled the industry in recent years.”

‘The Paradox Thinking’

Citing Western brands that have been especially popular in the mainland’s Tier 1 and 2 cities, the article pointed to Q4 sales dominated by China as being down 11 percent (Louis Vuitton) and 24 percent (Gucci), year-over-year.

If such luxury icons are a bellwether of a tough period to come for international brands in China, we can’t say that it’s only there that such a trend may be developing. Other markets have seen price increases, for example, that can dampen the enthusiasm of what Kubota refers to as “aspirational buyers.”

But in the January assessment of China’s bestseller lists provided to us by our associates at Jiang Yanping‘s Beijing OpenBook, it’s interesting to see a strong trend in business-management and family education in the nonfiction sector.

Tian Tao’s The Paradox Thinking (November 2024, Zhejiang Science & Technology Press) focuses on corporate management, and stood at No. 1 in OpenBook’s list in January.

‘Real Demands’

Another such management-focused success is Liang Ning’s Real Demands (October 2024, New Star Press), at No. 22 on the January chart.

Our associates speak of “a fiercely competitive market” in which “companies must continuously improve their management capabilities,” which tends to indicate that a sense of consumer confidence faltering is being felt across many industrial sectors, and not just in luxury brands and attractions imported from overseas.

As in fiction, nonfiction on the China charts doesn’t move fast. No fewer than 12 books from Fei Zhi’s long-running If History Were a Group of Cats series (2019 and later, Guangdong Tourism Publishing House) were holding Top 30 positions on the lists in January, and it’s clear that their heavily visual, upbeat cartoon approach is faithfully loved by consumers.

But family education is edging the Cats, just as management guidance is doing. As young adults move into business, needless to say, there are ways in which the home’s educational life may improve children’s chances in the marketplace, and OpenBook’s specialists say they’re seeing “media platforms increasingly emphasizing the importance of education, fostering a culture that values learning.”

‘Dreaming of Being a Wolf’

This is why you may soon see such books as Praise Makes Children Better and Montessori Early Education Games jumping onto the charts. These are two titles being pegged for agile performances in the content e-commerce channels of China—the social-media outlets that thrive on video and other formats of consumer-created work that clearly have a reliably sure grip on many customers’  attention.

Lastly, in this look at the charts today (February 21), we’d like to remind you of our recent coverage of the Carnegie Awards for young people’s books, in which the newly released shortlists include nine books dealing with youth and masculinity. While world publishing is an industry that rightly and generously champions young women’s needs and prowess, books for younger male readers, at least in Western markets, have not been as readily and energetically produced.

One of the key titles in the Carnegie Medals’ accolades is  I Am Wolf  by Alastair Chisholm from Kate Wilson’s Nosy Crow. While the word wolf in that book is used in a dystopian metaphorical device, but it’s not unaligned with interest we see in the children’s lists from China for January, where the importance of the conceptual implications of “wolf spirit”—as Chinese readers refer to it—is being honored in several bestsellers.

‘The Way of the Wolf’

You’ll find Shen Shixi’s Dreaming of Being a Wolf at No. 15 (Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House, a 2018 edition of a 2009 release).

And at No. 15 look for a four-volume series, The Way of the Wolf, by Kou Qiankun (New Buds Publishing House, September 2024).  These are part of a collection called “Comic Teen Adventures,” and clearly are aimed at young guys with graphic intensity. Comics, in so  many markets, are after all “where the boys are.”

Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from January of bestsellers in fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, followed by its lists of bestselling fiction and nonfiction in China by authors from outside the country.

At the end of our article, as always, you’ll find notes on how the lists are constructed.

OpenBook’s Fiction Bestsellers, January 2025

OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, January 2025

OpenBook’s Children’s Bestsellers, January 2025

Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers, January 2025

Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, January 2025

Notes on the Charts

OpenBook is a privately owned industry-data research firm based in Beijing. It functions somewhat as Nielsen and NDP do from the West, and Nielsen Book Research International has worked with OpenBook in Asian operations. With authoritative data and information resources, OpenBook is able to deliver consulting service to partners who would like to explore the Chinese book market and identify suitable partners.

At last report, OpenBook monitored more than 26,000 online and off-line bookstores.

The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores.

The off-line channels include more than 5,100 bookstores. Coverage includes most of the state-owned and influential privately owned bookstores in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are not included in OpenBook’s system.

In 2024, OpenBook tracked around 82.66 billion RMB in sales (US$11.39 billion).

Retail outlets include:

• Traditional bookstores
• Supermarkets
• Campus bookstores
• “Professional” stores, said to be small stores with a specific industrial or trade focus
• Airport stores

In addition, OpenBook is drawing data from online bookstores of three main types:

• The “Tmall” stores of Alibaba (Tmall is described as a marketplace of companies that create storefronts online to sell products including books)
• The “JingDong” Stores of JD.com (similar to Tmall as a marketplace of both individual companies and bookstores operated by JD.com)
• Ten independent online bookselling retailers

China has 500 or more publishers in operation today. Most of them are government-owned. Private publishers are required to generate ISBNs for their titles from a publishing company that is government-owned—which, in other words, creates a system in which all ISBNs are registered through government channels. The government approves each book published in China.

More China bestseller reports from Publishing Perspectives are here, and more on the Chinese book publishing market is here.