A production still released from Mei Hu’s new film adaptation of the 18th-century classic ‘Dream of the Red Chamber,’ written in the released this month in China. Image: Artemple
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Summer Peak Season’
As regular readers of our monthly exclusive bestseller charts from China will recall, the summertime market each year is heavily impacted by guided readings for schoolchildren during vacation. China’s education culture for youngsters includes expectations that reading lists provided by schools will be taken seriously and acted on in each household.
‘Dream of the Red Chamber’
What’s more, as you may remember, the publishing of new editions of various books in China has much more significance than it might in many Western markets, leading many Chinese readers to buy successive versions of the same titles for their home libraries.
As our associates at Jiang Yanping’s Beijing OpenBook publishing research group tell us in their look at July’s marketplace, “The book retail market has entered its ‘summer peak season’ with four great classic novels undoubtedly essential to summer reading lists for primary- and secondary-school students, generation after generation.”
In July, the Publishing House of the China Literary Federation’s 2016 version of Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber ranked No. 3 in sales. You’ll find an earlier edition from People’s Literature Publishing House—that one released in 1998—is also on the list this month, at No. 8. New life is available to many books when they appear in fresh editions.
Last year at this point, the 2016 version also showed an impressive performance, its 2023 sales driving its ranking to No. 14. The title has been a bestseller in July for several years, mainly propelled by its inevitable selection as required reading for high-school students.
In July, bundling the 2016 edition of Red Chamber with the 1947 From the Soil by Fei Xiaotong—also selected as a required reading—led to exceptionally good market performance in short video e-commerce channels, OpenBook’s team says.
A film poster for Mei Hu’s new cinematic adaptation of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’
Our regular readers won’t be surprised to see Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Andre Gide’s Strait is the Gate on the fiction list, along with a 50th-anniversary edition of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude: the Chinese reading public clearly is more broadly familiar with at least some of the West’s key works of the modern era than Western readers are familiar with classics, new or old, from China.
If anything, the title Dream of the Red Chamber may tend to imply to some Western minds that the book has to do with “red” culture as in communism. Far from it.
Dream of the Red Chamber not only predates political ideas of communism but is also known as The Story of the Stone and is an 18th-century book prized for its perspectives on the much older High Qing dynastic era (1683 to 1799).
Considered by many to be among China’s four greatest works of classical literature, the book’s text has have undergone torturously complex manuscript iterations and analysis. The first printed edition is believed to have appeared in 1791.
A poster for the 2010 Chinese television series, ‘Dream of Red Mansions’
The instigating device of the book has to do with a “sentient stone left over when the goddess Nüwa mended heaven” and this thinking rock has a strong desire to know the pleasures of the “red dust,” a phrase, it turns out, which means the everyday world of human beings.
With the help of a Taoist priest, the stone gets its wish and is reborn as the adolescent swell guy, Jia Baoyu, who becomes part of a romantic triangle between the wealthy aristocratic houses of Rongguo and Ningguo.
Scholars generally agree that this sprawling work has between 30 and 40 major characters and some 400 others, and there said to be 14 or more cinematic adaptations already made. And yet it’s largely unknown in Western cultures.
As it happens, a new two-hour film, Hong lou meng, or Honglou Dream, has been made by director Mei Hu and released just this month—going wide on August 16 in China—while a 2010 Chinese television series, The Dream of Red Mansions, is available with English subtitles on Amazon Prime in 50 episodes.
Love among the cherry blossoms: a contemporary conception of Ming-to-Qing romantic aesthetics, evident in this production still released for Mei Hu’s ‘Hong lou meng,’ a new two-hour film adaptation of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber,’ released this month in China. Image: Artemple
Choreography, Fine Art, Film: ‘A Thousand Hamlets’
In April, Singapore news media carried stories about a tour from China of a Lotus Award-winning dance drama, A Dream of Red Mansions, being given performances staged by Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts.
In May, Taiwan’s National Palace Museum opened an exhibition of artwork relative to Dream, curated by Wan LIang-chung and titled, The Splendor of Dream of the Red Chamber.
More work on and around this Dream is surfacing in various international news accounts, making it clear that Western audiences soon may encounter one or more interpretations, not unlike the success found in at least three recent screen adaptions of Liu Cixin’s Three-Body Problem, as we’ve discussed in earlier editions of our China Bestsellers.
A poster for the Chinese television series ‘Love Between Fairy and Devil,’ carried on Netflix. Image: Netflix
Those who have looked at some of several Chinese television series making the jump to Western streamers (in October 2022, we discussed Love Between Fairy and Devil, carried by Netflix, for example), will see the stylistic parallels in these Red Chamber-based works.
Much of the visual impact in these works is driven by filmmakers’ tacit agreement on a romanticized Ming-to-Qing aesthetic now fully in place with complex costuming and sets for lavish displays of personal beauty (male and female), dynastic loyalties, and magical interventions, not infrequently tangled with tales of complicated and vaguely illicit romantic entanglements.
The film director Hu spoke at an August 11 premiere of her two-hour film, pointing this out. As quoted by Zhang Rui at China.org.cn, Hu told the audience in Beijing, “My movie is just one interpretation. There’s a saying that goes, ‘There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.’ Similarly, a thousand people have their own interpretations of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber.’
“Given this,” Hu said, ‘even if there are regrets in my version, it doesn’t matter. I hope to spark further interest for more works related to the novel.”
Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from July 2024 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.
One of a series of paintings by Fei Danxu (1801-1850), based on a scene from Cao Xueqin’s ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ or ‘The Story of the Stone.’ Image: Public domain
OpenBook’s Fiction Bestsellers, July 2024
| June 2024 Ranking | July 2024 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 5 | 1 | 9787500601593 | 2005-08 | Red Crag | Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan | China Youth Press |
| 2 | 2 | 9787530221532 | 2021-10 | To Live (2021 Edition) | Yu Hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 14 | 3 | 9787519013295 | 2016-07 | Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin | The Publishing House of the China Literary Federation |
| 3 | 4 | 9787540487645 | 2018-06 | Moments We Shared | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 1 | 5 | 9787020139590 | 2019-06 | The Last Quarter of the Moon | Chi Zijian | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 4 | 6 | 9787559484550 | 2024-03 | Go On a Long Trip at Eighteen | Yu Hua | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 6 | 7 | 9787536097261 | 2022-07 | Someone To Talk To | Liu Zhenyun | Flower City Press |
| 17 | 8 | 9787020002207 | 1998-07 | Dream of the Red Chamber | Cao Xueqin | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 7 | 9 | 9787572608582 | 2022-10 | The Litchi Road | Ma Boyong | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 11 | 10 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 11 | 9787020008735 | 1998-07 | Journey to the West | Wu Cheng’en | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 13 | 12 | 9787020164776 | 2020-07 | A Late Bloomer | Mo Yan | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 12 | 13 | 9787530221396 | 2021-06 | Ordinary Word (3 Volumes)(2021 Edition) | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 8 | 14 | 9787536692930 | 2008-01 | The Three-Body Problem | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 15 | 9787020008742 | 1998-07 | Water Margin | Shi Nai’an, Luo Guanzhong | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 9 | 16 | 9787536693968 | 2008-05 | The Dark Forest | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 10 | 17 | 9787229030933 | 2010-11 | Death’s End | Liu Cixin | Chongqing Publishing House |
| 19 | 18 | 9787544766500 | 2017-01 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Yilin Press |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787544774666 | 2018-12 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | Yilin Press |
| 16 | 20 | 9787572610912 | 2023-05 | The Annoyance of the Gods | Ma Boyong | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 27 | 21 | 9787572602825 | 2021-08 | Always Have, Always Will | Zhang Jiajia | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 22 | 22 | 9787572616099 | 2024-03 | The Journey to the South | Ma Boyong | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 20 | 23 | 9787201141527 | 2018-10 | Strait is the Gate | Andre Gide | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 24 | 24 | 9787020178063 | 2023-04 | Notes on Principles | Shi Tiesheng | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 26 | 25 | 9787506344791 | 2008-12 | Street Wizards (Revised Edition) | Feng Jicai | The Writer’s Publishing House |
| 15 | 26 | 9787513348744 | 2022-11 | The Seventh Day | Yu Hua | New Star Press Co., Ltd. |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 9787530220481 | 2021-05 | Ordinary Word (2021 Edition) | Lu Yao | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 28 | 9787541161834 | 2022-07 | Notebook of a Grave Robber (1) | Nanpai Sanshu | Sichuan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 29 | 9787515372372 | 2024-04 | In the Wilderness | Liu Qing | China Youth Press |
| 23 | 30 | 9787530222454 | 2023-06 | Cries in the Drizzle | Yu Hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, July 2024
| June 2024 Ranking | July 2024 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 20 | 1 | 9787557033118 | 2024-06 | If History were a Group of Cats: The Late Ming Dynasty and the Early Qing Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 1 | 2 | 9787536094352 | 2021-09 | My Altay | Li Juan | Flower City Press |
| 17 | 3 | 9787020084357 | 2011-04 | I and the Temple of Earth | Shi Tiesheng | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 2 | 4 | 9787557031589 | 2023-11 | If History were a Group of Cats: The Ming Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 5 | 9787020116133 | 2016-06 | Red Star Over China | Edgar Snow | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 4 | 6 | 9787557030162 | 2023-05 | If History were a Group of Cats: Late Yuan and Early Ming Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 21 | 7 | 9787010009223 | 1998-07 | Mao’s Selected Works (vol.1) | Mao Zhedong | People’s Publishing House |
| 16 | 8 | 9787530214657 | 2015-01 | We All Live in Disparity | Yu Hua | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 22 | 9 | 9787010009230 | 1998-07 | Mao’s Selected Works (vol.2) | Mao Zhedong | People’s Publishing House |
| 24 | 10 | 9787010009254 | 1998-07 | Mao’s Selected Works (vol.4) | Mao Zhedong | People’s Publishing House |
| 18 | 11 | 9787111495482 | 2015-04 | The Courage to Be Disliked | Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga | China Machine Press |
| 23 | 12 | 9787010009247 | 1998-07 | Mao’s Selected Works (vol.3) | Mao Zhedong | People’s Publishing House |
| 10 | 13 | 9787557028657 | 2022-10 | If History were a Group of Cats: Southern Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 6 | 14 | 9787557024413 | 2021-05 | If History were a Group of Cats: Prosperity of the Tang Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 3 | 15 | 9787557030599 | 2023-06 | If History were a Group of Cats: Xia, Shang and Western Zhou Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 19 | 16 | 9787201161693 | 2020-08 | Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure | Robert de Board | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 15 | 17 | 9787557027063 | 2022-04 | If History were a Group of Cats: Song, Liao, Jin Dynasty and the Western Xia Regime | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 5 | 18 | 9787557020149 | 2019-09 | If History were a Group of Cats: Three Kingdoms | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 12 | 19 | 9787557025847 | 2021-11 | If History were a Group of Cats: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 8 | 20 | 9787557020132 | 2019-09 | If History were a Group of Cats: The End of Eastern Han Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 11 | 21 | 9787557023041 | 2020-10 | If History were a Group of Cats: Sui and Tang Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 7 | 22 | 9787513344180 | 2024-01 | The Corner of Altay | Li Juan | New Star Press Co., Ltd. |
| 27 | 23 | 9787504781512 | 2024-04 | Plan the World | Gao Wenfei | China Logistics Publishing House |
| 9 | 24 | 9787557030582 | 2023-06 | If History were a Group of Cats: The Spring-autumn and Warring State Period | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 14 | 25 | 9787557021856 | 2020-05 | If History were a Group of Cats: Wei, Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| 13 | 26 | 9787557017477 | 2019-02 | If History were a Group of Cats: Qin, Chu, Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasty | Fei Zhi | Guangdong Tourism Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 9787514352894 | 2016-09 | The Classic of Mountains and Seas | Xu Ke | Morden Press |
| 28 | 28 | 9787512622456 | 2013-12 | Nothing In Life Can Not Be Put Down – Hongyi Wisdom Of Life | Song Mo | Tuanjie Press |
| 29 | 29 | 9787544276986 | 2019-10 | Educated: A Memoir | Tara Westover | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 30 | 9787540483432 | 2017-11 | Jottings in Sickbed (Commemorative Edition 2021) | Shi Tiesheng | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
OpenBook’s Children’s Bestsellers, July 2024
| June 2024 Ranking | July 2024 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Chinese Publisher |
| 21 | 1 | 9787532767373 | 2014-08 | Charlotte’s Web | Elwyn Brooks White | Shanghai Translation Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 2 | 9787500177890 | 2024-06 | Ultimate Collection of Ancient Essays For Children | Xing Han | China Translation & Publishing Coporation |
| 24 | 3 | 9787544288590 | 2018-06 | Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (2018 Edition) | Tetsuko Kuroyanagi | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| Not Ranked | 4 | 9787534256301 | 2009-09 | Dreaming of Being a Wolf King (2018 Edition) | Shen Shixi | Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 5 | 9787807731764 | 2024-05 | Comic Teenagers Learn Murphy’s Law | Hu Shuo Xin Yu | Tricircle Press |
| Not Ranked | 6 | 9787570823659 | 2024-06 | The Diary of Smiling Cat: Growing Up Is Not Easy | Yang Hongying | Tomorrow Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 7 | 9787559728920 | 2023-02 | Backbone of Nation: The Scientific Life of Chinese Academicians and The Development History of Chinese Science | Academic Divisions of The Chinese Academy of Sciences | Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| 7 | 8 | 9787534633362 | 2005-05 | Bronze and Sunflower | Cao Wenxuan | Jiangsu Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 9 | 9787549288861 | 2023-08 | Good Night Baby: Classic Early Childhood Reading (40 volumes) | Wen Zhi | Chang Jiang Press |
| 11 | 10 | 9787513727976 | 2024-06 | Tower of miracles | Leon Image | China Peace Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 11 | 9787559706522 | 2018-05 | The Foolish and the Unhappy (With Chinese Pinyin) | Ren Rongrong | Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| 3 | 12 | 9787536574366 | 2016-01 | Mi Xiaoquan’s Brain-teaser: Stratego | Bei Mao | Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| 4 | 13 | 9787536574397 | 2016-01 | Mi Xiaoquan’s Brain-teaser: Clever Little Prodigy | Bei Mao | Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| 5 | 14 | 9787536574380 | 2016-01 | Mi Xiaoquan’s Brain-teaser: Who’s the Smart Guy? | Bei Mao | Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 15 | 9787533299224 | 2018-10 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake | Tomorrow Publishing House |
| 6 | 16 | 9787536574373 | 2016-01 | Mi Xiaoquan’s Brain-teaser: The Great Adventure of the Castle | Bei Mao | Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 17 | 9787534618727 | 1998-07 | The Straw Hut | Cao Wenxuan | Jiangsu Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 18 | 9787556830411 | 2017-10 | The Cricket in Times Square | George Selden, Garth Williams | 21st Century Press Group |
| 1 | 19 | 9787556878871 | 2023-11 | Treasure Hunting in Shanxi | Jingding Comic | 21st Century Press Group |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787570819706 | 2024-01 | Transports | HOLLO BOOKS | Tomorrow Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 21 | 9787570819768 | 2024-01 | Animals | HOLLO BOOKS | Tomorrow Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 22 | 9787559738516 | 2024-06 | The Glittering Red Satrs | Li Xintian | Zhejiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 23 | 9787570722693 | 2024-06 | Little Carp Jump Over The Dragon’s Gate | Jin Jin | Anhui Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| 2 | 24 | 9787521509823 | 2024-02 | Murphy’s Law, A Comic Book That Children Love to Read | Yu Liangli | Knowledge Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 25 | 9787570722709 | 2024-06 | Crooked Head Wooden Stake | Yan Wenjing | Anhui Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 26 | 9787020144532 | 2018-10 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone | J.K.Rowling | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 27 | 9787570819799 | 2024-01 | Space | HOLLO BOOKS | Tomorrow Publishing House |
| 9 | 28 | 9787536593749 | 2020-05 | Mi Xiaoquan’s Brain-teaser: Game of the Wise | Bei Mao | Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 29 | 9787558900648 | 2017-07 | Winter of Three Hairs (With Chinese Pinyin) | Zhang Leping | Juvenile & Children’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 30 | 9787500794141 | 2009-11 | Pippi Longstocking | Astrid Lindgren, Ingrid Vang Nyman | China Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House |
Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers, July 2024
| June 2024 Ranking | July 2024 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 1 | 1 | 9787544291170 | 2017-08 | One Hundred Years of Solitude (50th Anniversary Edition) | Gabriel García Márquez | Colombia | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 3 | 2 | 9787544766500 | 2017-01 | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | United States of America | Yilin Press |
| Not Ranked | 3 | 9787544774666 | 2018-12 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Bront? | Britain | Yilin Press |
| 4 | 4 | 9787201141527 | 2018-10 | Strait is the Gate | Andre Gide | France | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 5 | 9787511379054 | 2019-10 | The Moon and Sixpence | William Somerset Maugham | Britain | China Overseas Chinese Press |
| 7 | 6 | 9787544291163 | 2017-08 | Journey Under the Midnight Sun (2017 Edition) | Keigo Higashino | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 5 | 7 | 9787572601033 | 2021-05 | The Tale of Rose | Yi Shu | Canada | Hunan Literature & Art Press |
| 2 | 8 | 9787201112695 | 2017-03 | Siddhartha | Hermann Hesse | Germany | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 6 | 9 | 9787208061644 | 2006-04 | The Kite Runner | Khaled Hosseini | United States of America | Shanghai People’s Publishing House |
| 14 | 10 | 9787544298995 | 2020-09 | Miracles of the Namiya General Store (2020 Edition) | Keigo Higashino | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 8 | 11 | 9787521748239 | 2022-12 | Goodbye, Eri | Tatsuki Fujimoto | Japan | CITIC Publishing House Co., Ltd. |
| 10 | 12 | 9787513348362 | 2022-08 | Look Back | Tatsuki Fujimoto | Japan | New Star Press Co., Ltd. |
| 11 | 13 | 9787533936020 | 2017-02 | The Moon and Sixpence | William Somerset Maugham | Britain | Zhejiang Literature & Art Press |
| 9 | 14 | 9787539983295 | 2015-10 | Foundation (Revised Edition) | Isaac Asimov | United States of America | Jiangsu Literature & Art Press |
| 17 | 15 | 9787544269452 | 2021-12 | Malice (2022 Edition) | Keigo Higashino | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 13 | 16 | 9787544280020 | 2019-08 | What Life You Want to Have | Yoshino Genzaburo | Japan | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 19 | 17 | 9787530217054 | 2017-12 | The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho | Brazil | Beijing October Art & Literature Publishing House |
| 18 | 18 | 9787555913726 | 2022-08 | Flowers for Algernon | Daniel Keyes | United States of America | Henan Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787532175512 | 2020-05 | 13 Steps | Kazuaki Takano | Japan | Shanghai Literature & Art Press |
| Not Ranked | 20 | 9787559614711 | 2018-01 | Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit | Jeanette Winterson | Britain | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, July 2024
| June 2024 Ranking | July 2024 Ranking | ISBN | Release Date | Title (Translated) | Author | Author nationality | Chinese Publisher |
| 9 | 1 | 9787020116133 | 2016-06 | Red Star Over China | Edgar Snow | United States of America | People’s Literature Publishing House |
| 1 | 2 | 9787111495482 | 2015-04 | The Courage to Be Disliked | Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga | Japan | China Machine Press |
| 2 | 3 | 9787201161693 | 2020-08 | Counselling for Toads: A Psychological Adventure | Robert de Board | Britain | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 3 | 4 | 9787544276986 | 2019-10 | Educated: A Memoir | Tara Westover | United States of America | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 10 | 5 | 9787550268517 | 2016-07 | Positive Discipline (Revised Edition) | Jane Nelsen | United States of America | Beijing Union Publishing Co., Ltd. |
| 11 | 6 | 9787574217324 | 2024-02 | Why Is Hunger Good? | Yumi Ishihara | Japan | Tianjin Science & Technology Press |
| 16 | 7 | 9787544295390 | 2019-03 | What to expert when you’re expecting | Heidi Murkoff, Sharon Mazel | United States of America | Nan Hai Publishing Co. |
| 7 | 8 | 9787521758399 | 2023-09 | Elon Musk | Walter Isaacson | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co., Ltd. |
| 5 | 9 | 9787522200514 | 2021-05 | Nonviolent Communication | Marshall B. Rosenberg | United States of America | Huaxia Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 10 | 9787515350622 | 2018-04 | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Stephen R.Covey | United States of America | China Youth Press |
| 15 | 11 | 9787555262800 | 2017-12 | The Power of Insensitivity | Junichi Watanabe | Japan | Qingdao Publishing House |
| Not Ranked | 12 | 9787111735779 | 2024-01 | My father before me :how fathers and sons influence each other throughout their lives | Michael J. Diamond | United States of America | China Machine Press |
| Not Ranked | 13 | 9787520711531 | 2019-11 | A Compass to Fulfillment | Kazuo Inamori | Japan | Orient Press |
| Not Ranked | 14 | 9787505745681 | 2018-12 | The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind | Gustave Le Bon | France | China Friendship Publishing Company |
| 18 | 15 | 9787521762181 | 2024-04 | The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI | Fei-Fei Li | United States of America | CITIC Publishing House Co., Ltd. |
| Not Ranked | 16 | 9787515360430 | 2020-07 | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Revised Edition) | Stephen R.Covey | United States of America | China Youth Press |
| 14 | 17 | 9787521719253 | 2020-08 | The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did) | Philippa Perry | Britain | CITIC Publishing House Co., Ltd. |
| 4 | 18 | 9787108009821 | 1998-07 | 1587, a Year of No Significance | Ray Huang | United States of America | SDX Joint Publishing Company |
| Not Ranked | 19 | 9787201151656 | 2019-10 | A room of one’s own | Virginia Woolf | Britain | Tianjin People’s Publishing House |
| 19 | 20 | 9787111551287 | 2016-10 | Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise | Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool | United States of America | China Machine Press |
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 offline bookstores.
The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores. The offline channels include more than 4,900 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 2023, OpenBook tracked around 72.31 billion RMB in sales (US$10.12 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.
About the Author
