China Bestsellers in April: Adaptations and Tours

Three editions of one 2008 book were on OpenBook’s April bestseller fiction lists in China, powered by a new, touring stage adaptation.

An April view of the Qing dynasty summer palace at Chengde’s mountain resort, a UNESCO World Heritage site built between 1703 and 1792. Image – Getty iStockphoto: Thomas De Wever

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

Staging a Drama, Boosting Sales

If anyone in book publishing thinks that only a screen adaptation can surge a book’s popularity, it might be worth looking at the case of Street Wizards by Feng Jicai in China. This is a well-respected but hardly new volume of 14 “new folklores” that first appeared in 2008 and 2009.

‘Street Wizards,’ an edition at No. 12 (The Writer’s Publishing House)

When a new stage drama appeared this year, the book found new life among China’s bestsellers—and in at least three editions, no less. And one other factor played a role: the show toured widely, finding welcoming audiences waiting.

Our good associates at Beijing OpenBook tell us that Street Wizards, the drama, premiered on February 8 under the auspices of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee. The production was jointly produced by the Northern Performing Arts Group, Dragon Century, Happy Twist, and Tianjin Renyi. Following a news conference, a tour began with stops in some of the major hubs including Guangzhou, Foshan, Wuhan, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuxi, and others, running right through the month of April.

With the stage adaptation gaining both the blessing of the author and the applause of avid ticket holders, the book—now in at least three editions–went right onto the fiction bestseller charts in April—where it had last showed up, in our records, on the January 2021 lists.

‘Street Wizards,’ an edition at No. 29  (The Writer’s Publishing House)

This triple-edition return to the charts in April saw the story collection Street Wizards holding down the spots at Nos. 12, 29, and 30.

To reinforce that power-of-tours notion, this time at the authorial level, you’ll see Ma Boyong’s Lychee in Chang’an at No. 1 in April. In that instance, the buoyance has to do with the writer doing “offline reader meetings”—in-person appearances—in many cities of China to talk with readers about his creative experience and how he works. Those personal appearances were accompanied by strong reader reviews online, clearly a good recipe for sales.

Never to be underestimated in the Chinese market—just as in Western markets—the title holding the No. 3 spot in April, Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume no Tojimari, benefited from what’s probably the most tried-and-true book-promotional vehicles of this era: the release of a film adaptation in April, bumping the book up from No. 10 in March to No. 3 in the previous month.

Before we move to the April charts—and we anticipate coming back to you quite soon with May’s lists, as well—we’ll just add that in April, the Top 30 in fiction showed significant overall sales increases over those similarly ranked books in March. And that boost in sales is credited to World Book Day, observed in China as it is in so many book markets on April 23.

‘Street Wizards,’ an edition at No. 30 (People’s Literature Publishing House)

In China, World Book Day features government agencies, educational institutions, cultural institutions, and various enterprises and institutions holding activities themed around reading. Lots of commercial promotions, book festivals, and other events often accompany World Book Day observances, all of which, of course, can put some energy into sales.

Many regular readers of our China bestsellers series with OpenBook won’t be surprised to know that World Book Day often puts extra emphasis on the relatively contemporary classics steadfastly collected by China’s consumers: you’ll find To Live in a 2021 edition and Red Crag once more serenely riding at Nos. 2 and 5 respectively, on the energy of World Book Day and their pedigrees as abiding consumer favorites.

Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from April 2023 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, April 2023

OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, April 2023

OpenBook’s Children’s Bestsellers, April 2023

Foreign Author Fiction Bestsellers, April 2023

Foreign Author Nonfiction Bestsellers, April 2023

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 18,000 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 4,800 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 2022, OpenBook tracked around 76.21 billion RMB in sales (US$10.62 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.