Queen of crime

Introduction

The first of Christie's works to reach China, in the 1940s, was her novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in a detective fiction magazine. But it was not until after she died that she became hugely popular in the country.

In July 1979, in the aftermath of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and as China began implementing the policy of reform and opening-up, the 1978 movie adaptation of Death on the Nile was screened in the country and was a phenomenal success. Overnight Detective Hercule Poirot became a popular figure in China.

In November of that year the foreign literature periodical Yilin was founded, and with it was published Death on the Nile, the editor regarding the novel as far superior to the movie. Four hundred thousand copies of Yilin were sold, exhausting stocks in some cities so that it became highly sought after.

About the same time China Film Press published a book that included both Murder on the Orient Express as a novel and the screenplay of a 1974 movie adaptation.

As the fame of Poirot spread across China, many of Christie's works were translated into Chinese in the 1980s. Between 1980 and 1981 more than 20 of her novels were published, featuring not only Poirot, but also the popular Jane Marple, such as in the novels Nemesis and Sparkling Cyanide (also published under the title Remembered Death.)

In 1998 Guizhou People's Publishing House published 80 of Christie's works, but not all of her detective works. In 2013 New Star Press bought the copyright from Mathew Prichard, her grandson, to publish all the 85 detective works.

"We are the first Chinese publisher to publish all her detective works," says Wang Huan, editor in charge of the project at New Star Press. Forty-three books have come out and the plan is to publish the rest of her works by the end of next year.

"Readers are looking forward to the full collection. Famous titles such as And There Were None, Evil Under the Sun, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile were best-sellers with more than 100,000 copies sold."

However, Shen says, few Chinese read Christie's books these days, most being aware of her fiction from watching TV series and movies.

Even among the Christie devotees at Tongji University, Shen's mention of some of the writer's less popular titles drew blank stares, but everyone seemed to be aware of the new BBC TV adaptation of And There Were None screened in Britain late last year. Many Chinese watched it online.

"Life's different to what it used to be, and few people have the patience to sit down hours on end and read a 300-page book, even if it's a thrilling detective novel," Shen says.