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English version set for 'The Wolf Totem' novel British Penguin Group has agreed to pay US$100 thousand for the English copyright of Jiang Rong's bestseller "The Wolf Totem" - China's most expensive overseas book deal ever.
According to the contract, the English version of "The Wolf Totem" will be published in all native English-speaking countries simultaneously in 2007. "The Wolf Totem" tells the story of a rural youth, Inner Mongolian nomads and wolves set in the 1960s and 1970s. Jiang uses epic narration to depict Inner Mongolia's grassland environment and nomadic culture. The novel has topped China's bestseller list for 16 straight months, selling about 1 million copies. Critical acclaim for the book in the Western media has caught the attention of overseas publishers. Zhou Hailun, general manager of the Beijing branch of Penguin Group China, said the purchase of the novel's English copyright is a significant step for Penguin Group's plans for the Chinese market. The 70-year-old Penguin Group has published Chinese novels such as "The Dream of Red Mansions," "A Surrounded City" and "Red Sorghum." According to the State Administration of Press and Publication, China exported 1,314 book copyrights while importing 10,040 in 2004. The average fee for exported copyrights is about US$5,000. One veteran publisher expressed concern that few books overseas about China embody the Chinese soul, because of the ideological and aesthetic differences between East and West.
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The Penguin Group, under the British Pearson Education
company, bought the copyright from central China's Wuhan-based Changjiang
Literary Art Press on Thursday.
