Consuming literature : best sellers and the commercialization of literary production in contemporary China / Shuyu Kong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kong, Shuyu.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Publishers and publishing--China.

Publishers and publishing.

Booksellers and bookselling.

China.

Booksellers and bookselling--China.

Physical Description:

x, 241 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Best sellers and the commercialization of literary production in contemporary China

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2005.

Summary:

This book describes the changes taking place in literary writing and publishing in contemporary China under the influence of the emerging market economy. It focuses on the revival of literary best sellers in the Chinese book market and the establishment of a best-seller production machine.

The author examines how writers have become cultural entrepreneurs, how state publishing houses are now motivated by commercial incentives, and how "second-channel," unofficial publishers and distributors both compete and cooperate with official publishing houses in a dual-track, socialist-capitalist economic system. Taken together, these changes demonstrate how economic development and culture interact in a postsocialist society, in contrast to the way they work in the mature capitalist economies of the West. That economic reforms have affected many aspects of Chinese society is well known, but this is the first comprehensive analysis of market influences in the literary field. This book thus offers a fresh perspective on the inner workings of contemporary Chinese society.

Contents:

Introduction: Commercialization and Literary Best Sellers 1

1 Breaking Away: Writers as Cultural Entrepreneurs 11

2 Publishing Houses: Creating a Best Seller Machine 37

3 "Second Channel": Book Dealers, Agents, and Cultural Studios 65

4 The Economics of Privacy: Publishing Women's Writing 95

5 Translating Foreign Literature: From Elitism to Populism 120

6 Literary Journals: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 144

Conclusion: Literature in a Multimedia Millennium 170.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [225]-234) and index.

ISBN:

0804749396

080474940X

OCLC:

56051091