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.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (253 p.)

Other Title:

Best sellers and the commercialization of literary production in contemporary China

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book examines 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:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Commercialization and Literary Best Sellers

1. Breaking Away: Writers as Cultural Entrepreneurs

2. Publishing Houses: Creating a Best Seller Machine

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

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

5. Translating Foreign Literature: From Elitism to Populism

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

Conclusion: Literature in a Multimedia Millennium

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

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

ISBN:

9780804767378

0804767378

9781423716570

1423716574

OCLC:

191952709