The bestselling Chinese books for 2017

Amazon's bestselling books for China in 2017 Credit: chinadaily.com.cn

28 December 2017 • 11:45am

Li Ping

As 2017 draws to an end, what books you have read? Here are the most popular in China over the past 12 months, according to Amazon

Amazon China has revealed what have been the bestselling books in the country for 2017, giving an insight into Chinese people’s reading habits. The list includes bestsellers both in traditional paper and electronic formats.

The first three places for paper books were taken by the Japanese author Keigo Higashino’s Miracles of the Namiya General Store, the late Chinese writer Yang Jiang’s We Three and Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.

Reading preferences on the portable Kindle, however, are a bit different. The top three most popular paid e-books are the Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body trilogy, Miracles of the Namiya General Store by Keigo Higashino, and The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Miracles of the Namiya General Store has made it into the top 10 of these two rankings for four consecutive years after its Chinese edition was published in 2014.

Hit films and TV shows prompt book sales

Popular films and TV series have prompted a surge in sales of books, such as In the Name of the People and Murder on the Orient Express.

A poster for the anti-corruption TV series In the Name of the People Credit: Mtime

In the Name of the People, an anti-corruption novel by Chinese author Zhou Meisen, ranked fourth on Kindle’s paid e-books list, thanks to its smash TV adaptation, aired in March and April. Statistics show purchases of the book’s digital version increased 24-fold three months after its screening, and printed copies surged 12-fold.

Jia Pingwa becomes the most influential Chinese author overseas

Amazon named the Chinese writer Jia Pingwa the “most influential Chinese author overseas”.

The Chinese writer Jia Pingwa and the English version of his novel Happy Dreams Credit: chinadaily.com.cn

In August, the e-commerce giant published Happy Dreams, the English version of Jia’s novel Gaoxing. The paper version and e-book were released simultaneously, enabling readers in more than 180 countries to have access to the novel.
Published in 2007, Happy Dreams depicts the bitter experience of Chinese migrant worker Liu Gaoxing who comes from Shaanxi province to seek a living in a city.

A nation of readers

Chinese digital readership has continued to grow.

Statistics show there are more than 300 million digital readers in China, and paid online content has become a new growth point in national cultural consumption.

The Chinese Academy of Press and Publications said the average Chinese adult read 7.86 books in 2016, a mild increase from 2015. Among them, 4.65 were paper books and 3.21 e-books. Do your habits measure up? How many books did you read this year, and how did you read them?
This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View the original article at: chinadaily.com.cn