BOOKFAIR-Internet breathes life into Chinese book scene
FRANKFURT, Oct 20 (Reuters) - While many Western publishers fear the Internet could destroy their trade through piracy and price pressures, in China the Web is driving a renaissance in an industry that had stagnated under state control.
One in five Chinese bestsellers now originates in cyberspace and the Internet has also vastly expanded the bounds of what can be published.
"The Internet means, actually, a new freedom for Chinese people but also for publishers," Jing Bartz, director of the German Book Information Centre in Beijing, told Reuters at the Frankfurt Book Fair. "It plays a very big role."
Although Web content is hard to control, Chinese authorities have recognised a need to develop the nation's book market or see it taken over by foreigners after joining the World Trade Organisation almost seven years ago, Bartz and others said.
The value of books sold in China last year totalled 51.3 million yuan ($7.5 million), a tiny fraction of the $25 billion the U.S. book market is worth, partly due to low prices under a planned economy.
Hu Dawei, vice president of the Shanghai Century Publishing Group -- one of mainland China's biggest publishing groups -- said the government was now encouraging publishers to explore new forms of ownership to free up the market.
Shanghai Century, which controls more than a dozen publishing houses and a big distribution network in eastern China, is planning to list part of its assets this year.
MANY TABOOS
Officially, all Chinese publishers are under state control, although private publishers calling themselves "culture companies" have grabbed almost half the market for non-textbook titles. They discover many of their authors on the Web.
"These private publishers are riding the crest of a wave which, through the Internet, is breaking over us all, and China in particular," Frankfurt Book Fair Director Juergen Boos said in a speech previewing China's role as guest of honour for the 2009 fair.
Private companies buy an International Standard Book Number from state-owned publishers for about $2,000 each, according to Bartz. The state publishers then put the titles out under their own imprint.
Private, therefore, does not mean unfettered -- state publishers still have to take responsibility for the content they put out and, although there is no longer a "forbidden list" of banned titles there are still many taboo subjects such as Tibet, the independence of Taiwan, Falun Gong or pornography.
The government regularly bans books that broach forbidden or sensitive topics, though they are often available online or in pirated editions on street corners after being taken off the shelves or stopped from getting into stores.
Bartz said an author friend of hers wrote a banned novel about AIDS set in a Chinese village four years ago. The author, Yan Lianke, was not himself punished but his editor in chief had to write a 50-page public self-criticism and the publishing house received fewer ISBN numbers as a consequence. Continued...
