One of my standard oneliners, when visiting want to know fast-food style, what the biggest problem in China is, I look at them and say: you are your biggest problem.
I had to think about that one again when I was fast scanning some of the Dutch headlines regarding China. "Dutch books gaining popularity fast in China", was one headline (I won't link since it is in Dutch anyway). Others were more correct: "More Chinese translations of Dutch books".
What is happening is that the Dutch institute financing translations has been focusing on China and has been rather successful in handing out money for Chinese translations of Dutch books. This year they boast even a bigger success than last year.
The problem is that the books never make it to the Chinese bookshops. One Chinese publisher said that he could not recall any Dutch book that had even been printed in a Chinese translation recently. He actually did not think that, apart from the all-time winner "the diary of Anne Frank", there would actually be a lot of interest for Dutch literature.
So, the Chinese publishing houses are in it for the Dutch money for translations. They use of all kind of excuses for not printing the books ("We wait until we have a nice set of books together") but it will need some more money to get the books even printed.
2 comments:
What about the books of Robert van Gulik (set of four, 2006) and Annie M.G. Schmidt (set of five, 2007)?
Hi, maybe my source was not that trustworthy, or not up to date. Any information about the sales? Have there been any pirated copies, the ultimate sign of success?
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