BECOMING A BRAND
a authors J Japanese panese Popular in China for others open door
While things have been getting tough for South Korean productions, there has been a growing refocus on Japan, especially when it comes to two authors in particular. Following Haruki Murakami’s latest novel Killing Commendatore, the film adaptation of Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X will hit cinemas on March 31.
In recent years, when talking about Japanese literature in China, the discussion will always turn to Murakami and Higashino, two Japanese novelists with completely different styles who have ranked among the top bestsellers in the country.
Walk into any bookstore in China and you will easily find entire bookshelves dedicated to their works.
Haruki Murakami
Published in early March, Murakami’s latest novel Killing Commendatore stirred up controversy in Japan when it mentioned that the number of Chinese killed by the Japanese military during the Nanjing Massacre ( 1937) might be as high as 400,000, much higher than the 300,000 deaths recorded by Chinese sources.
Extreme right- winger Toshio Motoya, CEO of the APA Group, accused Murakami of mentioning the Nanjing Massacre in the book purely to cater to Chinese readers and to put himself in the running for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Additionally, some Japanese netizens started a “Stop reading Murakami” movement.
Despite this controversy, or perhaps because of it, the Chinese translation of Killing Commendatore has become one of the author’s most highly anticipated novels in China. Also adding to the anticipation is the fact that the new work is the first full novel that the author has published since IQ84 seven years ago.
“I have my money ready. Those working on attaining the copyrights for the book and dear Lin, please hurry up!” netizen Cold Star posted on Chinese online forum platform Baidu Tieba. Lin refers to Lin Shaohua, a Chinese translator who has translated a number of Murakami’s works.
Since the Chinese translation of Norwegian Wood ( 1987) was published in 1989, the Chinese versions of Murakami’s works have been seen as a minor miracle in Chinese publishing circle.
According to an article by Sanlian Life Week magazine published on February 20, Norwegian Wood has been printed and distributed 22 times by the Shanghai Translation Publishing House since 2001. The Chinese version of Kafka on the Shore ( 2002) had a 260,000 copy run in its first two years, which is quite an accomplishment considering that the average print run for foreign literature rarely goes over the 10,000 copy mark in China.
“Murakami is smart. What he writes about is very much like our lives, at least the lives of people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou [ capital of South China’s Guangdong Province],” Shen Weifan, the editor in charge of Murakami’s works at the Shanghai Translation Publishing House, told Sanlian Life Week.
“Norwegian Wood and his other four early works are all set before Japan’s economic bubble popped in 1989. It is a time when new and old ideologies clashed together, a little bit like China’s reform and opening- up,” Shen noted.
Keigo Higashino
Also a popular author in China, Higashino has long held a place on reading charts on Sina Weibo. His famous works such as Miracles of the Namiya General Store ( 2012), Into the White Night ( 1999) and The Devotion of Suspect X ( 2005) are often seen on various bestselling book charts.
In 2016, Higashino topped Amazon China’s lists for the bestselling print and digital books.
“Higashino has the ability to make readers feel his unbelievable plots are a natural part of our daily lives,” Fu Xu, chief editor of the Chinese version of Demon of Laplace, told the Global Times on Sunday.
According to Fu, Chinese readers have a hard time accepting other Japanese detective novelists because their books make readers lose their patience.
Completed in 2015, Higashino’s Demon of Laplace marks his return to the detective genre. The Chinese version hit shelves in the Chinese mainland in January. So far more than 400,000 copies of the book have been printed.
“Higashino never branded himself as a detective novelist. Compared to traditional Japanese detective works, Higashino’s works make readers feel more relaxed,” Fu said.
Door to Japan
Although the two authors have radically different styles, Murakami and Higashino have achieved similar accomplishments in China in that they have become brands in and of themselves.
“Having readers only look at the author’s name instead of the book title is something that only happens with Murakami’s books,” Shen told Sanlian Life Week magazine in the February article.
As an author with “the most film and television adaptations of any Japanese detective writer,” Higashino also has reason to be proud, Jiang Kaili, a Higashino fan told the Global Times on Monday.
“I guess his success in China can be contributed to mass media since it was the numerous TV adaptations that brought him fame. Many Chinese readers learned about him through these adaptations, then went on to read his works.”
The popularity of these two authors have also been a great boon for Japanese literature in China as a whole.
Jiang started reading Higashino in high school around 2009- 10. After reading almost all of his works, she turned to the writings of Soji Shimada, one of the biggest figures of traditional Japanese detective novels. According to Jiang, Higashino has acted as a stepping stone forfo many Chinese readerse of Japanese detective novelsn over the years.
“Murakami opened a doord for me,” 25- year- old Ma Danmeng, a Murakami fan in Shanghai, told theth Global Times. “I read allal of Murakami’s works whenw I was a student. He made me want to read other more serious works fromfr Japan.”