Chinese books harder to sell than spring rolls

• Source: Global Times
• [21:40 October 28 2009]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Liu Yutao

Chinese have a very special attachment to the Xinhua Bookstore, China's biggest bookstore chain, which is starting to expand overseas. After entering the US market last year, it opened a new store in London on October 20. It is the first Xinhua Bookstore in Europe.

However, selling Chinese books is not like selling spring rolls at Chinese restaurants in the overseas market: Foreigners might love Chinese food, but they won't take Chinese books as easily.

For a long time, we wasted a lot of money hosting large-scale but fruitless cultural exchange events. Wu Jiangjiang, general manager of China National Publications Import and Export Corporation (CNPIEC), has publicly assured of the profitability of London's Xinhua Bookstore. But it is not easy to achieve this goal.

In the US, Chinese books are difficult to sell, even in Chinese communities. Bookstores suffered a lot during the financial crisis.