China News Service, Beijing, April 23. Title: Taiwanese publishers talk about reading tastes of readers on both sides of the strait: starting from Sanmao
Author Li Hanxue
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Taiwanese female writer San Mao, whose ancestral home is Zhejiang.
On April 20th, Taiwan Times Cultural Publishing House published the biography "My Aunt Sanmao" written by Sanmao's niece.
This biography was published on the mainland at the end of last year, and now it has come to the eyes of readers in Taiwan.
"For people in Taiwan now in their 50s and 60s, San Mao is a memory of growth and a contemporary cultural landscape." said Zhao Zhengmin, chairman of the Times Culture Publishing House and director of the Taipei Book Fair Foundation.
On the occasion of World Book Day on April 23, a reporter from China News Service and Zhao Zhengmin discussed the reading tastes of readers on both sides of the strait from Sanmao.
Zhao Zhengmin said that for Taiwanese readers at the end of the last century, San Mao represented a spirit of freedom.
She left Taiwan, went wandering in the Sahara Desert, and had an exotic relationship. This kind of unrestrained "world and earth" made the Taiwanese readers very longing for at that time.
In fact, readers of Sanmao in mainland China have almost exactly the same resonance.
Many people think of "Sahara" because of Sanmao, and many female readers begin to regard "wandering" as a longing for life.
Many mainlanders who have read or even never read Sanmao remember this sentence: Every time you think of you, a grain of sand falls from the sky, and the Sahara has been formed since then.
Zhao Zhengmin also laughed and said that he discovered that San Mao is still very popular in the mainland.
Many of the mainland guests he has received have made a special trip to visit the cabin where Sanmao has stayed in Taiwan.
Taiwanese authors like San Mao who are loved by readers on both sides of the strait have not stopped appearing over the years.
Without thinking, Zhao Zhengmin cited Jiang Xun, Cai Zhizhong, Zhu Deyong... But he also sighed that more and more people are picking up mobile phones and putting down books. It seems that it is getting harder and harder for sensational writers to appear on both sides of the strait.
However, in the Taiwan market, among the books that are adapted to "light reading" and have a relatively light style, there are still many Chinese history, inspirational and popular science books from the mainland that have entered the best-selling list.
For example, Zhao Zhengmin, a mainland cartoonist who used cute cats to talk about Chinese history, "If history is a group of meows" is quite popular, and books written by mainland authors of "slash youth" also helped this term become popular in Taiwan.
He also observed that young people on both sides of the strait are facing similar economic pressures and life pressures, and they seem to have similar annoyances. This makes the spiritual motivational books on the mainland able to impress readers on both sides of the strait at the same time.
"You may have seen the media say that some young people in Taiwan do not like the mainland, but in fact, human nature is common, and Chinese culture is cross-strait." Zhao Zhengmin said.
Last year, it was reported on the island that it was necessary to apply for permission to publish mainland publications. This incident also triggered a backlash in Taiwan’s publishing industry.
Zhao Zhengmin said that after the rumors, related businesses have not been substantially affected.
In the case of Times Culture Publishing House, the purchase of book copyrights in mainland China is showing a growing trend.
Compared with foreign books, mainland books are easy to sell and save translation costs, and they are still the first choice of many Taiwanese publishing houses.
However, he also mentioned that the current tensions in cross-strait relations indeed constitute the concerns of publishers on both sides of the strait.
In order to avoid "trouble", some industry operators simply avoid buying books on the other side.
This makes Zhao Zhengmin a bit regretful, who hopes to open up a larger market in the mainland.
As a publisher, another regret for him is that in recent years, there are few Chinese writers who can influence the world.
He believes that the Chinese reading market has a great foundation, but it has not yet been fully developed.
There is no shortage of creative nourishment in Chinese culture. At present, the oriental ideas and ways of thinking are getting more and more attention from the world.
The publishing industry needs to "make the structure bigger" instead of making the industry smaller and smaller in a small circle.
Taiwanese writers should also open their eyes and think about whether their books can go out of Taiwan or even out of the Chinese world.
Zhao Zhengmin said that he looks forward to more cooperation in the publishing industry on both sides of the strait, and jointly seeks rich creative elements in the great rivers of China; on the basis of the cross-strait markets, work together to introduce national brands that represent Chinese culture to the world.
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