Common Man's Confucius for the West 10:55, May 08, 2009
Common man's Confucius for the West 10:55, May 08, 2009 When Yu Dan, a media expert and professor at Beijing Normal University, sat down to interpret Confucian thoughts in 2006, little did she realize that this effort would catapult her to overnight fame, turning the wise and dusty old Confucian teachings into a Chinese version of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Yu Dan's Insights into the Analects, based on 7 lectures that Yu Dan gave in 2006 on China Central Television's (CCTV) primetime show "Lecture Room", sold a record 12,600 copies on the launch day. Within two years, the book sold 5 million legal copies and an estimated 6 million pirated ones, remaining at the top of the Chinese bestseller lists even today (ranked 23rd in the non-fiction category in March 2009). While the Chinese version continued to reap in rich harvests, last week, UK-based Macmillan Publishers Ltd, released the English version of Yu Dan's bestseller, Confucius from the Heart: Ancient Wisdom for Today's World, bringing 2500-year-old Confucian wisdom to modern Western readers. Translated from Yu Dan's original book, published by Zhonghua Book Company, which is based in Beijing, the English version has trumped the previous record money of 100,000 U.S. dollars Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem cost Penguin in September 2005. Macmillan has paid a record 100,000 British pounds to Zhonghua for obtaining the copyright of Yu's book. Macmillan published the book in UK on May 1, 2009. To promote her book, Yu Dan visited UK and gave speeches at Cambridge University, Manchester University and Asian House in April, attracting hundreds of British audience.(Photo: en.huanqiu.com) A few years ago, Chinese traditional culture was brought back in vogue by the CCTV show "Lecture Room", triggering nationwide enthusiasm and it also caught the attention of the Western media.
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