TOYS, GARMENTS MORE POPULAR THAN BOOKS
However, the reality of China's cultural influence is far from being prestigious. Experts say the popularity of Mandarin is largely driven by economic profit rather than the appeal of culture itself. The country's heavy deficit in cultural trade demonstrates the real situation.
As the world's largest publisher of books, magazines and newspapers, China has failed to make its publications as popular as its toys, garments and electronic products.
Each year, China imports foreign publications worth of hundreds of millions of dollars. But its exports are scarce.
Most of its books were bought by publishers from Southeast Asian countries and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. No obvious presence was seen in the Western market.
Books exported are often on traditional Chinese culture, such as qigong and Chinese herbal medicine. "The presence of books on contemporary Chinese society and culture is still rare," says Wei Yushan, deputy director of the China Publishing Sciences Institute.
Even in Asia, where Chinese culture has had a historic influence on many countries, the cultural role is overshadowed by Japan and the Republic of Korea, who have risen as the pop-culturetrend-setters.
Japan and South Korea's cultural industries account for 13 percent of the international culture market, while China and all the other Asian countries make up just six percent, according to the Ministry of Culture.
A national project to popularize books of China was launched in 2004 with subsidies from the government to local publishers who translated Chinese works into foreign languages.
The government's efforts have helped reduce the copyright deficit to 1:8.6 in 2004 from 1:15 in 2003, according to the General Administration of Press and Publication.
The potential was glimpsed last year when Penguin Books set a Chinese record with its purchase for 100,000 U.S. dollars of the worldwide English rights for Jiang Rong's literary bestseller, "The Wolf Totem."
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