Self-Help Books Big in China

The Economist November 14th 2020 pp40 |China|Self-help books|”Highly effective people’s republic”. “The market for self-help books is booming, strongly influenced by America’s”

Picture of "Seven Years as an Educated Youth" by Xi Jinping. Image amazon.com

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Article Summary

Reportedly Chinese bookstores sell plenty of self-help titles including translations of American classics like “How to Win Friends and Influence People, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and even The Art of the Deal.” American readers like self-help books but they only account for 7% of non-fiction sales compared to reportedly 33% of all books sold to Chinese readers. With little free time to develop personal skills, and in a changing time of great opportunity and a culture of striving for success, Chinese fiction sales were only 7% in 2018 compared to 30% for Germans. A report by the Arts Council England way back in 2006 stated “One of the most striking features of China’s market for books is its absolute and passionate relevance to life.” Such an ongoing interest is likely admired by the Chinese government but they would prefer the populace be reading Seven Years as an Educated Youth by President Xi Jinping. Among the popular Chinese titles is “Don’t Opt for Comfort at the Stage of Life that is Meant to be Difficult” which sounds an awful lot like the American business adage of “Get Out of Your Comfort Zone” or “No Gain without Pain.”