the blog of the guy who wrote

that book about china

黑心帝国 is the title of the new translation in Chinese. The quick and dirty: 黑心 is black-hearted, and 帝國 is empire. Not exactly mellifluous in English, 黑心帝国 sounds even sharper to those whose speak Chinese.

Rights to this Chinese edition were acquired by a publisher in Taiwan, and at one point I proposed alternatives. One goal, I wanted a title that would work both outside as well as inside China. For stylistic reasons, I thought we might also try to match the original title better. In the end, the publisher convinced that there is no way in Chinese to accurately capture the adverb/verb play on words you get in English by combining “Poorly Made” and “Made in China,” and any translation that approached the original would be distant in flavor.

I have since come around to accepting 黑心帝国 as a not-bad title. There are two advantages as far as I see it, possibly three. First, with the new title, the publisher has at least matched the acridity of the original. Second, the new title provides insight into how some Chinese outside of China feel about the economy. It makes a difference that this book is being published in Taiwan, a country that is different from China in many ways. One of the gaps happens to be linguistic.

For those who do not know, Chinese is split into two writing systems. In China, they use Simplified Chinese. In Taiwan, they use Traditional Chinese. The rights for this publication were for traditional only, which means that this book will be seen almost exclusively in Taiwan (and Hong Kong, which also uses traditional characters).

The two character sets are not all that different, actually, and many in China are able to recognize traditional characters, too. It is conceivable that copies of this edition might find their way into China, but I wouldn’t count on it. Never mind the political implications. Book stores in China tend not to stock books printed in traditional characters.

If there is a third advantage, it may be some of the individual responses. I have shown the cover to friends and others in China, and I’ve been fascinated by what some have had to say. If you know people in China, I recommend doing the same, to catch these reactions for yourself. Yes, some are offended, but then a high proportion agree that China faces a 黑心 leadership challenge, to put it in a phrase.

This edition doesn’t come out until next month, but its cover has already proven to be a conversation starter.

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