BEIJING: The Chinese have for long marvelled at the Indian ability with English. Now, a large number of them are taking concrete measures to pick up tips on learning English from India. This is best demonstrated by the success of Orient Longman in selling book titles on learning English to Chinese publishers in the past few days.
"Almost all the titles we sold are about learning English. The Chinese respect Indians for their ability with English and information technology," Raj Mani, senior vice president with Orient Longman Private Ltd., said at the book fair after selling publication rights to 44 book titles to Chinese publishers. The local publishers will now come out with local editions of books on learning English for use in schools across the country.
Scattered across the scores of stalls at the book fair were a large number of books in Chinese language on various aspect of Indian life like religion, culture, business and economy. This is a strong sign of a growing demand for purchase of Indian books by ordinary people in China. So far, books on India in Chinese translation have been bought only by libraries and rarely seen in retail book stores.
UBS Publishers' Distributors, which is possibly the biggest seller of Indian books to China, sold $200,000 worth of books on India to Chinese distributors in 2006. "The budgets of public libraries for buying Indian books has been growing year on year. There is also a lot of emerging demand among ordinary people who want to buy books on India," Amrit Sharma, UBSPD general manager, said.
About 95 per cent of the books UBSPD sells in China are written in English. Chinese libraries usually seek Indian books on social sciences and science and technology. There is a rising demand among individuals for self-improvement books from India, Sharma said.
This is his third time Mani of Orient Longman is visiting the annual Beijing fair. Orient Longman sold one book title in 2005 and none in 2006. This is why its success in this year's book fair is an indication of the growing eagerness among the Chinese to learn from a veriety of things from India including the art of studying English.
"Our books on learning English are as good as any in the western world. And, of course, our costs are also lower," Mani said.
Other Indian publishers managed to evoke interest among their Chinese counterparts to book titles on a variety of other issues raging from chemicals, IT, defence and cultural issues. Indian book titles other than those dealing with English learning will be translated in Chinese.
Nuzhat Hassan, director of the National Book Trust, said her organisation is actively negotiating with Chinese publishers for selling title rights of eight books including two books on Buddism, two on Yoga, one on ancient Hindus, one on Sri Aurobindo and one on puzzles. Chinese publishers have also shown interest in Indian books on subjects like jewellery and architecture, she said.
Lawman (India) Pvt. Ltd. found Chinese publishers interested in a nine-volume set on integrated pest management. It had earlier sold rights to 27 books on defence to a Shanghai based publisher, which published them in both print and e-book formats, Chander Dutt Tewari, the company's manager (export), said.
"I think China is a good market. It is all a question of perseverance. We expect some demand for book titles on subjects like maths and sciences for children as well," Mani said.
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