Just how big is ‘Game of Thrones’ in China
This is just a short post to ask what we know about how is Big ASOIAF is in China?, the stats for this site has juts gone Balastic with Chinese visitors, visiting from two sites cndkc.net and bbs.wbzd.net. Both being Chinese language sites (sorry for the ignorance I can’t tell Cantonese from Mandarin).
With English speaking Chinese interest drowning out both US and UK traffic, ( 40% of Todays traffic comes from China. ) I have to wonder how big is ‘A song of Ice and Fire’ and George RR Martins work in China?
Is the Chinese interest in the books? Lena Headey, Sean Bean or something else?
If any of our Chinese guests would like to make a comment and shine some light on these questions, it would make my day.
Comments: 7 Comments
Hi:) I’m from cndkc.net. The Chinese translator of ASOIAF CCXX introduced us to this site yesterday. Many fans of ASOIAF in China gather in cndkc, no wonder why we all rush in here
Except for the four volumns of ASOIAF had published in China, many other George RR Martins’ work are introduced and translated too. He has huge fans here~
I think there would be others to tell you more XD
Cheers Kufaye,
My knowledge of whats lifes really like in China is limited, and coloured by world events of 20 years ago, so its good to get a real a take on life and tastes in China.
It is good to know you are there, and across cultural boundaries we share an interest in both fanasty and good authors.
I have loads of questions.
I am interested in are you expecting to get the show in china?
Do you get other HBO shows?
What other western fantasy authors are well read in china?
=_= Big questions~ I think I cannot represent the other Chinese fans, just my personal answer.
Only very limited American TV series are shown on TV in China (and usually very old ones). Maybe because they are either too long or without an end -_- They like to show local or Korean or HK ones with limited episodes. (But many Hollywood movies are shown here synchronously in Cinema)
Thus we can only get those shows from Internet. There are lots of guys voluntarily translating the subtitles into Chinese and they update in a very quick way. Those popular in US now are also popular here… I myself am following Big Bang Theory, Lies to me and Flashforward. A good example is that Prison Break was not officially introduced to China, but Wentworth Miller has huge fans here and he had came to China several times, taking talk show and commercials… So while your knowledge of what life’s really like in China is limited, we know a lot about you through the shows XD. Basically, our daily lives are not so different~
For HBO, I think ROME is a great great show and my husband likes Band of Brothers very much. We are very glad that ASOIAF is made by HBO.
For the last question, Neil Gaimen had came to China several times, five or six of his books had published here. Terry Pratchett, Robin Hobb, Gregory Keyes, Ursula K.Le Guin, Robert Jordan, Roger Zelazny…are those who come to my mind right now. And my favorite is Guy Gavriel Kay. But only Tigana is published on the Magazine “Science Fiction World”. Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne may come next year.
In general, western fantasy books are not popular in China, I can say only Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are really “well read” here. Western fantasy fans are only a small group, but considering the population, small group could mean large in quantity -_- The translation of fantasy books are increasing greatly in the past few year and we are expecting more
Cheers for the reply Kufaye, but please dont think because I speak english I am american
. There are differences between american and english culture.
But thanks for the rest of your answers, and until somneone else speaks up you are our unoffical spokesperson for the Chinese fanbase
Morning Jon
Yesterday after I posted, I noticed the time difference of this site and realised I had made a mistake. Referring HBO and ASOIAF, I just took for granted that all were American… but since I’ve already bla so much based on the wrong assumption, I didn’t know how to fix it.
Sorry and hope you don’t mind
Its Ok I married an American so I must like them on some level
. In future the hint will also be the .co.uk on the end of the domain name.
Anyway how strong is native chinese fantasy and how does it compare to western fantasy ?
The only things I have been exposed to is the popularised weatern versions crouching tiger, abnd grey up watching the water margin and Monkey (though thats a japanese version of a chinese story if im not mistaken.)
Hey guys, I’ve been lurking here ’till now (allways nice to see more fans of ASOIF). Great to hear people on the other side of the world like the same books I do (Israel here – kufaye,”Lions of Al-Rassan” is brilliant, if you liked “Tigana” this one is even better.