Xinhuanet quoted an article on China Daily talking about the current situation of translated books in the Chinese book market:

(BEIJING, March 25) Translated books are flying off the shelves of Chinese bookstores, a sign that converted reading material is becoming a booming market in the nation. Chinese readers are opting to cosy up with titles like “Harry Potter” and “The Half-Blood Prince”, “The Da Vinci Code” and “My Life” by Bill Clinton, which are among the country’s bestsellers. Those in the industry say it means the Chinese are searching for more mature literature and those with Western ideas like never before.The translated version of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series swept the sales records of its Chinese publisher, the Beijing-based People”s Literature Publishing House, since being first introduced to China in 2000.

When Chen Min, director of the rights department of the People’s Literature Publishing House, first got the rights for “Harry Porter,” there was mixed feelings over how it would be received in China.

“But we are certain we’ve never read such a great children book with so much imagination before. It was going to have an strong impact,” Chen said.

It has sold more than 7 million copies so far in the country where students are barraged with mounds of homework, and fewer and fewer people can afford the leisure of literary enjoyment.
IPR Issue

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Although this might not be a serious research finding, it does reflect some of the current economic and cultural phenomena:

• fierce competition in the magazine/media market where sometimes c ontent is no longer the King.
• tip-driven economy, as I name it, where you have to be prepared for extra costs.
• and, material-driven culture where high-flown values are hard to find their places.

Cross-cultural communication (also frequently referred to as intercultural communication) is a field of study that looks at how people from differing cultural backgrounds endeavour to communicate. Cross-cultural communication tries to bring together such relatively unrelated areas as cultural anthropology and established areas of communication. Its core is to establish and understand how people from different cultures communicate with each other. Its charge is to also produce some guidelines with which people from different cultures can better communicate with each other.

The main theories for cross-cultural communication are based on the work done looking at value differences (or Cultural dimensions) among cultures, especially the works of Edward T. Hall, Geert Hofstede, Harry C. Triandis, Fons Trompenaars and more recently Shalom Schwartz. Clifford Geertz was also a major contributor to this field. The first Ph.D. called intercultural communication was awarded to William J. Starosta (Indiana University, 1973).

These theories have been applied to a variety of different communication theories and settings, most notably general business and management (Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner ) and marketing (Marieke de Mooij, Stephan Dahl). There have also been several successful educational projects which concentrate on the practical applications of these theories in cross-cultural situations. Notably the European-funded research project media-net-works which illustrates ways in which virtual communities can be established to achieve an understanding of how people from different cultures communicate with each other.

Source: en.wikipedia.org