Demand for Jin Yong's audiobooks soars in China
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E-mail CGTN, December 5, 2018
Sales of audiobooks by Jin Yong have risen remarkably in the month or so since the death of the celebrated wuxia novelist, thepaper.cn reported.
Jin Yong is the pen name of Louis Cha, or Cha Leung-yung and was best known for writing wuxia stories which depict martial art adventures in ancient China.
As the news of his passing away spread on the evening of October 30, sales of his books jumped 120 times compared to the previous day, according to JD.com, China's e-commerce giant .
"Jin Yong's works have always been in high demand and the sales and download of his audiobooks continue to rise. But in the last month, the sales of download and listening of his audiobooks saw an obvious growth," said He Xian, chief editor of Guangzhou Longshine Books Limited Company.
Longshine company owns the exclusive Chinese copyright and Chinese audiobook copyright of "The Collection of Jin Yong's Works." On its official audiobook app "Listen to Jin Yong's books", the number of new users has also risen.
In cooperation with another company, Longshine also runs another audiobook app "Baiting". Currently, 2,500 audio episodes of Jin Yong's books, totaling 1,000 hours, are offered on the two apps.
"Readers immersed themselves in intriguing plots and were moved by the characters' characteristics and emotions," He said. "That's the charm of Jin Yong's works."
Apart from the pleasure in reading, people are also intrigued by the listening experience.
The audiobook is regarded as "a reading experience that emancipates your hands and eyes," He explained.
Readers' pleasure in reading, to some extent, lies in the story itself, such as dramatic plots and impressive characters. These elements also decide whether the story is suitable for listening or not, He added.
"When conducting preliminary market research, we found that both traditional radio stations and emerging online platforms are in great demand for Jin Yong's audiobooks. There are even some unauthorized Jin Yong's audiobooks in the market, which reflects the market's huge appetite," said He.
Jin Yong published 15 wuxia works in his lifetime, including "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," "The Return of the Condor Heroes," and "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber."
Most of them were published initially in installments in Hong Kong newspapers, and then in book editions.
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