Recently, China Education Book Import and Export Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Jiaotu"), the operator of the foreign language version of the "Three-Body" trilogy, announced that it has recently completed an early renewal of the copyright of the English version of the "Three-Body" trilogy with Tor Books, the world's largest fantasy literature publishing house and a subsidiary of Macmillan Publishing Company, with a renewal amount of up to 1.25 million US dollars. This figure has created a record for the overseas copyright export of Chinese literary works and proved to the world the international market value of Chinese literary works.
The English version of the "Three-Body" trilogy
The "Three-Body" trilogy, which includes three novels, "Three-Body", "Dark Forest" and "Death Immortality", is a phenomenal science fiction novel by Liu Cixin, a famous Chinese science fiction writer. The work depicts the "three-body civilization" other than the earth civilization with magnificent and atmospheric brushstrokes, and is hailed as a milestone work of Chinese science fiction literature.
On November 11, 2014, through the translation and promotion of China Jiaotu Company, the English version of "Three-Body Problem" was officially published and released, which began the legendary journey of this Chinese original science fiction work in the world. Since then, "The Three-Body Problem" has won major science fiction awards around the world, including the Hugo Awards, exported more than 30 languages, sold more than 3.3 million copies in foreign languages, and gained a large number of fans in developed countries in Europe and the United States and countries along the "Belt and Road".
Mr. Liu once held a meet-and-greet at a bookstore in Washington
Founded in 1980, Thor Books, which signed the English edition of The Three-Body Problem, is the world's largest publishing house of fantasy literature and the dream press of the world's top science fiction writers. In view of the fermenting influence and expanding fan base of "Three-Body" and Liu Cixin in the English-speaking world, the publisher renewed the work in advance and offered a high price of $1.25 million. It is reported that since the establishment of Thor Books, no more than 5 writers have received more than one million dollars in prepaid royalties, and Liu Cixin is one of them and the latest one.
In 2012, Liu Cixin joined hands with China Jiaotu Company to carry out in-depth cooperation on the foreign language version of the "Three-Body" trilogy. Since then, the first and third parts of "The Three-Body Problem" have been translated by Chinese-American science fiction writer and translator Ken Liu, and the second part has been translated by the well-known American translator Joel Martinsen. In 2015, "The Three-Body Problem" won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and Liu Cixin became the first Asian writer to win the award. It is also since 2015 that "The Three-Body Problem" has been nominated for science fiction awards in various languages around the world, and the highest science fiction awards in the United States, Germany, Spain, Japan, Estonia and other countries have been included in the pockets, and in some countries, they have even won awards for years.
Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award
After years of deep cultivation and fermentation, the "Three-Body" trilogy has not only achieved "going out", but also achieved "going in", gaining a large number of fans around the world, including many elites from all walks of life. George Martin, the original author of the American drama "Game of Thrones", invited Liu Cixin to hold a reader event in his private theater and personally acted as the host. Bill Gates and Zuckerberg both said in interviews or on social media that they were reading The Three-Body Problem. Former US President Barack Obama, who "felt that the president of the United States was so small" after watching "The Three-Body Problem", gave his newly published autobiography to Liu Cixin in 2021. In 2020, Netflix, the world's largest streaming website, announced that it would produce "Three-Body" episodes, and fans around the world boiled over for a while. It is conceivable that with the broadcast of the series, the global influence of "Three-Body Problem" will continue to ferment.
Red Star News reporter Chen Mou Editor Jiang Qing
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