Special note: Original Works here refer to books written in Chinese and first published in China, as opposed to Imported Overseas Works.

The 2022 Bookdao Book Influence Data Analysis Report — Original Works is based on the metadata from the Bookdao Book Influence Data Platform and 2022 Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists. This report includes the Top 100 of Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists in 9 categories as well as an overall Top 100 original book list across all categories. The analysis on major titles, publishers are detailed in this report. The approach & methodology adopted in this report is the same as The 2022 Bookdao Book Influence Data Analysis Report. Out of the 900 listed titles, 56.2% — 506 titles — are from 28 publishing groups (publishing giants own at least two publishing houses).

The 2022 Bookdao Book Influence Data Analysis Report — Original Works is：

Researched by Bookdao New Publishing Research Institute and Bookdao Book Influence Data Project Team

Published by Bookdao.com and Bookdao Learning Platform

Produced by Yanhong Kong (CEO, Bookdao)

Written by Li Xingxing (Deputy Chief Editor, Bookdao)

The Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists are the best pick of all original book lists, in other words, the best original books recommended by aggregation of data. Bookdao Most Recommended Books come from 4,000 media recommendation sources, a joint review and recommendation effort by over 2,500 organizations and 13,000 professionals. The recommendation sources are a combination of authoritative media that give social benefit assessment through awards and titles, convergent media platforms with social influence, and social media of cultural celebrities, social influencers, experts, scholars, and reading professionals.

Nowadays, book recommendations are all over the Internet, and these various recommendations each with different degrees of influence are tracked and sorted into dissemination chains by the Bookdao Book Influence Data Platform. In this way, combined wisdom from all parties is leveraged to form a best book selection mechanism with transparency, credibility, and traceability to outline the 9 major categories in 2022 China’s original books market and the efforts made by Chinese publishers to bring these good titles to market.

The 2022 Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists have got 900 titles in total, spread across all 9 categories, including the Original Overall Top 900, Original Literature Top 100, Original Arts Top 100, Original Social Sciences Top 100, Original Humanities Top 100, Original Finance & Economics Top 100, Original Lifestyle Top 100, Original New Knowledge Top 100, Original Children’s Top 100, and Original Theme Publishing Top 100. All books are published between January 1st and December 31st, 2022.

Section 1. Original Books Tell the Chinese Story

Literature tops half of the list, which is the most important feature of the 2022 Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists. The top five works are all literary novels: Ge Liang's Food is Heaven (《燕食记》) published by People's Literature Publishing House, Wang Xufeng's Memories of Jiang Nan (《望江南》) published by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, Lu Min's The Golden River (《金色河流》) published by Yilin Press, Sun Ganlu’s The Vast Land (《千里江山图》) published by Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House， and Jia Pingwa’s Chronicles of Qinling (《秦岭记》) published by People's Literature Publishing House. As reading has become a way of life rather than a means of knowledge learning, readers and media prefer easy and entertaining content. Good stories and contents are the primary factors that attract readership and media attention. From this point of view, literature works hold clear advantages.

Based on the Original Overall Top 900 of Bookdao Most Recommended Books, we produced a separate list by weight value across all categories, namely the 2022 Original Overall Top 100 of Bookdao Most Recommended Books. The Original Literature and Original Humanities & Social Sciences categories occupy the top two places in the Original Overall Top 100 with 37 and 33 titles respectively, followed by 15 titles in Theme Publishing, 9 titles in Children’s, 4 titles in Arts, and 2 titles in Lifestyle.

Analyzing all 900 titles gives a map of word frequency, which shows “Chinese Story” being the most prominent keyword for all original works. “China” appears 145 times, and “Story” appears 25 times. Other keywords are Economics (20 times), Times (17 times), Children (16 times), World (16 times), Universe (14 times), and History (14 times).

Section 2. Publishers Integration Gathers More Strength

A publishing group is defined here as a group of two or more publishers, with one ISBN prefix issued by the ISBN Centre of China National Press and Publication Administration. Publishers with only one ISBN prefix, despite having the word "group" in their name, shall not be included in the group analysis.

On the whole, the Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists see 506 titles contributed by 28 publishing groups nationwide, accounting for 56.2% of the 900 titles. Among the 9 categories of original book lists, works of the publishing groups dominate in all seven categories: with 78% in the original literature, 66% in original children’s and original arts, 54% in original new knowledge and original lifestyle, 53% in original humanities, and 52% in original theme publishing. The groups’ works in original social sciences and original finance & economics categories show a slight increase compared to the previous year with 47% and 36% respectively. In particular, a 78% share in the original literature category fully illustrates the dominant position of the 28 publishing groups in telling the Chinese story.

China Publishing Group with its 13 publishing houses contributes 113 titles to the Bookdao Most Recommended Original Book Lists, a further increase from 105 in the previous year, making it a worthy number one among its peers.

In the 2nd tier, there are Shanghai Century Publishing Group (61 titles), Phoenix Publishing & Media Group (55 titles), Zhejiang Publishing United Group (39 titles), China South Publishing & Media Group (33 titles), and China Industry and Information Technology Publishing & Media Group (20 titles).

The 3rd tier includes China International Publishing Group (17 titles), Jiangxi Publishing Group (17 titles), Beijing Publishing Group (17 titles), Hubei Changjiang Publishing & Media Group (15 titles), Shandong Publishing Group (15 titles), Xinhua Winshare Publishing and Media (15 titles), Guangxi Publishing & Media Group (13 titles), Central China Publishing Media (13 titles), and Guangdong Publishing Group (11 titles).

The rest 13 publishing groups including Tianjin Publishing & Media Group, The Straits Publishing and Distribution Group, and Hebei Publishing & Media Group form the 4th tier.

Section 3. Head Publishers Are Getting Stronger, Leaving More Competition for the Ones Behind

In terms of the number of books selected in original lists, CITIC Press Group is no longer a dominant player. Guangxi Normal University Press, with 4% of the books selected is catching up to the CITIC Press Group at 4.89%. In addition, SDX Joint Publishing (2.78%), Beijing United Publishing Company (2.67%), People's Literature Publishing House (2.44%), Posts & Telecom Press (2.11%), the Commercial Press (2.11%) and Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing (2.11%) all cross the 2% line. Over 40% of all titles are from the top 20 publishers, which portrays the trend of concentration for listed works by head publishers, leaving the rest 122 publishers behind with 1-2 books listed for fierce competition.

Section 4. Category Lists See Generalized Content and Significant Growth of Non-specialized Publishers

The lists from all categories show several characteristics:

First, the textual expression of books has become more generalized whether in the arts, humanities, or social sciences or new knowledge to target a larger readership. Ease of reading and storytelling narrative permeates all genres.

Second, non-specialized publishers are growing rapidly and competing fiercely with specialized publishers in many categories. Except for literature, social sciences, theme publishing, and other categories in which branding and professionalism matter most, non-specialized publishers’ works account for nearly 50% of all other categories.

Third, cross- circles content promotion spread in all categories. With the rise of various types of content platforms and social media, title selection, expression of works, and marketing and promotion in publishing continues to go beyond traditional boundary, bringing more vitality and expanding impact to publishing.

Food is Heaven (《燕食记》) is the latest novel by Ge Liang in 2022, the final piece in his China Trilogy series on modern Chinese history, following Paper Hawk (《北鸢》) and Scarlet Bird (《朱雀》). The work has received a lot of attention from the media, and in December 2022, CCTV's Reading program featured a talk show with Ge Liang, which boosted the book to reach the top of the original Literary List. Memories of Jiang Nan (《望江南》) is another novel written by Wang Xufeng, winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize. This novel offers a new narrative of the dramatic changes and constancy of Chinese life and spirit, bearing witness to a century of China in personal, family, and national perspectives. In recent years, literature of vintage has raised attention to the domestic literary circle, as shown in Memories of Jiang Nan (《望江南》), Food is Heaven (《燕食记》), and Lu Min’s The Golden River (《金色河流》). On the Literature List, there is I am Fenfang (《我本芬芳》) by social media influencer Yang Benfen, who only started writing in her 80s with a non-professional background. This is a great encouragement to those new authors: the market has always been there, and the power of literature can be amplified when publishers and new authors build a bridge through the power of marketing. Cai Chongda's novel Fate (《命运》), written eight years after No More Than Skins (《皮囊》), also continues the market success of his previous work.

In 2022, the literary market saw many new masterpieces, including Chronicles of Qinling (《秦岭记》) by Jia Pingwa, From All Corners of the Country(《五湖四海》) by Wang Anyi, Outset (Annals) (《起初·纪年》) by Wang Shuo, Chinese Peach and Plum (《中文桃李》) by Liang Xiaosheng, Crossing the Ocean to Love You (《漂洋过海来爱你》)  by Shi Yifeng, Road to Father (《通往父亲之路》) by Ye Zhaoyan, Fountainhead (《不老》) by Ye Mi, Four Harmonies (《四合如意》) by Zhang Yiwei, and Beiliu (《北流》) by Lin Bai. Meanwhile, Mo Yan, Ma Boyong, Shi Yifeng, Feng Jicai, and Zhang Li all make two works on the list. The writers' unceasing creativity provided readers with a literary feast, and provided more topics, and attracted more media’s spotlight to literary publishing.

There are 35 publishers’ work on the Original Literature Top 100. With 16 titles listed, People's Literature Publishing House ranked first in the original literature category, followed by Zhejiang Literature and Arts Publishing House (9 titles), the Yilin Press, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Arts Publishing House, and Beijing October Arts & Literature Publishing House (7 titles each), and Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House (6 titles). In the literary market, both readers and media are very aware of the publishers’ brands, so the dominance of the top specialized literary publishers is unassailable. Yilin Press, known for its imported overseas works, is ranked top 3 on the original list and proves its strength and commitment in the original literature field.

Books of original arts are going cross-boundary and transforming themselves in an easier-to-read fashion to gain a wider readership. For example, the founder of Accidental Art, the leading art popularization self-media in China, Yi Gongzi has achieved a good reputation and success in her Chinese Art History for Dummies (《大话中国艺术史》) and Western Art History for Dummies (《大话世界艺术史》). The Dunhuang topic, which has gone viral in recent years, makes any books associated with the word “Dunhuang” easier to spread, such as Dunhuang Yearly Festivals (《敦煌岁时节令》), Dunhuang as Painted: Continuing the Journey of 1600 Years of Beauty (《敦煌如是绘：接续1600年美的历程》), and The Dunhuang Canon of Music and Dance (《敦煌乐舞大典》).

The Original Arts Top 100 list involves 46 publishers, with Jiangsu Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing House and SDX Joint Publishing (9 titles each), Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House (7 titles), Guangxi Normal University Press, the Commercial Press, Shanghai Music Publishing House, and CITIC Press Group (5 titles each). More market share of art publishing is taken over by non-specialized publishers including those in academic publishing, higher education publishing, and literature & art publishing. Arts books are becoming down to earth for readers.

Does reading count as a style of life? Of course, it does. That's why Luo Zhenyu's Inviting Books into Your Life (《阅读的方法》) is at the top of the list. The lifestyle category has gone beyond health & well-being, beauty & yoga, and nutritional recipes to everything you think about, everything you learn, and everything related to life. For example, Away in the Ages (《在岁月中远行》), I wish you liked yourself too (《真希望你也喜欢自己》), The Philosophy of Life for Cats and Dogs (《猫和狗的生活哲学》), Talks of Classic of Mountains and Seas (《不白吃话山海经》), and Being Decent: A Social Book for Mature Women (《得体：一看就会，一做就对的社交魔法图鉴》) are some of the listed works.

There are 50 publishers’ works on the Original Lifestyle Top 100 List, with Posts & Telecom Press (8 titles), Beijing United Publishing Company (6 titles), Hunan Literature and Arts Publishing House (6 titles), Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing (6 titles), People's Medical Publishing House (5 titles), and Sichuan Literature and Arts Publishing House (5 titles) at the top. None of these, except People's Medical Publishing House, are what we think of as traditional lifestyle publishers. Undoubtedly, the concept of lifestyle books is being expanded and the established scope is being diluted.

Children's books have shown two significant features in the past two years: firstly, the government, the public, and the industry have worked together to promote the creation and publication of original children's books. Lots of quality children's books have been produced, which has greatly boosted the motivation of authors and publishers for original books; secondly, the emerging channels, mainly short-form video, live streaming, and WeChat communities, have provided greater opportunities for the market and dissemination of children's books to a certain extent, as they have gathered a large number of female users and young mothers.

Many traditional literary novelists’ works, such as Xu Guixiang's The Sound of the Erhu Flying Over the Wilderness (《琴声飞过旷野》), Wang Yuewen's Swallows Calling Brightly (《燕子亮亮地叫》), and Liang Xiaosheng's Parent-Child Half-Hour Beauty Picture Book (5 Book Set) (《梁晓声亲子半小时美绘本（5册套装）》) appear on the list.

51 publishers’ works are listed in the Original Children’s Top 100 category. Specialized children's publishers such as 21st Century Publishing House, Phoenix Juvenile and Children's Publishing, Anhui Children's Publishing House, Children's Fun Publishing Company, Zhejiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House, China Children's Press & Publication Group, Jieli Publishing House, and Hunan Juvenile & Children's Publishing House are firmly entrenched in their market positions, which is very difficult for non-specialized publishers to overtake.

Metaverse became the hottest word in finance and economics in 2022, with many concept books such as AI Future in Progress (《AI未来进行时》), Quaternary Sector of Economy (《第四产业》), Metaverse and Digital Economy (《元宇宙与数字经济》), Metaverse and Carbon Neutrality (《元宇宙与碳中和》), Meta-Wisdom (《元智慧》), and Ten Technologies of the Metaverse (《元宇宙十大技术》) making the list, but how long this will continue is unknown.

The concept of great powers, due to the complex domestic and international situation in 2022, has also been reflected in financial & economics publishing. Double Shock: The Future of the Power Games & Future of the World Economy (《双重冲击：大国博弈的未来与未来的世界经济》), Running Towards Common Prosperity,(《奔向共同富裕》), Variable 4: The Operation of the Great Powers (《变量4：大国的腾挪》), and Global Inflation and Recession (《全球通胀与衰退》) have received media attention and reflect the demand trend from readers and public.

35 publishers’ works are listed on the Original Finance & Economics Top 100. CITIC Press Group tops the list with 25 titles, while China Translation & Publishing House comes second with 15 titles and China Machine Press comes third with 10 titles. Breaking the rivalry between CITIC Press Group and China Machine Press, China Translation & Publishing House becomes the eye-catcher of media and readers thanks to its series of metaverse hits on top of a bundle of quality books in finance & economics.

It is interesting to see the 2022 Original Humanities list starting with a court lady in the Northern Wei dynasty. The Long Remains of Life: A Northern Wei Court Lady and Her Times (《漫长的余生：一个北魏宫女和她的时代》) use historical materials such as tomb records to recount the long and tumultuous life of Wang Zhong'er, as well as more than half a century of Northern Wei history, and of course, the history of many people swept away by the thrilling waves of the times. History books in this category span many dynasties, from Qin, and Han to Tang, Song, and many more. So, what’s next?

Yang Yi, a famous translator of Wuthering Heights, passed positive messages through her oral autobiography Memories of a Century (《一百年，许多人，许多事：杨苡口述自传》) at the end of 2022. Sadly, just during the Chinese New Year, she left us at the age of 103.

53 publishers’ works are listed on the Original Humanities Top 100. Guangxi Normal University Press tops the list with 15 titles, followed by Zhonghua Book Company (6 titles), Beijing Daily Press (5 titles), Peking University Press (4 titles), SDX Joint Publishing (4 titles), CITIC Press Group (4 titles) and the Commercial Press (3 titles) in the front row. Most of Beijing Daily Press’s listed titles are in cooperation with publishing agencies (private publishers), including Imaginist (3 titles) and Dookbook (1 title).

Although academic publishing itself is dry, the books on the Original Social Sciences list are fit for the mass market. Books such as The Master of Fun: The Academic Photo Journal of Zhao Yuanren (《好玩儿的大师：赵元任影记之学术篇》), Modern Grand View: When Chinese Women Met the Media in the 20th Century (《摩登大观园：当20世纪中国女性遇到媒体》), Exegesis at the Table (《餐桌上的训诂》), and Southern Accent Northern Tone: Dialects in China (《南腔北调：方言里的中国》) are, from names to contents, tailored to popular style for general readers. There are also books like Chinese Takeaway (《中国外卖》), Port, Sew, Bicycles: How Modern Infrastructures and Everyday Technologies Encountered in Asia (《自行车、港口与缝纫机：西方基建与日常技术在亚洲的相遇》), and I Am an Editor at Journal of Literature, History and Philosophy (《我在《文史哲》干编辑》). Who says social sciences books can't be fun?

42 publishers’ works are listed on the Social Sciences Top 100. Guangxi Normal University Press tops the list with 8 titles, followed by the Commercial Press (6 titles), Social Sciences Academic Press (6 titles), Zhonghua Book Company (5 titles), Peking University Press (5 titles), and Beijing United Publishing Company (4 titles). For Beijing United Publishing, most listed titles are in cooperation with other publishing agents like Mandarin Panorama, Truman Story, and Post Wave Publishing.

The listed titles in Original New Knowledge Top 100 appear to be somewhat younger and elementary, more suitable for young people, such as the top-ranked Space Tourism (《太空旅游》), Interesting Tales from the Science World: Science, Scientists and Scientist Spirit (《科坛趣话：科学、科学家与科学家精神》) and A Journey: The Story of Human Exploration in Space (《征程：人类探索太空的故事》). This also reflects the dilemma of new knowledge publishing for the general public in China: if the content is deep, it becomes social sciences; if the content is shallow, it becomes popular science, and there is still a long way to go to find a suitable position to build a bridge between science & technology and readers.

New knowledge books are also closely related to social hot topics. The 2022 Original New Knowledge Top 100 also focuses on several directions: firstly, aerospace, secondly, human health and thirdly, artificial intelligence. Related books include Chasing Dreams in Space: China's Road to Manned Spaceflight (《逐梦太空：中国载人航天之路》), Mind Thief: The Story of Alzheimer's (《偷走心智的贼：阿尔茨海默病的故事》), and A Brief History of the Future of Artificial Intelligence (《人工智能未来简史――基于脑机接口的超人制造愿景》).

43 publishers’ works are listed in the Original New Knowledge Top 100, with Posts & Telecom Press (10 titles), Beijing United Publishing Company (8 titles), Science Press (8 titles), Tsinghua University Press (5 titles), and CITIC Press Group (5 titles) top the list. Without imported works, CITIC Press Group has a lot fewer titles listed. Beijing United Publishing is listed through works in cooperation with other publishing agencies such as Post Wave Publishing.

Theme publishing is a featured Chinese characteristics classification, therefore the Original list is identical to the list released in The 2022 Bookdao Book Influence Data Analysis Report.

The 2022 Theme Publishing Top 100 lists show more diversity.

Sun Jingyan, the author of the full-length reportage on the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Olympics in China (《五环旗下的中国》), continued in 2022 with her work China Winter Olympic Games (《中国冬奥》), which is extraordinarily solid, both in terms of media buzz and content creation, with a panoramic record of Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics from conception, to bid and preparation, a journey full of twists and turns, hardships, challenges and opportunities, and ultimately a top three work on the list.

Love China All My Life: Isabel Crook’s Stories (我用一生爱中国：伊莎白·柯鲁克的故事》) is a reportage on the centenary life of Isabel Crook, an international communist, and recipient of the Order of Friendship of the PRC. As an outstanding work for the Five-One Project award, it was also selected for the Good Books of China in April 2022. Although Isabel Crook is unfamiliar to many people, the marketing of the book has helped to raise the profile of the person and the book together.

Notes on Xihaigu (《西海固笔记》), based on the history of poverty alleviation in Xihaigu, Tianluwan (《天露湾》), which records the long and arduous entrepreneurial history of farmers in the Jianghan Plain, Zhang Guimei (《张桂梅》), a book of the same name that tells the true story of a grassroots teacher, and Village Dreams (《乡村造梦记》), a work that records the road to rural revitalization with characteristics of eastern Fujian, are all thematic publications that highlight the grand topics of the times through more perspectives and depictions from ordinary people.

A work based on online literature, Heavy Truck Breeze (《重卡雄风》), makes the list. The book tells the story of a third-tier heavy truck manufacturing plant, which rose to the challenge, reformed, and innovated on its own, turning from weakness to strength until it became proud of the group and made things happen in China. Online literature suggests a new direction for title selection and dissemination for theme publishing.

There are 70 publishers’ work selected on the Original Theme Publishing Top 100, with 19 publishers having more than two titles listed and 51 having one listed. Among them, People's Publishing House tops the list with 13 titles, including 5 titles that are in cooperation with other publishers. Guangxi People's Publishing House and SDX Joint Publishing each have 4 titles listed.

Theme publishing, which was a concept in previous years, has gradually become a unique category of publishing, with publishers making theme publishing an important part of their annual work. From all the Top 100 lists, the number of publishers involved in Theme Publishing Top 100 is also the largest, and their number of books listed is the most dispersed, making theme publishing a more competitive market.

Attachment 1 Overall Original Top 100 List

Attachment 2 Original Literature Top 100 List

Attachment 3 Original Arts Top 100 List

Attachment 4 Original Lifestyle Top 100 List

Attachment 5 Original Children's Top 100 List

Attachment 6 Original Finance & Economics Top 100 List

Attachment 7 Original Humanities Top 100 List

Attachment 8 Original Social Sciences Top 100 List

Attachment 9 Original New Knowledge Top 100 List

Attachment 10 Original Theme Publishing Top 100 List