And one of China's most enduring folk epics follows the adventures of a magical monkey king, a monk and a mischievous talking pig. Many Chinese, meanwhile, are tired of the same characters and the old tales. He said he and his friends have already devoured the popular Hong Kong science fiction writer Wei Sili and are ready for something new. Each of the three Harry Potter books had a different translator, all of them women. Chinese equivalents for the books' quirky names and magical incantations were decided by committee.
Many translations have meanings that resonate in China's rich idiomatic language.
Broken cauldron' in Chinese means something akin to 'burnt bridges' in English because of a legendary tale of soldiers who destroyed their cooking pots before going into battle to show their determination not to return defeated. The People's Literature Publishing House said it beat a crowd of other Chinese publishers bidding for the right to publish Ms. Rowling's books. It wouldn't say how much it paid for the rights, though Chinese regulations prohibit the publisher from paying royalties in excess of 10 percent of the retail price of every book sold.