True or not, decades of pressure for writers to serve the party's political ends sapped much of the country's literary vigor, which has only recently begun to return. The Horse Whisperer,'' ''The English Patient'' and ''Sophie's World'' have been best-sellers. Mitch Albom's recounting of conversations with a dying professor. The People's Literature Publishing House hopes to repeat the success it had with the international best-seller, ''Bridges of Madison County,'' of which it sold a total of 700,000 copies during the 1990's. The Chinese have a long tradition of supernatural stories and a fascination with the paranormal.
Wizards are standard fare in the country's kung fu novels.
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.