NO ONE READ THE SOVIET APPARATCHIKS EITHER...:

China's culture offensive hits a wall (Antoaneta Bezlova, 10/27/09, Asia Times)

For several years now, Beijing has battled to reverse its "cultural deficit", where it imports 10 times more books than it exports. Now one of the world's largest economies and trading powers, China has spearheaded a cultural counteroffensive in a belief that cultural industry is the next step in its transformation from global upstart to superstar.

As part of this attempt to raise the country's cultural profile abroad Beijing has invested in hundreds of Confucian institutes that are teaching Mandarin around the world and launching new foreign-language media outlets. In publishing, Wu, as a senior official at the Information Department of the State Council, has led a team of experts tasked with selecting the most appealing titles to be translated and marketed around the world.

They spent nearly five years and invested US$15 million preparing for China's debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair - referred to here as the "Olympics of the publishing world" - which was held on October 14-18. The country was featured as the guest of honor - a choice that pleased Beijing in a year marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the communist republic.

But to the cultural officials' dismay, the event was marred with controversy and spats over human rights and press freedoms.

...we read the dissidents.

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 26, 2009 7:11 AM