Disney, China Literature to Come Up With Chinese 'Star Wars'
Lu Yao
DATE:  Oct 18 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Disney, China Literature to Come Up With Chinese 'Star Wars' Disney, China Literature to Come Up With Chinese 'Star Wars'

(Yicai Global) Oct. 17 -- Tencent Holdings-backed online literature platform China Literature will collaborate with US entertainment conglomerate The Walt Disney Company to create content for Disney's 'Star Wars' media franchise and introduce a Chinese-language online literary version of the classic sci-fi series, the two jointly announced yesterday.

The digital reading platforms of the Shanghai-based company, which is mainland China's biggest e-literary website, will successively feature 40 'Star Wars' e-books in Chinese. This marks the first time Burbank, California-based Disney has granted electronic copyrights to the novels in the Chinese mainland.

The online author using the Chinese pseudonym for 'His Majesty the King' from China Literature will pen the Chinese version of George Lucas' original tales, Yang Chen, China Literature's general manager in charge of content operation, explained at a press conference. The company's team, which adopts a worldview, will also partner with Lucasfilm Story Group to produce the novels, he added.

Star Wars' stories and themes are of universal appeal, and these stories can be well-integrated no matter what kinds of platforms they appear on, noted James Waugh, vice president, Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm, addressing the issue of whether such overseas intellectual property can be adapted to China's e-literature.

Judging from the country's stellar box office takings for 'The Wandering Earth' and other sci-fi flicks, Chinese consumers are indeed interested in intergalactic fantasy themes, Li Kanghua, vice dean at the School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said, adding Star Wars is also IP with which Chinese consumers are well familiar, but whether conventional fans can accept a non-US rendition of the film series still remains to be seen.

China Literature has been devoted to integrating Chinese culture into the global context in recent years. The international version of Qidian.Com, the firm's affiliated platform, officially launched in May 2017, and the company also completed its investment in South Korean original literature platform Munpia in October. It has further introduced many works from African online platforms this year, as well as taking a 20 percent stake in Thai online literature company OBU at the end of last month. Domestic online novels like 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' and 'Grave Robbers' Chronicles' are also quite popular abroad.

As a complement to its 'internationalization,' China Literature is also focusing on 'domestication' of overseas stories. It has teamed up with about 2,000 publishers from both home and abroad and is choosing appropriate IP to localize.

Editor: Ben Armour

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Keywords:   China Literature Limited,Disney,Star Wars