Hard road for mainland magazines in Taiwan

• Source: Global Times
• [21:36 September 08 2010]
• Comments

Li Yanhe

Editor's Note:

Duzhe ("Reader"), a mass magazine similar to Reader's Digest and with a 5 million circulation, recently became the first magazine from the Chinese mainland to enter Taiwan. What are its prospects? Is mainland popular culture welcome in Taiwan at the moment? Global Times (GT) reporter Chen Chenchen talked with Li Yanhe (Li), the editor-in-chief of Taipei-based Gūsa Publishing House.

GT: Are restrictions on mainland mass magazines by Taiwanese authorities the direct reason for mainland popular publications' difficulties in Taiwan?

Li: Currently, restrictions by Taiwan authorities on mainland books have been lifted, whereas almost all mainland magazines and audiovisual products are still banned from being published in Taiwan. However, they can still be sold in Taiwan.

More than 8,000 mainland magazines are available in Taiwan-based Internet bookstores for Taiwan readers to subscribe to. The only difference is that those magazines can't be directly published in Taiwan.

However, looking at the Taiwan publication market, there are tons of academic and professional books from the mainland, while popular mainland books and magazines are too few to mention. The main reason is not restrictions by the Taiwan authorities, but the general local reading tastes.

Due to historical reasons, all mainland publications are banned in Taiwan. However, book dealers in Taiwan then saw the great business opportunity for mainland books in the Taiwanese market.

Meanwhile, restrictions on popular magazines from the mainland remain. And the social mainstream doesn't seem to be urgently calling for the lifting of those restrictions. Mainland books can gain success after entering the Taiwanese market. However, popular magazines will likely meet with failure here.

GT: Is that because mainland popular culture lags behind that of Taiwan?

Li: It's not that the mainland lags behind in popular culture. But the popular culture of the two societies across the Straits has witnessed completely different patterns of development. Some types of mainland magazines can never be popular in Taiwan.

Take Duzhe. The magazine actually reflects the taste of an agricultural or pre-industrial era. In the long term, the inner areas of the Chinese mainland will develop toward the high-end status of coastal cities. But at the moment, a large number of areas on the mainland are still at the stage of the agricultural or pre-industrial era, which is the reason for the high circulation figures of popu-lar magazines like Duzhe and Zhiyin ("Best Friends," a similar magazine.)

Taiwan has generally moved out of that era. And there is no marketplace for that kind of magazines anymore. All the traditional art forms like storytelling and crosstalk are struggling with the transformation to modernization. Otherwise, they can't survive.

GT: So the future of Duzhe in the Taiwanese market doesn't appears so optimistic in your perspective.

Li: Yes, many insiders in the publishing industry are doubtful, if prudently optimistic, toward the prospects of that magazine.

It's interesting to compare media reports on Duzhe's entry to Taiwan. Mainland media reports regard it as mainland culture's "first step" in entering the Taiwanese market.

However, the Taiwanese media's responses toward the news appears flat. Only two or three newspapers reported the news, but merely as a small announcement in social or cultural news pages. It's like a multi-regional company setting up a branch in Taiwan. The Taiwanese barely noticed.

GT: Duzhe, issued by the Gansu People's Publishing House, represents western China to some degree. Do you think some magazines from big cities like Beijing and Shanghai can be successful in the Taiwanese market?

Li: At the moment, I don't see any mainland popular magazines are able to gain success in the Taiwanese market. Publishing is quite a local thing. For the mainland, going out actually means localization. Therefore, if a mainland magazine doesn't think about changing itself and meeting Taiwanese tastes, it will fail.

Compared with mass literature magazines like Duzhe and Zhiyin, mainland magazines concerning finance and fashion can be better accepted by Taiwan readers. Just like Harvard Business Review and the Economist have Asian versions, readers in different areas can find something in common in magazines from the metropolis. However, even this can't guarantee that mainland magazines would be successful in Taipei.

I have a friend who is the editor-in-chief of a well-known Shanghai-based financial weekly. We met each other earlier this year, and he asked me whether his magazine could have a successful edition in Taiwan. I said no. In big metropolises on the mainland, there is a huge readers' group that consists of business professionals working for multi-national companies. And my friend's magazine well serves their needs.