Harry Potter works his magic in Vietnam
HANOI - He had to battle government censors and endure tortuous trademark negotiations, but boy wizard Harry Potter worked his
magic in Vietnam on Monday as an authorised translation of the fifth book in the best-selling series went on sale.
Harry Potter And Menh Lenh Phuong Hoang, the 124-page first installment of a 15-part serialisation of Harry Potter And The Order
Of The Phoenix, was released by the state-run Tuoi Tre Publishing House and distributed in the capital.
The Vietnamese Harry is one of the first authorised translations to go on sale worldwide. Vietnam is a notorious haven for pirate
versions of movies, music and software, with more than 90 percent of discs on sale reckoned to be illegally copied.
Booksellers flocked to snap up copies of the first installment, subtitled The Dissatisfaction Of Harry. The next installment is due out
next week.
Only one month after the English version was released, the Vietnamese publishing house printed a record 40 000 copies, twice the
first print-run of the first four books.
Tuoi Tre Publishing was eager to negotiate local rights to the new book. The deal was reported in state media as paying 10 percent
of local sales to the author and the original publisher.
The books about the young trainee wizard's adventures at Hogwarts School of Magic became the best-selling foreign books in
Vietnam when they were first translated in 2000. More than 80 000 copies of the first four books sold out.
The latest book was again translated by Ly Lan, who first brought the books to Vietnam after reading them on a trip to the United
States.
She managed to convince the state-run publishing house to obtain the rights, even though foreign books are often difficult to get past
state censors.
Apparently, Harry bewitched the censors and children alike. The books were a runaway hit among children in Vietnam.
Still, the owl post apparently has not reached all schools in Vietnam, as at least one bookseller said she was surprised the books
were not flying off the shelves.
"I thought that more children would buy it, but actually I only sold five of 20 today," Le Thi Tien, a bookseller at an outdoor stall on
Hai Bai Trung Street in Hanoi said.
SAPA DPA - July 25, 2003
|