As the annual China Shanghai International Book Fair season arrived, Beijing’s OpenBook research group had new observations to mention.

A keynote image of the 2025 China Shanghai International Book Fair, which ran this weekend. Image: CCBF

By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Online Literature Rebalance Some Bestseller Points

The transitional season that each year ushers in some of the most carefully marketed books of the China Shanghai International Book Fair (CCBF) has this year produced interest in both back-to-school-driven lists and online literature taken over by print in our  China bestsellers series.

‘Under the Night,’ volume 12

The seemingly inevitable Red Crag is, of course, back at the top of fiction for the month (a 1961 publication by Luo Gunangbin and Yang Huiuan (China Youth Press).

But online reading is markedly edging up, according to our associates at Beijing OpenBook, and this may have made for some quiet conversations at the Book Fair, perhaps a bit out of translatable earshot of international delegates, exhibitors, and guests.

“Popular among young readers,” online literature “secured several spots on the bestseller list. Popular books include the “Notebook of a Grave Robber” series, Under the Night, and so on.

“Furthermore,” we’re told, “the boost from television adaptations remained significant. The Litchi Road consistently remained popular. The original novel This Thriving Land (in a revised edition) was adapted into a televised series with same name title that premiered in Augus, fueled by the show’s popularity.”

And in another point worth returning to in the futures, box sets are showing an advantage on content e-commerce channels, another great boon to the busy Chinese production system based on literature.

Below, then, are OpenBook’s overall lists from September 2025 on the entry of CCBF season.

These include bestsellers in fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, followed by its lists of bestselling fiction and nonfiction in China by authors from outside the country. At the end of our article, as always, you’ll find notes on how the lists are constructed.

OpenBook’s Fiction Bestsellers,  September 2025

OpenBook’s Nonfiction Bestsellers, September 2025

OpenBook’s Children’s Bestsellers, September 2025

International Fiction Bestsellers, September 2025

International Nonfiction Bestsellers, September 2025

Notes on the Charts

OpenBook is a privately owned industry-data research firm based in Beijing. It functions somewhat as Nielsen and NDP do from the West, and Nielsen Book Research International has worked with OpenBook in Asian operations.

With authoritative data and information resources, OpenBook is able to deliver consulting service to partners who would like to explore the Chinese book market and identify suitable partners.

At last report, OpenBook monitored more than 26,000 online and off-line bookstores.

The online channel includes digital retailers such as large self-operated online stores, platform stores, and small- and medium-sized stores.

The off-line channels include more than 5,100 bookstores. Coverage includes most of the state-owned and influential privately owned bookstores in 30 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Tibet are not included in OpenBook’s system. In 2024, OpenBook tracked around 82.66 billion RMB in sales (US$11.39 billion). Retail outlets include:

• Traditional bookstores;
• Supermarkets;
• Campus bookstores;
• “Professional” stores, said to be small stores with a specific industrial or trade focus; and
• Airport stores.

In addition, OpenBook is drawing data from online bookstores of three main types:

• The “Tmall” stores of Alibaba (Tmall is described as a marketplace of companies that create storefronts online to sell products including books)
• The “JingDong” Stores of JD.com (similar to Tmall as a marketplace of both individual companies and bookstores operated by JD.com)
• Ten independent online bookselling retailers

Mainland China has 500 or more publishers in operation today. Most of them are government-owned. Private publishers are required to generate ISBNs for their titles from a publishing company that is government-owned—which, in other words, creates a system in which all ISBNs are registered through government channels. The government approves each book published in China.

More China bestseller reports from Publishing Perspectives are here, and more on the Chinese book publishing market is here.

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