South Korea set off the "Hanjiang boom" works sales exceeded one million

After Han Jiang, a South Korean writer, won the Nobel Prize in Literature, there has been a "Han Jiang fever" in South Korea. The sales of Han Jiang's works exceeded one million copies in just a few days, which not only triggered a boom in the publishing industry, but also had a positive impact on the paper industry.

On Oct 17, Han Jiang's book almost dominated the bestseller lists of major bookstores in South Korea. For example, seven of Kyobo Bunko's top 10 bestsellers are her books; On the list of online bookstore Yes24, the top 10 are all her books.

According to the statistics of Kyobo Bunko, an online bookstore with a large market share in Korea, Yes24 and Aladdin, the cumulative sales of Han Kang's books from Oct. 10 to the morning of Oct. 16 reached 1.022 million. Among them, "The Boy Comes", "The Vegetarian" and "No Farewell" three works are the best sellers.

According to Aladdin, as soon as the news of Han's Nobel Prize spread, 18 copies of the novel "Here Comes the Boy" were sold every minute between 8 p.m. and midnight on Monday.

In addition, books mentioned or introduced by Han Jiang have also begun to attract wide attention from readers.

In a telephone interview with Han Jiang released by the Swedish Academy, sales of the book "Brother Lionheart" by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, which she mentioned, soared. From October 10 to 16, sales increased by 35 times compared to the same period before.

Kim Ki-ok, director of YES24's book group, said many readers buy other literary books along with Han's works. The phenomenon has injected a long-missed energy into the entire publishing industry.

Seo, who runs a bookstore in Seoul, said, Physical bookstores are operating in a difficult environment, but recently I have seen many people come to ask about Han Kang s book. We are only accepting pre-orders because we are out of stock. I hope the atmosphere will improve with the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This boom in Han Jiang's work has not only activated the publishing industry, but also had a significant impact on the paper industry. Due to the huge market demand, the supply of books is short, and the publishing house is in urgent need of overprinting, resulting in a sharp increase in the order of printing paper.

South Korean media pointed out that if the reprint of 500,000 copies, it is expected to need about 300 tons of high-grade white photo paper. Han uses white photo paper produced by a Korean paper maker. Paper companies have inquired about the possibility of increasing the supply of paper, although the scale of sales is relatively limited, but the publishing and paper industry is hoping that the "Hanjiang boom" will stimulate people's interest in paper books, and promote the stagnation of the industry to revitalize.

Industry insiders said Han's Nobel Prize in Literature not only stimulates the development of related industries, but also provides an opportunity for the public to re-examine the importance of reading books. This "Hanjiang boom" is expected to continue to affect the publishing and paper industry for some time, further boosting the consumption and production of paper books in South Korea.