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To translate a word from one language to another is easy; to translate a context is hard. The New York Times (NYT) carried an article in its May 4 book review that called Guo Jingming "the most successful writer in China". That must have pleased millions of Guo's fans, but it surely shocked a lot more people. "How can NYT stoop so low?" many asked. Guo is currently the bestselling author in China and, by correlation, the highest earning one as well. But the 24-year-old is not respected. He was found by a court of law to have committed the cardinal sin for a writer - plagiarism. But, against the court order, he refused to apologize, explaining that he needed to uphold his image in the eyes of his adoring fans. Apart from this, nobody is praising his adolescent schmaltz for literary achievement. All this was sketched out in detail in the NYT essay. But whoever first reported it in the Chinese press did not bother to read the whole article. He or she was so focused on the word "successful" that everything else probably became a blur. From the NYT article, it is natural to deduce that the author meant "commercial success". However, the Chinese translator-cum-commentator has obviously interpreted it as "literary excellence" or "high quality overall". In an ideal world, a work of great literary value should have high sales. But we don't live in an ideal world, and bestsellers, like blockbuster movies, do not necessarily do anything except fill a few hours of your leisure time. | 
