Works of Pu Songling Plagiarized by US Publishing Company for a Century

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, September 07, 2003

Works of Pu Songling Plagiarized by US Publishing Company for a Century

When studying American fairy tales, Mr Qiu Jun, an expert of children's literature from Shandong Province, east China found that "The Bookshelf for Boys & Girls" published by US-based University Society, Inc, has two stories lifted from the "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio", a collection of almost 500 stories about foxes and hobgoblins by Pu Songling (1640-1775), a noted writer of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

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In his house Mr Qiu told reporter his findings. He took out "The Bookshelf for Boys & Girls" bought in the US, and compared its third volume "Folk and Fairy Tales" with Pu's "Strange Tales". It is found out that "The Wonderful Pear Tree" in the volume is almost identical with Pu's "Planting Pear" in the story plot, personages and details. Another story "The Maid in the Mirror", instead of being totally taken out from Pu's stories, is an important part of Pu's "Feng Hsien", without even changing the name of the two characters in the story. Both articles in the US published volume are under the author name of Frances Carpenter.

As learned the University Society, Inc. published the "Bookshelf" as early as 1909, which changed to today's name in 1912. Mr Qiu Jun found the book in many American families, and the 1970 edition he discovered is among the 20th printings, which is now still being re-printed.

According to Prof. Ma Ruifang, a tutor of Ph.D. students and expert of Pu Songling studies from Shandong University, a translation of "Strange Tales" appeared in as early as the 19th century by an American missionary Samuel W. Williams. Now the book has more than 20 foreign language versions. Ma added that the US publishing house's plagiarism of the "Strange Tales", which lasted nearly a century, is quite a rare case, and we should stand out to clarify the fact.

Reporter found that both lifted articles ended by a word: adapted. The most basic publishing knowledge tells us that an adapted work must give the author's name, otherwise it is a violation of copyright. If the evidence is conclusive the University Society, Inc and Frances Carpenter at least violated Pu Songling's signing right, said lawyer Li Yi from the province's Da Zhong newspaper group. China's copyright law states clearly that the protection period of the author's copyright is his whole life and 50 years after his death, but the right of the person is not limited by the period, such as the author's rights of singing, amending and protecting the completeness of his work. China's copyright regulations also state that after the author's death the above-mentioned rights of the person go to the author's descendents or the one he choosed to receive his bequest. If there's nobody to inherit or receive the author's copyright, the rights should be protected by the state's related administrative departments.

By PD Online Staff Li Heng

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