About six months ago I discovered a Chinese edition of Aidan’s Way, my book about my son.  I had found it on a Swedish book seller’s web site (don’t you just love globalization!) and then ran it down on numerous Chinese Amazon-like pages. 

      I do not remember giving permission, or hearing from my publisher or agent about permission being granted, so I assume this is a pirated edition. 

      While in Beijing and Shanghai, I went to bookstores – big, big bookstores (five floors worth of books in Beijing’s Wangfujing, and seven floors in Shanghai’s Shucheng) – and chased it down.  In each case I asked people working there to help me find it (it was under "translated foreign literature").  I bought the only two copies in the Wangfujing store (will their inventory system order more?) and four copies in Shanghai.    In both places, I showed the staff people my picture at the back of the book and told them I was the author.  They were unimpressed.  Perhaps they are used to foreigners finding and buying their pirated books.

     I am rather happy it has appeared in China, even if under dubious circumstances.  This summer I will read it closely, to see if they have edited it in translation (my quick skim of the first chapter suggests that it is largely intact).  There is some unflattering stuff about the Prime Minister of Singapore in it, which may not have gotten past censors.  And the title of chapter 2 is translated as "God, Why!" which really misses the key point of the book (i.e. I am purposefully not invoking God).  We’ll see what else turns up.

     The front material states "this edition arranged with Sourcebooks [the US publisher] Inc. through Big Apple Tuttle Mori  Agency, Labuan, Malaysia."  So, the Chinese edition is arranged through Malaysia.  Go figure.

     The greatest benefit of the book to me has always been the connections it forges with other parents of disabled children.  Every so often I hear from someone who has found something worthwhile in Aidan’s story.  They write to me, I write back.  For a moment we connect, and the web of Aidan’s influence widens a bit further.  And now he extends to China.   Somewhere there a parent has read (or is reading) the book and is being drawn into his life.  Maybe they will track me down.  The back flap of the book mentions that I teach at Williams.  How marvelous it would be to receive an email or letter from someone in China who has read it.    Intellectual property rights pale in comparison to the possibility of connecting with Chinese parents. 

UPDATE: Turns out it is not pirated.