The Landscape of Robinson Crusoe in China: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Daniel Defoe’s novel The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe has an everlasting impact in China since its first entrance in Cantonese in 1902. Now, it has become a Robinson Crusoe industry in the publishing sector. This paper attempts to give quantitative evidence from bibliometrics to examine its popularity in China. The data collected are based on all articles published in authoritative CSSCI journals from its inception (1999) to January 2021. We also retrieved Robinson Crusoe results from the National Library Reference Alliance and e-commerce China Dangdang to identify its popular Chinese versions. Five themes are concerned with this novel: comparative literature, economic analysis, translation studies, communication, and philosophical thinking. The study has articulated that Robinson Crusoe’s publications in China have increased significantly since the novel was designated as a topic related to China’s National College Entrance Examination in 2018. Hence, rewriting Robinson Crusoe for teenagers has been a driver for a wide readership, which accordingly makes its translation much embraced in the Chinese world due to the recent statistics.