You can't please all the critics all the time

While most critics and industry-watchers agree that Penguin has made a good start promoting Chinese literature to the world, others feel the company still has a long way to go before it gets a firm grip on the Chinese reader's pulse.

Tu Zhigang, a veteran reviewer of books, says the company needs to get in touch with "the core of contemporary China".

While he doesn't mind acknowledging Penguin's well-intended drive toward "doing books that represent the vigor and trends in contemporary Chinese writing", Tu feels the multinational publishing house "hasn't yet grasped the overall situation and context of contemporary Chinese literature". Its interest, so far, is limited only to "the so-called best-sellers and popular books", he says.