Max explores the bizarre release of The High Republic story The Vow Of Silver Dawn
I’m very confused about The Vow of Silver Dawn; a Chinese-only exclusive novel entry in The High Republic publishing initiative. It takes place much earlier than the main stories and I have next to no details whatsoever on its plot because there is no plan to translate it into English anytime soon. As a person who is obsessed with Star Wars literature, I admit I was curious and look on Wookieepedia for the first time in several months.
The book is written by someone called “His Majesty the King” and I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes. It would seem that China is attempting to exert some control on the Star Wars market. It’s just totally irregular to make this book. I have been trying to get my foot in the door to write Star Wars since 2011 and China just swoops in and appears to be putting pressure on Disney to tailor an ENTIRE novel into Star Wars Canon. Yes, it is Disney canon and I’m sure they were insistent that it be given all the privileges of the main story. This is not the first time China has done something controversial in Star Wars. The Chinese version of The Force Awakens poster made John Boyega much smaller in an attempt to divert attention away from its token black character. It’s unacceptable and honestly, this book is a miscarriage of justice, and the fact that the rest of the world can’t read it is another slap in the face.
Star Wars is for everyone and there are no “favors” given in the business. Yet, it IS a work of literature and very well may have an interesting story. If there any Chinese—American fans fluent in Mandarin or Cantonese; please translate the book so we all can enjoy it.
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Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
I doubt that the CCP would be interested in a Star Wars novel. It’s just one of Disney’s attempts to market the Star Wars franchise to Chinese consumers. It isn’t being translated because there are only a few people interested and would frankly be a waste of money.
It’s clear that you feel a certain type of way about this but you should really have done a little more research on it. China didn’t push to create this story. This is not the first time something like this has happened. There are several other canon books from countries like Hungary or France that were never translated into English.
Star Wars has never been very successful in China so Disney decided to have a popular Web Novelist write a story. Web novels are very popular in China and are released online chapter by chapter usually daily or weekly. This isn’t some weird ploy by China it’s just Disney trying to expand their market. Someone will likely translate this eventually but it will take a while for the entire story to be told.