Here we go again — another fake Steve Jobs book for sale in Asia in Chinese.
Last April, a Chinese writer in mainland China using the unlikely and laughable pen name of ''John Cage'' published a Chinese-language book in China and Taiwan that was titled "Steve Paul Jobs's Eleven Pieces of Advice for Young People Today." It claimed to be, supposedly, a Chinese translation of ''an Amazon bestseller.'' The cover of the book listed its author as as ''John Cage'', and an inside editor's note noted that Cage was "a graduate from Stanford University and who previously served as editor in chief at mass-circulation economic and financial magazines."
Of course, no such record of such an English-language book was ever found, and the fake counterfeit book was hounded out of existence.
According to Taiwan's English-language newspaper the China Post, the faux book contained anecdotes about Chinese historical figures, and aphorisms such as "listen to the voice inside your heart, do what you want to do.”
While the MicGadget blog said in October that, if really fake, the book would be illegal, and it was both fake and illegal. It was soon taken off bookstore shelves
in Taipei as word spread in the English-language media worldwide that the book was mistitled, mispublished and mispen-named. However, the publishers in Beijing and Taipei tried to keep the book in print as long as they could until … it was taps for Steve Jobs.
The Taipei publisher claimed to have shown identification to reporters for the Apple Daily tabloid which proved that the April book was authorized," although of course, it never was.
Now comes news and a website link that a similar, updated book by the same publisher has been published in Chinese in both China and Taiwan, with the new title of, are you ready? — "25 Lessons That Steve Jobs Taught the Young." This time the author is listed as "Jao Tao" and the book has a blurb on the back cover in Chinese allegedly from "Barack Hussein Obama, Jr." The publisher is also the same as before,namely Ecorebooks.
So John Cage is gone, and the 11 pieces of advice "for young people today" has morphed into "25 lessons that Steve Jobs taught the young," and the title is printed in both English and Chinese on the handsomely designed cover.
Chalk one up for better publishing through shady translations. Who's minting this stuff?
