Left, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; right, Prince Caspian
I found these Chinese translations on Amazon.com during my search for Narnia images. All have artwork I’ve not seen duplicated anywhere else, and I’m guessing it was localized. I think it’s worth examining.
First, the cover design of this edition of The Chronicles (I’m assuming it was for the whole series not just the four books I’ve found) seems more like that for a manga than for a book. I haven’t seen the insides, so I’m not sure that is the case. But it would definitely attract a young reader. The background design of tree branches remains the same throughout, only changing color. The four mini portraits at each corner are unusual, and I’m guessing (going clockwise from top left) they’re Edmund, White Witch, Peter, and Lucy. But what happened to Susan? Why has she been excluded? (Has the translation edited her out?)
Looking at the individual artwork the LWW cover nicely shows the conflict between Aslan and Witch, summer day dawning vs. snowy winter night. It’s effective, IMO.
On the other hand Caspian looks older than he was in the book, common for a lot of PC illustrations. Reepicheep mugs as usual. I’ll say it’s effective as well.
Left, The Silver Chair; right, The Magician’s Nephew
The SC cover art is an odder choice. Eustace and Jill are depicted hanging out with the owls which was only a small part of the overall story. (It may have been due to riding the Harry Potter gravy train.) The grim, determined glares on the kids are also unusual. Jill with her striped shirt and jacket might be emulating a Japanese schoolgirl’s uniform, but what the heck is Eustace wearing? It looks a little like a Nehru shirt with a pocket protector.
As for MN, Fledge should be chestnut, not white. And he’s certainly larger than he is in the illustration where he’s more the size of a carousel pony the two kids are riding, who resemble neither Digory or Polly from the book.
There’s many more fascinating editions from China that I will get to.
