An 18th-century oil painting has been used as a book cover for Chinese editions of five classical novels. Photo provided to China Daily

He says the editors at his publishing house may not have known enough about the painting used by the design company.

"We decided the overall style for the books and the design company chose the covers. Some covers are pretty good."

The issue was first brought to public attention by a Chinese chemistry student earlier this year and the media picked it up thereafter.

In China, designers can decide covers according to their own ideas, and sometimes there's no bearing on a book's story, according to industry insiders.

"If you ask a designer to do the cover for Boule de Suif and the designer happens to be careless, he or she will pick a French painting. The book's executive editor, also careless, will approve it without checking any information about the painting," says Gu Zhen, executive editor of Shanghai Translation Publishing House.

"Usually we will ask different designers to do covers for different books because they are good at different things. We will talk with them about the books' content. After they finish designing, they have to ask for the approval of senior editors," Gu says of his company.

The debacle with the foreign books has become a joke in China's publishing industry.

As the growth of new media challenges traditional publishing, offline companies rush to publish more books within shorter time frames and far lesser costs, industry sources say.

Yu Xiaoqun, president of Chinese publisher Dolphin Books, told the newspaper Wenhui Daily: "Books are not so sacred as before if everyone can do it."