I Am a Nobleman in England

Chinese literature has always been a minority in the West. Due to the difficulty of translation and the lack of channels and platforms, the dissemination rate and acceptance of Chinese books overseas have always been relatively low.

According to incomplete statistics, from the 1920s and 1930s to the present, China has translated more than one million modern Western works, but Western translations of Chinese modern and contemporary literature are only in the tens of thousands.

In the past ten years, it is not that there are no works by Chinese writers in major bookstores in Europe and America, but most of them are ancient and modern works. When asked which Chinese books they have read, many Europeans and Americans said that they have heard of the four great classics, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Tao Te Ching", but they don't know much about the others.

However, "Dream of Red Mansions" is definitely the most popular abroad, and the more important encyclopedias around the world have special introductions. The American "Encyclopedia of America" ​​even directly praised "A Dream of Red Mansions" as a monument in the world literary world.

With the in-depth study of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there has also been a persistent Three Kingdoms fever abroad. According to Arthur's knowledge, some European boys have a collection of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in English, and they can read it by heart!

Arthur, on the other hand, found a complete set of the four great classics in his study room, including Ping Zimei, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the Tao Te Ching, which surprised him and made him very kind.

With the gradual rise of China's economy, Europeans and Americans are eager to understand China from a deeper level. Modern and contemporary Chinese literature has also begun to attract attention. Many foreign scholars who understand Chinese have imported copyrights and translated them according to their own interests. However, from works In terms of sales, the foreign readers of Chinese contemporary writers are mainly Chinese culture researchers and college students.

On this point, Bolin Publishing House has the most say, because Bolin Publishing House has published Xinhua Dictionary, and it has been selling it all the time!

To be honest, Arthur is really gratified and happy that Heer Guo has such a keen eye and picked out "Panlong".

This shows that the other party has really studied hard, considered the prospect of the WuxiaWorld website, and considered it as a career.

"Translation is only the first step. The acceptance of literary works is not only related to interpretation, but also related to interpretation. We need local translators who are more familiar with the language habits and aesthetic tastes of local readers to promote the landing of Chinese online literature in the UK."

Arthur looked at the chapters of "Panlong" translated by Heer Guo. Although he had only read a little in his previous life, Heer Guo's translation felt that there was no cultural barrier, so he couldn't help but said with a smile.

"It's true that translation is a big problem, especially as these are very long,

This adds a huge obstacle to the translation work. Moreover, website promotion is also a problem, and cultural barriers are not so easy to break through. "

Tom White, who had been listening and looking at the information submitted by Helgo and Edward Ye, frowned slightly and said worriedly.

To be honest, when he saw the long string of words in the data line that were screened out as the first batch of translation targets, he was shocked and at the same time very speechless.

There are millions of words, or even millions of words. If this is translated, it will be a very huge project.

"Hehe, let's take our time to promote the problem. There is no need to worry about this. You must know that making garbage will never make you rich and free. You can only make useful things, and you don't need to consider the problem of promotion at all.

As for the translation issue. . . "Arthur pondered for a while before saying: "First of all, we need to establish our own translation team, set up a translation incubation plan, invest in the cultivation and incubation of a professional and efficient translator team, and uniformly formulate writing and vocabulary standards.

Then recruit high-quality part-time translators on the Internet, and at the same time, we must have our own charging model, a tipping model. My idea is that at present, it mainly relies on advertising, rewards and crowdfunding.

In the initial stage, our website can provide translations for free, supplemented by on-page advertisements, and encourage translators to be active and increase chapter updates through readers' rewards for translators and crowdfunding donations.

This will definitely allow more people to participate. I believe that as long as there is interest, there will be no shortage of people who join the translation team. We only need to send people to review the translated manuscripts. We will also draw a percentage of the reward Thirty as the maintenance fee of the platform.

There are also copyright issues after translation, publication issues of the translated text, etc., and a lawyer must be found to study an electronic contract. When these translators apply for an account, they are asked to sign to avoid copyright disputes in the future.

Only a more mature market and stable and good operating rules provide translators with income guarantees, enabling them to produce content safely and stably. Our website can ultimately benefit.

I'm not sure if it's a golden age for the dissemination of Chinese literature in Europe and America, but this may be the beginning of a strong interest in Chinese web literature for European and American readers.

I hope that the WuxiaWorld website can act as a bridge, bringing the culture, legends and stories of the East and other countries to the West."

As soon as Arthur's words came out, everyone present looked at the young boss with admiration, and Edward Yeh and Helgo looked at each other, feeling more cordial to their British aristocratic boss .

Only when you are in a foreign country can you understand the various prejudices and arrogance of the West towards the East. Coupled with the deliberate distortion and demonization of reports by the Western media, it is even more difficult to dispel misunderstandings and prejudices. Therefore, in a boss who respects the culture of his home country It is definitely a good thing to open a bottle of wine and drink a glass of wine under your subordinates.

"In terms of reader payment, I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to learn from the starting point model of China. Objectively speaking, under the logic of billing by the number of words, the content of online content is relatively large, and there is still a large quality gap compared with the same type in the European and American markets. To be honest, it’s hard to get readers to pay for it willingly.”

Edward Yeh, who has been researching and learning the starting point mode in China this time, expressed his opinion without hesitation. Of course, Edward does not mean that the level of online literature in China is low, but compared with the level of physical books in European and American countries, there is indeed no What an advantage, and if you charge by the number of words, readers will not easily buy it when they see millions of words at every turn.

Everyone nodded approvingly. Arthur also agreed with Edward's point of view, and said with a smile: "It's free first, and then establish a mature "translation-donation-sharing" system. When the time is right, we will rely on our own sufficient The strong market competitiveness formed by the authorized reserves of genuine works has boldly explored the construction of diversified business models such as VIP value-added services and pre-reading billing systems.

Do it step by step, don't worry, first establish a fixed readership, don't be afraid of small audiences, as long as the readership base is large, the website will continue to develop, the number of clicks will increase, and advertising revenue will become our main source of income. "

At this point, the operating structure and model of the website have been basically determined. In this way, it will be much easier for Edward to lead the team to build the website.

"Tom, you can also recruit foreign translation talents. It is best to be a Chinese student who has truly integrated into the local Chinese or a bilingual Chinese who has settled down. Bilingual proficiency and sufficient knowledge reserves will make translation easier.

It just so happens that I can also learn Chinese with them. I want to try to see if the difficulty of the most difficult language in the world is really that great. " Arthur looked at Tom White and said.

"No problem, boss. In fact, if you want to learn a language, the best way is to find a girlfriend from that country and have a relationship. At that time, I will find a beautiful woman as a teacher for you, boss, hehe..."

Tom's words made everyone in the office laugh knowingly. Arthur also shook his head and laughed, and said, "Then, I want three. If you read with me, there is a language environment, which can promote the rapid learning of the language."

"Ha ha..."

Arthur's joke made everyone laugh again.