I am a nobleman in England

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

According to incomplete statistics, from the 1920s and 1930s to the present, there have been more than one million modern Western works translated by the Celestial Dynasty. However, according to statistics, there are only tens of thousands of modern and contemporary literature translated by the West.

In the past decade or so, the major bookstores in Europe and the United States have not been without the works of Chinese writers, but mostly ancient and modern works.When asked which books from the celestial dynasty had been read, many Europeans and Americans said that they had heard of the four masterpieces, "Sun Tzu's Art of War" and "Tao De Jing", but didn't know much about the others.

However, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is definitely the most popular abroad, and 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 an unfailing Three Kingdoms fever abroad.According to Arthur's understanding, some European boys have collected a set of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in English, and they read it thoroughly!

But Arthur, in his home study, found a full set of four masterpieces, and even Liao Zhai Zhiyi, Sun Tzu Art of War, and Tao Te Ching, which made him feel very surprised and kind at that time.

With the gradual rise of the celestial economy, in fact, Europeans and Americans are eager to understand the celestial dynasty from a deeper level. Modern and contemporary celestial literature has also begun to receive attention. Many foreign scholars who understand Chinese introduce copyright and translate according to their own interests. However, from the works In terms of sales, the readers of contemporary Chinese writers abroad are mainly Chinese culture researchers and college students.

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

To be honest, Arthur is really pleased and happy that Heerguo has such a keen eye to select the novel "Pan Dragon".

This shows that the other party really researched carefully, considered the prospect of WuxiaWorld website, and thought about it as a career.

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

Arthur flipped through the chapters of "Pan Dragon" translated by Heerguo. Although he had only read a little in his previous life, reading Heerguo's translation felt that there was no cultural barrier, and he couldn't help but smile.

"Indeed, translation is a big problem, especially these novels are very long, which adds a huge obstacle to translation work, and website promotion is also a problem, cultural barriers are not so easy to break through."

Tom White, who has been listening and looking at the information submitted by Herguo and Edward Ye, frowned slightly and said with concern.

To be honest, when he saw the long list of words in the first batch of online novels that were selected as the target of translation, he was shocked and speechless at the same time.

There are millions of words at every turn, or even millions of words. If it were translated, it would be a huge project.

"Hehe, for the promotion issue, let's take it slowly. Don't worry about this. You must know that making rubbish can never make you wealth free. You can only make useful things without thinking about promotion.

As for the question of translation...Arthur pondered for a moment before he said: "First, we must establish our own translation team, set up a translation incubation plan, invest in incubating a professional and efficient team of translators, and formulate unified writing and vocabulary standards.

Then we will collect high-quality part-time translators on the Internet. At the same time, we must have our own charging model and reward model.My idea is that currently, it mainly relies on advertising, rewards and crowdfunding.

In the initial stage, our website can provide free translations, supplemented by page advertisements, encourage translators to be enthusiasm and increase chapter updates through readers rewarding translators, crowdfunding donations, etc.

This will definitely allow more people to participate. I believe that as long as there are benefits, there will be no shortage of people who will join the translation army, and we only need to send people to review the translated manuscripts. By the way, we will draw rewards. Thirty is the maintenance cost of the platform.

There are also the copyright issues after translation, the publication of the translation, and so on. It is necessary to find a lawyer to study an electronic contract. When these translators apply for an account, they will sign it to avoid copyright disputes in the future.

Only an increasingly mature market and stable and sound operating rules provide income guarantee for translators and enable them to produce content safely and stably.Our website can ultimately benefit.

I am not sure if it is a golden age for the dissemination of Chinese web texts in Europe and the United States, but this may be the beginning of a strong interest in Chinese web texts from European and American readers.

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

As soon as Arthur’s words came out, everyone on the scene looked at the young boss with admiration, and Edward Ye and Helguo looked at each other, and felt even more cordial to their British noble boss. .

Only when you are in a foreign country can you understand the various prejudices and arrogances of the West towards the East, coupled with the deliberate distortion and demonization of the Western media, making misunderstandings and prejudices even more difficult to resolve. Therefore, be a boss who respects the culture of his home country His work is definitely a good thing worthy of a bottle of wine and a drink.

“At the point that readers pay to read, I’m afraid it’s difficult for us to learn the starting point model of the Celestial Kingdom. Objectively speaking, under the logic of billing based on the number of words, the content of online articles is more moist, and there is still a large quality gap compared with similar novels in the European and American markets. , To be honest, it is difficult to make readers willing to pay."

This time Edward Ye, who has been studying and learning the starting point model in the Heavenly Dynasty, did not hesitate to express his own opinions. Of course, Edward did not say that the level of online literature in the Heavenly Dynasty is low, but compared with the level of physical books in European and American countries. What is the advantage, and if you charge according to the number of words, readers will not buy it easily if you see millions of words at every turn.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Arthur also agreed with Edward's point of view. He smiled and said: "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 reserve of genuine works has boldly explored the construction of diversified business models such as VIP value-added services and pre-reading billing systems.

Step by step, don't worry. First, we must establish a fixed readership. The minority is not afraid. As long as the readership base is large, the website can be developed. When the number of clicks increases, advertising revenue will become our main source of revenue."

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

"Tom, you can also recruit foreign translators. It is best to really integrate into the local Chinese students or settled bilingual Chinese proficient. Bilingual proficient, sufficient knowledge reserves, translation will be easier.

It just so happens that I can also learn Chinese with them. I want to try the most difficult language in the world. Is it really that difficult?"Arthur looked at Tom White and said.

"No problem, boss, in fact, if you want to learn languages, the best way is to find a girlfriend from the country and have a relationship. When that happens, I will find a beautiful lady to be your teacher for the boss, haha..."

Tom's words made everyone in the office laugh involuntarily, and Arthur also shook his head and laughed.