"Mr. Zhang, I've admired your name for a long time, and I'm still your fellow countryman!"

In a high-end hotel in New York, a Chinese man in his thirties was chatting with Zhang Yida.

Lai Jingping recently returned to the United States from Rongcheng when he suddenly received a message from a friend saying that Zhang Yida, chairman of Zhonghe Group, wanted to meet with him.

Lai Jingping is no stranger to Zhang Yida, a young man nine years younger than himself and the founder of the world's most valuable super unicorn company.

The world's most popular software comes from his company.

So Lai Jingping rushed from his parents' house in California to New York with little hesitation.

"Mr. Lai's hometown is from Rongcheng?"

Zhang Yida quickly switched to the Sichuan and Shu dialects and asked.

Lai Jingping smiled bitterly and replied in the broken Sichuan-Shu dialect: "It's not good, Mr. Zhang forgive me!"

As soon as he heard Lai Jingping speak, Zhang Yida knew that this kid's dialect was definitely not up to par, and the fourth-level level was still poor.

Lai Jingping explained: "I immigrated to the United States with my parents when I was three years old, and it was not until the end of 15 years that I returned to settle in Rongcheng again. ”

Zhang Yida waved his hand and said that it was okay, and it was very uncomfortable to listen to his unsatisfactory Sichuan and Shu dialect, so he simply communicated in Mandarin.

"I heard that Mr. Lai used to be a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Office?"

Lai Jingping nodded and said with a smile: "Before this, I worked in a law firm for a year, and later found out that it was not the type of work I liked.

I passed the exam and entered the U.S. Foreign Department, dreaming of one day sending me to China.

But because of my Chinese identity, this dream has never been realized.

During his seven years as a diplomat, he traveled to Malaysia, Canada, and Vietnam.

Later, because of the creation of this website, I began to translate the Chinese network online, and slowly fell in love with the job.

At the end of '15, I quit my job as a diplomat in Vietnam and started running the site full-time. ”

Zhang Yida thinks that this guy is very talkative, and in the face of himself, a well-known rich man, he is not stage frightened at all, and he is worthy of being a lawyer and a diplomat.

Zhang Yida smiled and said, "I'm a little curious, what reason or opportunity did you found?"

Lai Jingping smiled slightly, "That's a long story, in the summer of 2014, I read "The Stars Change" by the Chinese online writer "I Eat Tomatoes".

And at the suggestion of a Vietnamese friend, he began to translate another work of this writer, "Panlong", on the SPCNET forum.

In the process of translating this book, I have a large number of readers from all over the world.

For the first time, I felt that translating these was not only a way for me to become familiar with Chinese and Chinese culture, but also an object of discussion and research by readers around the world who were constantly "urging changes" and rewarding.

Later, every time after I updated the translation, fans would forward the link on LightNovel, a light forum of Reddit, a well-known online community in the United States.

LightNovel, a forum, has always been a post that mainly discusses Dongying Light.

Ever since I started translating Chinese online texts, there have been fewer and fewer posts discussing Dongying.

Later, the owner of the forum was informed that any posts about the Chinese network would be banned, and that only content related to Dongyingqing could be discussed in the forum. ”

Speaking of this, Lai Jingping smiled and looked very indifferent.

He shrugged, "The forum can be banned, but the human mind can't be banned, and since I opened the door of Chinese online literature to netizens all over the world, it has been out of control."

Every day, netizens urge me to update!

I hope that one day, all networks can transcend the barriers of countries and nationalities, respect each other, and coexist in a friendly way.

With this in mind, I set up a website specifically for Panlong and attracted different translators to build a social network dedicated to translating the Chinese web.

On December 22, 2014, the website officially went into operation.

Every day, different readers from all over the world are waiting for updates from me and other translators, and these readers will not only learn from each other in the forum, but also in the forum.

They referred to "Panlong" as a CD, and called each other FellowTaoist, and the various artifacts and titles under discussion.

And after the tipping mechanism matured, the site also entered a profitable state.

While translating webtext, I worked at the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam.

Every day, I do my job during the day and translate at night. ”

Zhang Yida laughed and said: "I heard that you are such a part-time online translator, and in two years, you have been promoted from a sixth-class secretary to a third-class secretary. ”

Lai Jingping shook his head and smiled, "At that time, it was purely a hobby that made me stick to it, but it was actually very tiring!"

I sometimes have to travel to China to discuss copyright matters with major websites, including the Reading and Hearing Group.

After holding on for a year, he couldn't hold on anymore, so he resigned from his position as a diplomat.

When I returned to Rongcheng, I rented a very ordinary apartment and worked full-time as a translator and operated the website.

Because of frequent takeout and lack of exercise, I gained 30 pounds in three months. ”

Speaking of which, he pointed to his beer belly and shook his head, "No way, the food in my hometown is too delicious to resist the temptation." ”

Zhang Yida exclaimed: "It turned out that this was born!

But what you're doing is very meaningful, and in a way, this may be China's first cultural export in a popular, grassroots sense.

Just like people in China are obsessed with "The Lord of the Rings" and "A Song of Ice and Fire".

This is not promoted by the Confucius Institute, nor is it "Dream of the Red Chamber" and Lu Xun that are studied in the East Asian Library of the university, but it is a real cultural transmission. ”

"Actually, it's not that exaggerated, we are just a group of like-minded people doing something that we think is meaningful. ”

Although he said so, Lai Jingping's heart was already happy.

He didn't know the reason why Zhang Yida was looking for him, but he guessed that it should be investment, mergers and acquisitions, otherwise such a busy person would have time to drink coffee with him?

Zhang Yida asked again: "Can you talk to me about the specific business situation?"

Lai Jingping was reassured now, he didn't know how he caught Zhang Yida's attention, but he was sure that the other party had taken a fancy to the martial arts world.

Lai Jingping said: "We have 29 professional translators or translation teams, and currently have 50 translated works on our website.

In the early days, the site generated revenue from reader donations, but now that we started to introduce advertising for commercial monetization, the donations have been eliminated.

The website has readers from more than 100 countries and regions around the world, with the top five countries being the United States, the Philippines, Canada, Indonesia and the United Kingdom, with North America accounting for about one-third of the total.

At present, Alexa ranks around 1000 in the global ranking, and our website ranks about 1000......"

Zhang Yida nodded, and asked again: "I heard that there is a conflict with you?"

Lai Jingping shook her head, "It's just that the ideas are not harmonious."

At the moment, the fan base has just formed, and I don't think it's quite suitable yet