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

According to incomplete statistics, from the twenties and thirties of the last century to the present, the Celestial Empire has translated more than one million kinds of modern Western works, but according to statistics, there are only tens of thousands of Western works translating the modern and contemporary literature of the Celestial Empire.

In the past ten years, in the big bookstores in Europe and the United States, it is not without the works of the writers of the Celestial Empire, but most of them are ancient and modern works. When asked what books of the Celestial Empire they have read, many Europeans and Americans say that they have heard of the four famous books, "The Art of War" and "Tao Te Ching", etc., but they do not 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 articles on it. The "Encyclopedia of America" in the United States even directly praised "Dream of the Red Chamber" as a monument in the world literary circle.

With the deepening of the study of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", there has also been a continuous Three Kingdoms fever abroad. According to Arthur's understanding, some European boys have a set of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in English, and they read it very well!

Arthur, however, found a full set of the four famous books in his own study, and even a bottle of plum, chatting about the strange tale of the Zhai, Sun Tzu's Art of War, and the Tao Te Ching, which made him feel very surprised and cordial at that time.

With the gradual rise of the Celestial Empire's economy, in fact, Europeans and Americans are eager to understand the Celestial Empire from a deeper level, and modern and contemporary Celestial Empire literature has also begun to attract attention.

At this point, Bolin Publishing House is the most vocal, because Bolin Publishing House has published Xinhua dictionaries, and it has been selling!

Seriously, Arthur is really pleased and happy that Hergo can have such a keen eye and pick out the "Pan-Dragon".

This shows that the other party has really studied carefully, considered the prospect of WuxiaWorld website, and regarded it as a career to think about and work hard.

"Translation is only the first step, and the reception of a literary work is not only about interpretation, 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 implementation of Celestial Empire online literature in the UK. ”

Arthur looked at the chapters of "Pan Dragon" translated by Hergot, although he had only read a little in his previous life, but Hurguo's translation, he felt that there was indeed no cultural barrier, and he couldn't help but smile and said.

"It's true that translation is a big problem, especially since these are very long, which adds a huge obstacle to the translation work, and website promotion is also a problem, and cultural barriers are not so easy to break. ”

Tom White, who had been listening and looking at the information submitted by Hurgo and Edward Ye in his hand, frowned slightly, and said with concern.

To be honest, when he saw the long list of words in the information line that had been screened out as the first batch of translation targets, he was shocked and speechless at the same time.

Millions of words, or even millions of words, can be a huge undertaking when translated.

"Hehe, the problem of promotion, let's take our time, there is no need to rush this. You know, creating garbage can never make you wealthy, only making useful things, and you don't need to think about promotion at all.

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

Then we will recruit high-quality translators for part-time jobs on the Internet, and at the same time, we must have our own set of charging models and reward models. My idea is that at present, there are three main types of advertising, tipping and crowdfunding.

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

I believe that as long as there is interest, there will be no shortage of people who join the translation army, and we only need to send someone to review the translated manuscript, and we will take 30% of the reward as the maintenance cost of the platform.

There are also copyright issues after translation, publication of translations, etc., and it is necessary to find a lawyer to study an electronic contract, and let them sign it when these translators apply for an account, so as to avoid copyright disputes in the future.

Only an increasingly mature market and stable operating rules provide translators with income security, so that they can produce content safely and stably. Our website will ultimately benefit.

I'm not sure if it's a golden age for the spread of literature in Europe and the United States, but it may be the beginning of a strong interest in the Celestial Empire web text among European and American readers.

I hope that the WuxiaWorld website will serve as a bridge to bring the cultures, legends and stories of the East and other countries to the Western world."

As soon as Arthur's words came out, everyone present looked at the young boss with admiration, and Edward Ye and Hergo glanced 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, which makes misunderstandings and prejudices more difficult to dissolve, so working under a boss who respects the culture of his home country is definitely a good thing worth opening a bottle of wine and having a drink.

Objectively speaking, under the logic of charging by the number of words, the content of the online text is larger, and there is a large quality gap compared with the same type in the European and American markets, to be honest, it is difficult to make readers pay willingly. ”

Edward Ye, who has been studying and learning the starting point model in the Celestial Empire this time, did not hesitate to express his opinions, of course, Edward is not saying that the level of online literature in the Celestial Empire is low, but compared with the level of physical books in European and American countries, there is really no advantage, and if you charge by the number of words, readers will not easily buy millions of words at every turn.

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

Step by step, don't worry, first to establish a fixed readership, the minority is not afraid, as long as the readership base is large, you can let the website develop, the number of clicks will go up, advertising revenue will become our main source of income. ”

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

"Tom, you can also recruit translators from abroad, preferably international students from the Celestial Empire who have truly integrated into the local area or bilingual proficient Chinese who have settled down. Bilingual proficiency and sufficient knowledge reserve will make it easier to translate.

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

"No problem, boss, in fact, if you want to learn a language, the best way is to find a girlfriend in the country, have a relationship, and then, I will find a beautiful woman for the boss to be a teacher, hehe... ”

Tom's words made everyone in the office laugh intently, Arthur also shook his head and smiled, and said: "Then, I want three, if you read together, there is a language environment, which can promote the rapid learning of language." ”

"Haha... ”

Arthur's joke made everyone laugh again.