This is the first time that Chinese writers have participated in the annual meeting of the International Pen Association. As the only member of the International Pen Association in China, Lin Zixuan needs to introduce the group of Chinese writers to the world literary world at the conference.

The International Pen Association annual conference will be held in London in mid-May, and he will set off from Shanghai at the latest by the end of March.

At that time, famous writers from Europe, the United States and other countries will attend.

He realized that this was a great opportunity to promote Chinese culture to Western society, and he planned to hold a Chinese Cultural Book Fair during the International PEN Conference.

With the joint efforts of all colleagues in the Compilation Institute of Vientiane Bookstore, a large number of classic Chinese classics have been translated into English versions.

It also includes some new literature series.

The reason why such great results has a lot to do with the plan proposed by Lin Zixuan.

He asked the translators of the compilation institute to translate the shorter classics first.

For example, "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio", "Cai Gen Tan" and "The Art of War" and so on.

For example, a long and magnificent work like "Dream of Red Mansions" is enough to translate it for several years. Foreigners may not be able to understand it, it is too uneconomical.

Lin Zixuan from later generations emphasized efficiency.

It has a short length and high value, which can represent Chinese traditional culture and attract foreigners to be interested in it. This is the first choice for translation.

"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is a fantasy novel in the West.

"Cai Gen Tan" talks about the survival philosophy of Eastern people and their way of dealing with people. By understanding this book, you can understand Eastern people.

Needless to say, "The Art of War" is the world's earliest military work, which has extremely high practical value.

In addition to these, Lin Zixuan also proposed the concept of simplified books, which is to briefly write and abbreviate long stories.

For example, "The Romance of the Gods" is a very thick book that can write a story summary or divide it into several short stories.

The purpose of translating traditional Chinese literature into English is to introduce Chinese culture and let foreigners know that there is this story, and the abbreviation version can also achieve the effect.

Lin Zixuan himself edited an introductory book called "Fifty Books to Understand China".

He selected fifty representative books from many traditional Chinese classics and introduced them. If foreigners want to understand Chinese culture, they can start with these books.

In this way, he did not go to London alone, but took his employees from Vientiane Bookstore to sell books abroad.

Lin Zixuan's plan cannot be hidden from other bookstores in Shanghai, especially Commercial Press and Zhonghua Bookstore.

Going abroad to sell books? Is this idea feasible?

As the top publishing house in China, they naturally want to gain international popularity. They have never thought about this before. They always feel that Western readers are not very interested in Chinese culture.

If you rashly go to the West to promote Chinese books, you may be regarded as a joke.

This time Lin Zixuan was going to hold a book fair in the UK. They were wondering if they would take a sailboat. If the Chinese book fair is popular in Europe, it would be the best. Even if it fails, it would be Lin Zixuan's decision-making mistake.

As the first person to try it out, he always has to face various risks.

Commercial Press appointed Wang Yunwu to discuss the matter with Lin Zixuan. Wang Yunwu is the director of the Compilation Office of Commercial Press, and he also has a teacher who is Hu Shi.

In fact, he is only three years older than Hu Shi, and he is both a teacher and a friend.

In 1920, Commercial Press wanted to invite Hu Shi as the director of the compilation office.

Hu Shi was unwilling to resign from his position as a professor at Peking University, so he politely declined and recommended Wang Yunwu to work at Commercial Press.

Wang Yunwu is a knowledgeable and talented person, especially proficient in English, and has his own set of methods in management.

He also invented the method of detecting the letters of the four-corner number and compiled books such as "Wang Yunwu Dictionary", which has a certain reputation in the academic community.

As a competitor, Lin Zixuan has a very detailed understanding of the senior management of Commercial Press. Wang Yunwu is an old-fashioned figure, or conservative, and has great conflicts with Shen Yanbing and others of the Literary Research Association.

But it is undeniable that this person is very talented, which is an objective evaluation of his opponent.

Wang Yunwu and Lin Zixuan did not talk about human relationships. Instead, they talked about the topic of promoting national culture, which was considered to be in his preferences.

Everyone in the Chinese cultural circle knows that Lin Zixuan is different from those new literary writers who have progressive tendencies. He does not agree with the complete denial of traditional culture, but advocates critical inheritance.

Wang Yunwu believes that holding a book fair in the UK is a major event, which is related to the image of the Chinese publishing industry abroad.

It’s just that Vientiane Bookstore is too thin. It should be jointly organized by the publishing industry in Shanghai to achieve results.

I have to say that what Wang Yunwu said makes sense. Anyway, they are promoting Chinese culture, so Lin Zixuan cannot stop other publishing houses.

If major bookstores in Shanghai appear as a whole, they can form a powerful force, which may trigger a craze for Chinese culture in Western society.

Of course, this is the most ideal result.

At home, they are competitors, and in foreign countries, they are all in China's publishing industry, so cooperation can be won-win.

With this consensus, the negotiations went very smoothly.

Wang Yunwu returned to Commercial Press and talked about this matter to the senior management of Commercial Press. He thought Lin Zixuan would make things difficult for many parties, or even directly refused, but he didn't expect that the negotiation was done.

"This is everyone's style," he said.

Recently, an interesting thing has been circulating in Shanghai. Many people call Lin Zixuan "Lin Mengchang". This is probably a joke about Lin Zixuan by literati who came to Shanghai from the north, while local literati in Shanghai don't feel anything.

Some people also say that Lin Zixuan has the style of a great man or a famous man.

Wang Yunwu said this refer to Lin Zixuan's mind and demeanor. Lin Zixuan has always been right to things and not people.

With Lin Zixuan’s promise, Shanghai’s slightly larger publishing houses all have the intention to participate.

Even if it is not comparable to Commercial Press, it is better that the books of my own publishing house can go abroad. Perhaps you can meet Westerners who know the goods and have become famous internationally since then.

Some people are working with major European publishing houses.

As a result, Shanghai's publishing industry became busy and demanded teams to enter the European market.

Lin Zixuan thinks this is a good thing. Going abroad to see and visit publishing houses in European countries can improve the overall level of China's publishing industry.

Anyway, it’s not his travel expenses. If these people are willing to follow, just follow them.

However, things went beyond his expectations.

With so many people in the Shanghai publishing industry applying to go to the UK, the British embassy in Shanghai naturally knew about this.

After the May 30th Massacre, the relationship between the British and Chinese was very tense in Shanghai. After hearing this, they thought it was a good opportunity to ease their relationship.

This is considered a cultural exchange between the two countries.

This year China will hold a book fair in London and next year the UK will hold a book fair in Shanghai. This kind of exchange can promote mutual understanding and is a grand event in the cultural circles of both countries.

Lin Zixuan originally just attended a writing meeting and promoted Chinese culture by the way, but now it has been upgraded to cultural exchanges between countries.
Chapter completed!