时间：2022-05-11 08:09:30
Ten Chapters on Publishing： Cross-cultural and Beyond is a very rare and remarkable book co-authored by senior publishers from China and the United Kingdom. For years， we’ve seen huge volumes of publications promoting various cross-cultural dialogues， but few of them are devoted to the topic of the most important media of cultural expression： books. That publishers attach great importance to cultural exchange is a bliss for readers across the national borders； as people who are deciding on the catalogue for their institutions， their shared global vision would surely promote the cultural communications across the world.
Ms. Wu Wei， the Chinese author of this book， had been my colleague in the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China for many years. She has been responsible for the designing and implementation of the “China Book International” project， which is geared to promote foreign publishers to translate and publish China related books by subsidizing their translation， and has effectively promoted China-related books in the world book market. Ms. Wu has been engaged in the publishing industry for over 20 years， has been chief editor and author for many books， and now she is the vice-president of China’s largest book import and export company. Personally I admire her vast knowledge of the global publishing culture as well as her in-depth understanding of the international publishing industry and exceptional leadership skills in managing such a big business corporation.
Mr. Stephen Bourne， as the president of the Cambridge University Press， is a senior publisher with 25 years’ experience. And his mastery of several foreign languages indeed makes him an internationalist in the publishing industry. Mr. Bourne began his China-related business in Hong Kong as early as 1986， and in recent years， he has been quite active in promoting China-related books in the Western world， which makes him quite widely known and very popular in China’s publishing circle. In particular， for most Chinese publishing institutions， it is a great honour for their books to be included in the “Cambridge China Library，” designed and actively supported by Mr. Bourne.
We have every reason to believe that both authors would find a perfect match in co-writing a book on publishing and other related topics.
This book is a collection of articles independently written by each author， that is， they did not discuss the topics before writing on them. But reading the book now， we find that both authors share so many similar opinions， and I believe the reason is that they both have a deep understanding of the universal values of human beings. There are certainly quite significant disagreements between them， while these are not hostile conflicts， but only ideas coming from different perspectives. More importantly， both authors share the same goal to promote international exchange of books and publications， particularly books in Chinese and English languages.
Due to the remarkable difference between the cultures of China and the United Kingdom， the foremost difficulty in translation， as always， does not lie in converting languages， but in bridging the daunting cultural gap between the countries. Some research member working in the Downing Street once told me that as China is undergoing dramatic changes nowadays， sometimes they will come across “national rhetorics” with a distinctive characteristic of China’s approach to world affairs. They are translated by authoritative Chinese institutions， but are still hard to understand for English speakers. The research member mentioned his hope that relevant departments from both countries may organise a special working group to further explain China’s “national rhetorics” in English in a way that is understandable for people in the UK.
Cultural misunderstanding is also a challenge met in the translation of published literary works， which is a major concern for both authors of this book. It is by no means an easy task to solve the cross-cultural challenge in the translation of literary works， and progress could only be achieved through long-term efforts of parties from both sides. Let me take an example to illustrate this. In 2011， a cartoon appeared in an issue of the Financial Times， entitled “The Dragon vs. The Eagle，” claiming that China is competing for the world leadership with the United States. Actually China has neither the power nor the ambition to become the world leader， but the cartoon presents a dragon instead of a Chinese loong as the symbol of China， causing much misunderstanding towards China among readers. In the Western culture， the dragon is a hellish monster throwing flames from its mouth， whereas the Chinese loong （in Chinese pinyin it shall be spelled as “long， ” but it is spelled as “loong ” to be distinguished from the English word “long”） was once the symbol of imperial power， and was later regarded as a god governing the good weather， and long boat racing， loong dances and loong lantern hanging are all traditional Chinese folk activities to worship the god and pray for good harvests. Translating “loong” into “dragon” would surely confuse Western people： why do Chinese people pay respect to such a devilish monster and proudly claim themselves as its descendants？ Maybe we should blame the Chinese-English dictionaries for this mismatch， but I believe such misinterpretations and misunderstandings must frequently occur in cross-cultural exchanges， and I think this is a challenge that can only be overcome through joint efforts by publishers and publishing institutions from both China and the UK.
The readers of Ten Chapters on Publishing： Cross-cultural and Beyond are not only people from the publishing circle of both countries （in China there are over 500 publishing institutions， and over 150，000 people employed in the whole industry）， but also include other highly educated readers who are interested in comparative culture in general. I am sure this book will be a resounding success.
Mr. Zhao Qizheng is currently Director of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He was the former Director of the State Council Information Office.