Dongxiq｜Zhou Jun: How to tell the story of the Yellow Crane Tower to German readers?

　　China News Agency, Beijing, January 5

Author Zhou Jun, Director of the Center for Chinese Studies, University of Münster, Germany

　　General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: "Deepen exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and promote Chinese culture to the world."

　　International sister-city relations are not only an important part of a country's overall diplomacy, but also an important carrier of non-governmental diplomacy.

Whether sister cities are close or not depends on the hearts of the people. Deeply promoting people-to-people bonds between sister cities is a key topic of China's people-to-people diplomacy in the new era.

Telling urban cultural stories well is an effective way to break down cultural barriers, deepen people's understanding of cities and countries in other countries, and promote people-to-people bonds.

　　Focusing on "telling Chinese stories well and promoting mutual learning among civilizations" to telling urban cultural stories well is the innovation point of our work.

We cooperated with Wuhan to place the precious cultural resources unique to Wuhan, such as the "Yellow Crane Tower" and Boya Ziqi's bosom friend stories, in the coordinate system of the common spiritual wealth of mankind, and pointed out their universal cultural significance in the world.

We have re-created and published the German versions of "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Story of Friends", which is also the first series of Chinese city stories launched in the German market.

The publication of these two works has been well received by the German political, business, cultural and educational circles, and environmental protection circles.

As Ha Renkamp, ​​the father of German waste sorting and chairman of the Environmental Protection Industry Association, said, what he saw from "The Story of Friends" was not only the eternal story left by Boya Ziqi due to music, but also China's governance of the ecological environment. It is the voice of seeking to jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

He hopes to join hands with China to write a new chapter in the cooperation of friends in the construction of ecological civilization.

The cover of the German version of "Friends Stories".

Photo provided by the interviewee

Mining culture, scientific research

　　Tell the story of urban traditional culture in an innovative way.

As the "soul" and "root" of the city, urban traditional culture is not only the inexhaustible source of urban story materials, but also the spiritual lifeblood of the Chinese nation.

We integrate innovative international communication methods into telling urban traditional cultural stories to achieve good communication effects.

　　Just as Markus Lewei, chairman of the Association of German Mayors (the association has more than 3,000 mayor members), said that "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Story of Friends" are the first books he has read since he became the chairman of the Association of Mayors From the urban storybook in China, a city without cultural stories is equivalent to a person without a soul.

He said that in the long run, the main theme of the bilateral relations between German and Chinese cities should be cultural exchanges, mutual learning between civilizations and the trust mechanism established on this basis.

Only based on economic cooperation without cultural exchanges is short-term and unsustainable.

Cover of the German edition of Yellow Crane Tower.

Photo provided by the interviewee

　　Use scientific means and methods to conduct basic research and applied research on communication objects and markets.

Mark Twain once said, "It's not what you don't know that brings you trouble, but what you think you know, but you're wrong." The bias and deficiency of the audience market and group cognition.

How to introduce the research and decision-making system into the international communication of Chinese culture is an urgent problem to be solved.

　　For example, in "Yellow Crane Tower", most Chinese people know and understand Yellow Crane Tower through the poems of Cui Hao and Li Bai; but through research, we found that Germany is the hometown of fairy tales, and most cities in Germany have fairy tales, so we republished "Yellow Crane Tower" Lou" was adapted into a fairy tale, which is very popular.

We adopt the form of book publishing, and after market research, we found that Germans like to read, but there are very few books about China in the book market.

The scenery of the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, Hubei is charming.

Photo by Zhao Guangliang

　　Through research, we also found many problems affecting the communication of city brands, such as the disconnection between city logos and city brands: many people know giant pandas, but not Ya'an; Germany has a dragon boat festival, but few people know dragon boats and Yichang, Miluo Most people do not know the story of Qu Yuan.

Introduce a scientific research and decision-making system, and conduct scientific research on the communication market and audiences, and you will find communication bottlenecks and problems, find solutions, and find the best communication methods, channels, and most effective communication paths and communication groups, instead of relying solely on the media Single channel—especially in deepening communication, three-dimensional and diverse communication methods are particularly important.

Giant panda twins "Dream" and "Mengyuan" and their mother "Mengmeng" at the Berlin Zoo in Germany.

The giant panda is the "ambassador of friendship" in China's foreign exchanges.

Photo by Peng Dawei

More than translation, long-term success

　　International communication is not equal to translation, translation is not equal to international communication, these are two different concepts.

The international dissemination of urban culture is not simply the translation of original texts into foreign languages, but requires collection, processing, creative transformation and development, and mining of contemporary values ​​and world meanings.

　　The German Grimm's fairy tales are loved all over the world because the Brothers Grimm spent their entire lives collecting and recreating folk tales.

At present, many excellent traditional cultural stories in Chinese cities are mostly in their original state and need to be processed and recreated.

The creation process of the German editions of "Yellow Crane Tower" and "The Story of Friends" is to creatively transform and develop traditional culture and tap contemporary value and world significance without changing the original meaning.

　　Similarly, the German translation of a work in overseas markets does not mean that it has been spread internationally.

For example, Lu Xun's works were translated into German more than 20 years ago, but Lu Xun is not yet a household name in Germany.

In 2019, Dusseldorf, Germany and Shaoxing, China jointly held the "Lu Xun and Heine - Master Dialogue" event. I found that Lu Xun's influence in Germany cannot be compared with that of Heine in China.

If the works are translated, if they are not promoted and disseminated, go to the society and go to the people, they will only stay in the ivory tower and be shelved.

Books such as "The Complete Works of Lu Xun's Manuscripts" displayed in an exhibition attracted citizens.

Photo by Zhao Wenyu

　　The establishment of a sustainable communication incentive mechanism.

Cultural promotion is a long-term project, and it is necessary to formulate a systematic promotion and communication strategy, which is carried out in stages and steps.

Therefore, it is necessary to establish a corresponding incentive mechanism to transform the traditional short-term fault transmission mode into long-term sustainability.

　　Just like Du Chunguo, the Chinese Consul General in Dusseldorf, summed up the models of "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Friends of Friends": long-term success, good work and good success.

The reason why "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Story of Friends" gradually gained influence in Germany is because after the German version was published, they searched for new channels for in-depth dissemination every year, from entering schools, libraries, bookstores, to participating in Chinese festivals, From folk activities such as the Dragon Boat Festival, to being shortlisted on the stage of the International Mother Tongue Festival as the first Chinese work... Without a series of in-depth promotion in the later stage, it is impossible to have a profound influence.

　　International communication is not enough to participate in overseas exhibitions once a year, and to do a promotion is enough, which also violates the law of cultural communication.

As the most profound cultural soft power, excellent traditional culture needs to be continuously deepened and promoted continuously.

Therefore, in terms of the award mechanism, it is necessary to encourage in-depth promotion, not only to select the best communication award of the year, but also to encourage the sustainable communication of excellent works.

Docking industries, innovative ideas

　　Give full play to the function and role of urban culture communication in the construction of urban internationalization.

Many cities equate international communication with publishing press releases in foreign media, and have not connected with the industrial chain required for the city's international development.

In the dissemination pilots of "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Friends' Story", we adopted quantitative and qualitative research and dissemination methods for precise dissemination objects. We received positive feedback from the German side on the introduction and other aspects, and proposed to strengthen innovative and practical cooperation with Wuhan, which achieved good communication effects.

　　We found that innovative urban cultural dissemination is a golden sign for attracting investment and talents.

Especially in the early stage of the epidemic, in the vortex of public opinion that smeared Wuhan in the world, we relied on the influence of two works to launch the first and only float supporting Wuhan at the German Carnival, de-stigmatizing Wuhan, eliminating prejudice and misunderstanding, and working together The fight against the epidemic also played a certain role in the recovery of the international market after the Wuhan epidemic.

At the 2020 Münster Carnival in Germany, the slogan "Wuhan will win" in Chinese and German was posted on both sides of the "No. 1" parade float, cheering for China and Wuhan.

Photo by Peng Dawei

　　For international communicators working on the front line, if their thinking and methods are not innovative, it will be difficult to spread urban culture.

"Yellow Crane Tower" and "Story of Friends" not only actively promote the two stories to the German folk, but also plan to promote them to the world.

(use up)

About the Author:

　　Zhou Jun, Ph.D., director of the China Research Center of the University of Münster, visiting professor of Hubei University, vice chairman of the Journalists Association of the Münster region of Germany, Chinese consultant of the German Urban Television Union, well-known sociologist, social activist and senior media person.

He has long been engaged in the comparative study of German and Chinese urban management, the international planning of Chinese city brands and the international communication of Chinese culture.

In 2004, he filmed the German version of the documentary "Hans in Wuhan", created and published the first Chinese urban cultural story series "Yellow Crane Tower Fairy Tales" and "Friends' Stories" in the German market, which received unanimous praise from all walks of life in Germany and was selected as a case in 2021 The think tank document "Research on China's International Communication Development" published in 2009.

The innovative practices and contributions in Sino-German cultural exchanges have been honored by German National TV 1, TV 2, West German TV WDR, RTL, SAT1, PRO7, N24, "Bild", "Westphalia News", "Münster Daily" and radio stations and other German media interviewed and reported.