Chapter 15 Todtnau Mountain Postscript Cai Hongjun (6)

Jelinek's award has also attracted widespread attention in our country's literary circles.Anne Baobao, Hong Ying, Jie Chen, Hu Liuming, Sheng Ke, Yuan Xiaoyi and other female writers expressed their opinions and impressions on Jelinek's award and her works including the film "The Piano Teacher" on different occasions.Qiu Huadong, Ge Hongbing, and Tang Haoming also wrote long articles about Jelinek and his creations, which were reprinted by many newspapers.Bai Ye said: "Jelinek's works are indeed worth reading, they are difficult to understand, but they combine very depressive and explosive things together as metaphors, very difficult, very elegant, and difficult to read, but masters generally have this They are not very easy to read. Facing this challenge, it is worth it.” Zhi’an said: “Some books are very unique, and we have not seen them. They are not very good-looking, but they are very novel, and I have not read them before. After reading such a book, it is really refreshing to read." Literary critics who wrote articles or gave talks on Jelinek's award-winning works and works include Xu Youyu, Zhang Yiwu, Wang Ning and others.After the simplified Chinese version of "The Piano Teacher" was officially published, the Chinese German Literature Research Association and the "World Literature" magazine of the Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences held a "Seminar on Jelinek's Works" in Beijing on December 28, 2004. Meeting", invited a group of experts and scholars in the German-language literary circles in China to discuss Jelinek's work "Weighing Literature and Discussing Swords".The participating scholars spoke highly of Jelinek's works "A Woman Chasing Love", "The Piano Teacher" and "Lust", emphasizing his superb language art.Scholars engaged in German literature from all over the country have also written articles and published talks. I personally noticed that there are researcher Ye Tingfang, researcher Ning Ying, and Dr. Ye Jun from the Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and professors Ma Wentao and Li Changke from Peking University. , Associate Professor Gu Yu, Professor Han Ruixiang, Department of German, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Professor Wei Maoping, Shanghai International Studies University, Professor Yuan Zhiying, Associate Professor Wang Binbin, Department of German, Fudan University, Professor Song Jianfei, Professor Huang Keqin, Associate Professor Hu Chunchun, Department of German, Tongji University, Professor Chen Min, Department of German Associate Professor, Professor Nie Jun of the German Department of Xi'an International Studies University, Editor-in-chief of "Yilin" magazine Zhao Xiesheng, editor of "World Literature" magazine Du Xinhua.The famous Chinese writer Qiu Huadong wrote: "Jelinek suddenly became a landscape in the reading world. The current circulation of "The Piano Teacher" has approached 100,000 copies. In a short period of time, Jelinek was translated into Chinese There will be more than 10 works. It can be said that Jelinek is one of the luckiest Nobel Prize winners in China in the past 10 years, and he is also very popular in the market.”

Although I live abroad, because of the Internet and our company's institutions in China, I still have a good understanding of domestic media reports.Of course I noticed that after the news that Jelinek won the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature reached China on October 8, the media quickly released two pieces of news: Han Jingqun, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House Time announced to the media that October Literature and Art Publishing House will launch the Chinese version of Jelinek's masterpiece "The Piano Teacher" at the end of October; Zhao Wuping, editor-in-chief assistant of Shanghai Translation Publishing House, "quickly found the publisher Yelinek at the book fair" at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The Loewalt Publishing House in Hamburg, which published Lineker's latest collection of short stories "Michael", and the Berlin Publishing House, which published his play "Death and the Maiden", negotiated the introduction of Chinese copyrights in one fell swoop." I didn't mind it at the time. Both publishers promoted the practice through the media.Although the contract of "The Piano Teacher" signed by the Beijing October Literature and Art Club has expired long ago, in my plan, "The Piano Teacher" is always reserved for them. Therefore, in the list of books that I send to all publishing houses that can provide Chinese copyright "The Piano Teacher" has been excluded from the beginning, and I have repeatedly emphasized this position in the phone calls with relevant personnel of the agency.The publishing plan of Shanghai Translation Publishing House was originally agreed upon by Zhao Wuping and I. Of course, I do not agree with Zhao Wuping revealing such detailed details to the media so early, because doing so actually puts me in an awkward position. In the past, several well-known publishing house leaders once politely criticized me on the phone for being biased towards Shanghai Translation Publishing House.However, later, because other agents came out and claimed that they also had the agency rights of the Simplified Chinese version of Jelinek, they disclosed the news of the expiry of the contract of "The Piano Teacher" to several publishing houses publishing foreign literature. As a result, I immediately received Quotations sent by several publishing houses to compete for "The Piano Teacher", the publication selection that had basically been negotiated was completely disrupted.Several well-informed media also called from China to Germany at this time, asking me to answer positively whether October Literature and Art Publishing House and Shanghai Translation Publishing House had been authorized, and to conduct a telephone interview with me.In this way, I had to go to the front desk.When I was interviewed by a reporter from a Beijing newspaper on October 16, 2004, I mainly emphasized a few points:

1. Jelinek is a German-language writer with high literary achievements. He is very original in terms of the content and form of his works. He has won dozens of literary awards including the Büchner Prize, the most important literary award in Germany. The circulation of her works is also considerable, and has been translated into 23 foreign languages ​​with more than 90 different editions. 2 Jelinek's works are not limited to novels. Poetry, scripts, etc. have also had a great influence in the literary world. Her plays have a lot of experimental elements. I hope that domestic attention will be paid to her plays.I hope that not one agency will exclusively publish Jelinek's works, nor will it be given to whoever quotes the highest price. Several agencies publish different works of Jelinek according to their own characteristics. It is not competition, but will promote each other on the contrary. The author's entire creation is given a more comprehensive display.

3 Whether it is a publishing house or a newspaper, the concept of copyright must be strengthened.If the publishing house releases information to the media without obtaining publishing authorization, it will affect the work and process of arranging copyright.Because I am the exclusive agent of Jelinek's simplified Chinese characters copyright, therefore, "I can tell you responsibly that as of today (October 16, 2004), no publishing house in mainland China has obtained the copyright of Yelinek. copyright to any of Necker's books." In order to ensure accuracy, I asked the reporter to send the manuscript to me for confirmation before publishing it. However, the manuscript I revised and sent back on October 17 not only retained the mistakes in the original manuscript, but also deleted some. An important passage, and it was crowned with a sensational title "Jelinek, whoever publishes it is a pirated copy".After this article was published, it was reprinted by many newspapers. For a while, there were various speculations in the media.To put it politely: Jelinek's copyright is "confusing", "full of variables", and "a sudden change in the situation"; to put it mildly, Cai Hongjun suddenly "changed his face" and "created suspense". In an instant, they were wiped out, and they were placed at the center of public criticism", which is suspected of being up for grabs and making a lot of money.Some media speculated that something unpleasant happened between me and Zhao Wuping.In fact, Shanghai Translation Publishing House is one of the Chinese publishing houses that has cooperated with me for the longest time, the most cooperation projects and the best cooperation relationship.Several books by Grass that I translated were also published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House.From several leaders of the publishing house to the staff of the copyright department, as well as the editor in charge of German books, we are very familiar with each other and have a good relationship.We've never had any problems between us for over a decade.Although Zhao Wuping has not been in Shanghai Translation Publishing House for a long time, he and I meet at the Frankfurt Book Fair or Beijing Book Fair almost every year.He has worked in the media industry for many years, and I admire his "sharp response" and "quick action", and jokingly said to him: "He ran faster than me." He learned from the copyright manager of Lowalt Publishing House: about For the copyright in simplified Chinese characters of Jelinek's works, please contact Mr. Cai Hongjun of Hercules Company.In this way, the two of us communicated with him about his intended selection of titles at that time, and agreed to discuss the titles of Jelinek published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House several times in the exhibition hall at a suitable date between the two parties.I also brought Zhao Wuping to the booth of Berlin Publishing House and introduced to him several books by Jelinek published by the press.Because I have already reached a consensus with the two German publishing houses, I basically agreed with Zhao Wuping that Shanghai Translation Publishing House will publish the drama "Death and the Maiden" and the satirical novel "Michael—A Book for Youth in an Innocent Society" .My recommendation is a completely responsible behavior based on my understanding of the author, the needs of the Chinese publishing house, and the hope of the German publishing house. It is also a principle of my work as a copyright agency for so many years.However, I always emphasize to all those who do copyright in publishing houses that no matter what role I play in arranging copyright, I am only an agent, and the right to make decisions is not mine. For foreign publishing houses, only the contract and performance Only when the relevant clauses stipulated in the contract are complied with, the contract really begins to take effect.

The reporter who interviewed was disturbed by not publishing my revised manuscript, and a few days later, he wrote to me to express his apology: "After receiving your revised manuscript, I immediately sent it to the editor, and immediately called to seriously discuss it. I told you again, there was more than enough time at that time, but they just didn’t change it! I have nothing to do but get angry.” At that time, I seemed to have a premonition that the focus of this interview article might deviate from the content of my talk, so in On the 17th, I compiled the interview points into a document and sent it to some media friends.Later, "Oriental Morning Post", "Nanjing Morning Post", "Beijing Evening News", "Southern Metropolis Daily" and others published relatively objective reports based on this.Among all the reports, I think that "Jelinek Chinese Copyright Agent Appeals to Strengthen Copyright Awareness in China" written by Tian Zhiling of Southern Metropolis Daily (published in the newspaper on October 25, 2005) expresses my opinion. So the reason for going to the front desk.