"At that time (ten years ago), I felt that the theme publishing of Jiangsu was not inferior to that of Shanghai, and far ahead of Zhejiang. But after ten years of development, Zhejiang has been on the same footing with us in the award-winning field since last year. I was terrified."
Not long ago, the second thematic publishing seminar was held in Hangzhou. This is the opening speech of Xu Hai, chief editor of Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing Media Co., Ltd. The implication of a joke is to recognize that Zhejiang has walked out of a "flower road" in the competitive theme publishing market.
A wrong but common idea is that theme publishing is a political task, which is easy to be disconnected from the antenna. However, over the years, Zhejiang has not only won the "Five One Project", "Good Books in China" and other awards, but also produced many best-selling and long-term selling books with warm market response. In 2022, eight projects in Zhejiang were selected for the theme publication of key publications by the Publicity Department that year, ranking first in the country.
Theme publishing undertakes such important tasks as publicizing Xi Jinping's thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, interpreting the major policies of the Party and the state, and promoting socialist core values, which is related to the security of national ideology.
As the Second National Reading Conference is about to be held, let's explore what "treasures" are in the list of Zhejiang theme books, and how they can be "excavated" to sing the theme of the times and win the hearts of the people?
Exclusive material, "three places"
The theme publishing market is highly competitive.
Data shows that since the "13th Five Year Plan", the total number of projects declared has increased from 1791 in 2016 to 2240 in 2022. All major publishing houses across the country regard theme publishing as "ballast" and "fixed star", and have invested a lot of manpower and material resources.
How to stand out from numerous publications? This is a problem that needs to be considered clearly from the topic selection stage - that is, when digging for treasure.
Beijing is China's political center, cultural center, international exchange center, science and technology innovation center; Shanghai is the birthplace of the Party and the highland of opening up
Zhejiang also has an exclusive "treasure trove" of "four or two thousand catties" - here is the starting place of the Chinese revolutionary red ship, the pioneer of reform and opening up, and the important birthplace of Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era.
In recent years, the "40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening up", "70th Anniversary of the Founding of New China", "100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" and other time nodes have been accurately followed, and a large number of Zhejiang themed publications around "three places" have been launched. Looking across the river, high-quality materials are everywhere.
Take Xi Jinping's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era as an example. During his work in Zhejiang, Comrade Xi Jinping published 232 essays in the "Zhijiang Xinyu" column of Zhejiang Daily. In 2007, when he left Zhejiang, "Zhijiang Xinyu" closed. In the same year, Zhejiang collected and published these essays under the name of Zhijiang Xinyu.
Books are thin, but thoughts are heavy. On average, each article has only 300 to 500 words of colloquial writing, which makes one truth clear. "Investigation and Research to Be" Deep, Practical, Detailed, Accurate and Effective "," Avoid Impetuosity "," Can't Train Cadres in the "Greenhouse", "The Method Is Among the Masses"... From these titles alone, we can see that the article is not only "grounded" in style, but also has referential significance for the topics discussed up to now. In more than ten years, the Chinese version of Zhijiang Xinyu has issued 4 million copies in total, and the foreign version has been published in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Russian and other languages.
At the same time, despite the "exclusiveness", Zhejiang is not only willing to "take the principle", but actively wants to make "why" and "why" clear.
Therefore, we saw the reportage "Don't be an official without a common people's heart - a model for precise poverty alleviation", which won the special prize of the "Five One Project". The title originates from the article of the same name in Zhijiang Xinyu. It said: "We are party cadres and public servants of the people. We must keep the safety of the masses in mind."
This work, based on the long newsletter published on the front page of the People's Daily, records the revitalization of Xiajiang Village, a small village in Zhejiang Province, and the feelings of party members and cadres for the people that "people should not be officials without a heart". It is the first reportage work in China that shows how large countries and small villages get rid of poverty and drive surrounding villages to common prosperity.
Therefore, we also saw the "Strive for the Pace in Zhejiang", which has issued more than 5 million copies. The book records the details of Comrade Xi Jinping's work in Zhejiang, rejecting empty talk and telling stories exclusively.
The 400 page paper is not too thick. It took three years from the completion of the manuscript to the publication. The Zhejiang writing and publishing team who participated in the writing interviewed all the parties involved and searched the material library to form a high-quality, exclusive, accurate and fresh book. As a result, this book has become a desk reading for many mass cadres, reminding them of what to do, what not to do, what can and cannot do.
If we say that Zhijiang Xinyu is like a manual, it is all reasonable; Then "Xi Jinping's Zhejiang Footprints" and "Don't be an official without a common people's heart" are more like "novels". The spring breeze turns into rain, and the teaching is embedded in the text, so that the truth is full of real human feelings and readability.
The "three places" are like a rich mine, producing publishing "raw materials" continuously. Holding up the signboard full of "Zhejiang flavor", Zhejiang has made a world in the theme publishing market.
In Zhejiang, see China
The stories in Zhejiang theme publishing are also the epitome and typical of China's rapid development.
In his speech at the conference celebrating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "the achievements made in the past 40 years were not made in the sky, nor were they bestowed by others, but were made by the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups with diligence, wisdom and courage!"
The happiness and hardships experienced by Zhejiang people over the past decades are the most vivid annotations to these words.
In the past, Zhejiang was often referred to as a "small resource province" because of its "more mountains and less land" and its relatively poor natural resources such as coal and iron. Today, this "small resource province" is the province with the most balanced economic development in China; It is the first province to become well-off; It is one of the provinces with the most developed private economy, the most dynamic system and mechanism, the highest degree of openness, and the largest per capita income in China. It will also take the lead in building a "Demonstration Area for Common Prosperity".
How did Zhejiang, which started in the "difficult mode", get to today step by step? Understanding this problem may help us understand how the country has developed from poverty to the world's second largest economy since the founding of New China——
For example, Bloomberg once wrote that China's economic growth model has changed from a "world factory" to a "global supermarket". When it comes to "global supermarket", we have to mention Yiwu. "Reform Pioneer Xie Gaohua" tells us how Zhejiang grassroots cadres led poor counties to become rich at the beginning of reform and opening up, making Yiwu a world supermarket "buying and selling the world".
For example, since 2014, China's express delivery business volume has become the first in the world, and has been the first in the world until now. Zhejiang is the hometown of private express in China, and "three connections and one arrival" tops most of the domestic express industry. Taking the development of "three connections and one arrival" as the thread, Express China reveals how these express companies entered the "first group of Chinese express companies" at a super speed and created the inside story of legend.
For another example, the concept of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains" is the consensus of the whole China, and Anji, Zhejiang Province is the birthplace of the important idea of "two mountains". In the early years, Zhejiang was the first to encounter "growing pains" because of its rapid development. The cost of increasing residents' income was dirty water, bald mountains and piles of garbage. "That Mountain, That Water" details how Anjiyu Village eliminates the opposition between economy and environment, providing a new sample for the writing of China's rural reform and development and future trend.
……
Some people say that the Zhejiang spirit of "working hard, taking the lead and standing up to the forefront" is the local version of the Chinese spirit.
A large number of Zhejiang stories have recorded in a true and detailed way every bit of Zhejiang's journey, from laughter to tears. It makes us believe that "in Zhejiang, see China" is true.
With deep knowledge and innovation
In Zhejiang theme publishing, there is also the secret of the Chinese civilization's inheritance for thousands of years - a profound historical and cultural heritage. While maintaining respect for it, it also has the innovative vitality that changes with the times.
Zhejiang's "Ten Thousand Years of Mountain Climbing" is the origin of the world's rice farming civilization, Liangzhu is the birthplace of China's five thousand year civilization, and Hangzhou, the former capital, was a comprehensive region at the height of the Song Dynasty's culture
A small shovel and a small shovel of archaeology have dug out the profound cultural foundation of Zhejiang. The cultural stories in the series of "Zhejiang Archaeology and Chinese Civilization", "Seeing 5000 Years - A Record of Liangzhu Kingdom", "Eight Hundred Years of Deshou Palace" and other books confirm the cultural self-confidence of Chinese people with irrefutable facts.
Zhejiang has always been willing to invest heavily in the exploration of cultural context.
The "Zhejiang Literature Cluster", which lasted for 13 years and can be called the "Four Library Complete Works" of Zhejiang edition, systematically collected the works of Zhejiang sages before 1911 and the classic works on Zhejiang. At present, 830 volumes have been completed, and the number is still refreshing. The antifouling cover, 8000 yuan/ton of special paper, copyright transfer fee, and the participation of many ancient book sorting experts doomed the production cost of "Zhejiang Wencong" to be not cheap.
However, when the project was launched, Zhejiang publishers paid more attention to the regret that the collation of Zhejiang's ancient books was obviously inconsistent with Zhejiang's cultural status. Zhejiang Publishing Union Group immediately decided to support the publication of the series even without any external resources and forces.
At the same time, Zhejiang has not been completely enclosed in old papers like an "old scholar". Such books are "meaningful and uninteresting" and cannot achieve the goal of "educating and educating people".
Do you think the "70 year old" Zhejiang Provincial Museum of Literature and History is an old school institution? In fact, it is also trying to change the style of writing, trying to write thick and rigid historical records vividly and interestingly.
The series of "Memory of Zhejiang Literature and History", which is full of literariness, is the innovative practice of Zhejiang Literature and History Research Center. Faced with the question of "should history be written in this way?", curator Wang Yongchang retorted, "Why not? History is serious and can be expressed in a variety of ways. Times have changed, and the way to tell good Chinese stories also needs to change."
Do you think there is a barrier between online publishing and traditional publishing? In fact, theme publishing has long been focused on the public opinion field of the Internet.
The "Brush and Ink Should Follow the Times" and "Be Faithful to the Times", which collected the WeChat official account of "Zhejiang Propaganda", "Speak with Others, Be Hot and Have Attitude", like a "clean stream", have realized the two-way rush between the communicator and the audience, and are very popular in the market. Among them, Brush and Ink with the Times sold nearly 60000 copies in more than one month after its release.
The publication of outdated and boring expressions does not interest young people. Young people are also the main force of current social development. What they think will greatly affect the future of China. The reporter found that the post-80s and post-90s generation accounted for the largest number of editorial teams responsible for theme publishing in major publishing houses in Zhejiang.
Indeed, young people know their hearts best. The Cartoon Centennial Party History · Pioneering Creation, created by Chen Jin, a post-50 cultural and historical expert, and Chen Lei, a post-80 online fire cartoonist, is the topic that young people found. In a relaxed and fashionable way, it filled the history of the Party with interest, and finally achieved a cumulative circulation of more than 450000 in the blowout of books dedicated to the centennial founding of the Party.
……
The "treasure" of Zhejiang Theme Publishing, which has won great acclaim, is both inherent advantages and acquired efforts. This also means that it can be copied and learned. Besides, there are so many stories in China that there are also exclusive "mining areas" in different places.
Across the country, we have to admit that there are always not enough high-quality theme books and they are not attractive enough. How to do a good job in the theme publication of the new era, find a practical and efficient way, and firmly serve the overall situation of the party and the country at the level of gathering the consensus of the masses, still need a long time to make contributions and continuous efforts.
