“Don’t forget the original intention of editing and return to the truth of publishing. Editing is the foundation, and content is the root. Cultural discovery, cultural selection, cultural accumulation, and cultural dissemination are the sacred missions of publishing workers. Aggregating first-class resources and creating first-class quality products are the eternity of publishing work theme.”
This is the unremitting pursuit of He Long, the winner of the 14th Taofen Publishing Award, chairman and general manager of Changjiang Children’s Publishing House (Group) Co., Ltd., as a senior popular science publisher. Over the past 33 years, He Long has presided over the planning and editing of a large number of high-quality popular science books with excellent double effects, casting a “golden key” to open the door of science for children readers.
Editing debut became a best-selling brand
The “Science Fiction Series of Three Musketeers on Campus” published in the 1990s was He Long’s debut as an editor.
He Long told the reporter of Popular Science Times that when he first came into contact with this manuscript, he was deeply attracted by the content. Each theme is novel and interesting, bringing endless reverie to readers. As the author Yang Peng himself said when emphasizing the source of his creation, the most important thing is imagination, the second is imagination, and the third is still imagination. After careful study and analysis of the text, He Long is full of confidence. He firmly believes that reading such a work full of imagination and spirit of exploration will undoubtedly be very beneficial in the growth of children.
Neither He Long nor the author Yang Peng expected that “Three Musketeers on Campus” would later become one of the most influential science fiction novels with the largest scale and the largest number of words in the development of Chinese science fiction. After repeated publication by many publishing houses, this set of books is still a best-selling brand in the domestic children’s book market, and has derived various forms such as comics, animations and stage plays.
Build the “Great Wall of the Century” for children’s popular science publishing
The reporter learned that during He Long’s 33-year publishing career, he successively created two sets of children’s popular science publishing “The Great Wall of the Century” in two publishing houses, which were widely acclaimed by the industry.
In 2008, while working in Hubei Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House, He Long joined hands with the China Popular Science Writers Association to plan and publish the first set of children’s popular science classic library in the new century, “Children’s Popular Science Celebrities and Famous Books”. Academicians Pan Jiazheng, Wang Zikun, Zhang Jingzhong, Yang Shuzi, and Liu Jiaqi served as advisors to this set of books, and the famous writer Ye Yonglie served as the editor-in-chief. 72 works have been published successively. After its publication, the book won many awards, including the Second China Publishing Government Book Award, and is considered by the industry to be the “Century Great Wall of Science Extracurricular Reading for Teenagers”.
During his tenure as the president and editor-in-chief of Hubei Science and Technology Publishing House, He Long planned and published 70 titles of “China Science Popularization Award Book Collection Series”. Academicians Yang Zhenning, Wang Zikun, Wang Shouguan, Zhang Jingzhong, Yang Shuzi, and Liu Jiaqi were hired as consultants, and Mr. Ye Yonglie was the editor-in-chief. After the publication of the book, Academician Yang Shuzi published a review article in the “People’s Daily” and praised the book series as “a concentrated display of high-level original science popularization works in my country, which vividly reflects the glorious course of Chinese science popularization creation since the founding of New China.” .
This set of books has issued more than 50 million yuan. Among them, “Chasing Stars: Legends About Astronomy, History, Art and Religion” won the Fifth China Excellent Publication Award Book Award; Power Book Award”; “Fantasy: A Wonderful Journey to Explore the Unknown World” was selected in the list of 100 excellent books recommended by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television to young people across the country in 2014.
In addition, He Long also planned and published 10 heavy science popularization product lines, including the “Classified Reading Books for Popular Science in China for Teenagers”. These classic popular science books are like bright lights, inspiring more young people to love science, explore science, and pursue science.
Constructing an excellent matrix of original popular science publications
“Popular science books play an important role in improving young people’s scientific literacy and cultivating innovative thinking. We must attach great importance to the publication of local original popular science works.” He Long said in an interview with a reporter from Popular Science Times. To this end, he has established friendly and cooperative relations with a large number of well-known domestic science popularization writers such as Liu Xingshi, Li Yupei, Ye Yonglie, Zhang Chong, and Liu Xianping, and has continuously deepened all-round cooperation with domestic outstanding science popularization writers to build a matrix of local original popular science publications.
What impressed He Long the most was Li Yupei, a professor at Capital Normal University who was affectionately called “Grandpa of Mathematics” by his children. He found that Li Yupei’s works are well-known and large-scale, but relatively scattered. So he boldly imagined: why not launch a main product line and include all his works? In 2008, under the careful planning of He Long, “Li Yupei Mathematics Story Series” was successfully published, and later won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the third National Publishing Government Award Book Award Nomination Award and other honors. For more than 20 years, in order to make classic works more and more suitable for the reading needs of the new era, He Long has continued to upgrade the product line of “Li Yupei Mathematical Stories Series”. At present, 10 sets of Li Yupei series have been published by Changjiang Children’s Publishing House, with nearly 70 varieties, selling more than 5 million copies, and a cumulative circulation of more than 100 million yuan.
For Liu Xingshi, a well-known old writer in the popular science field, He Long followed the same publishing idea, collected his works as complete as possible, re-planned the “packaging”, and launched the “Grandpa Liu Xingshi Narrative Series”. This series includes not only Liu Xingshi’s old works such as “Chinese Geography” and “World Geography”, but also new works such as “Belt and Road” Youth Popular Reader created in recent years and published for the first time. Today, the series has formed a large-scale star product line with 13 small series and 45 varieties.
In order to tell the history of the new China’s petroleum industry and the struggle history of the “two bombs” cause, He Long took children’s spiritual growth as the starting point and planned and published two works, “Hug on the Cold Lake” and “Malan’s Children”, which enthusiastically praised the construction of New China. The lofty qualities of the volunteers who are self-reliant, hard-working, and dedicated to the country in a harsh environment. “Embrace on the Cold Lake” won the 16th “Five One Project” Award for Spiritual Civilization Construction, and “Malan’s Children” was selected as the 8th China Excellent Publication Award.
In order to eulogize the patriotism of the meritorious scientists to seek knowledge and serve the country and the spirit of scientific research, and fully demonstrate the major scientific and technological achievements of our country in recent years, He Long invited Li Chaoquan, deputy director of the Innovation and Research Department of the Chinese Writers Association, as the editor-in-chief. It took three years to create a book for young people. “China’s Power: Legends of Science and Technology for Children”. For the first time, this set of reportage series on major scientific and technological themes has assembled a golden team of well-known reportage writers such as He Jianming, Wang Hongjia, Chen Xin, Hu Ping, Gong Shenghui, etc., to tell young people about the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, Jiaolong Deep Dive, Beidou Navigation, Chang’e Moon Exploration, China The story behind the great powers such as Sky Eye and other great powers that created world miracles. This series of books was selected into the “14th Five-Year Plan” National Key Book Publishing Plan, and the response was enthusiastic after publication.
He Long has always believed that to tell the story of Chinese science to young people, promote the spirit of scientists, and help young people understand the progress of China’s science and technology, it is necessary to use high-quality popular science original books to infect young people and guide them to establish the ambition of serving the country through science. For this reason, he actively focused on the overall situation of the development of the party and the country, kept up with the hot spots of the times, and released a large number of high-quality popular science books: How far can your eyes see—— “Sky Eye” master Nan Rendong’s story”, “This Life Belongs to the Motherland – The Story of the Meritorious Scientist Huang Xuhua”, “Let the World No Longer Hunger – The Story of the “Father of Hybrid Rice” Yuan Longping” and other biographies of meritorious scientists; “The Chinese Dream of 100 Scientists”, which scientists strive to realize the “dream of strengthening the country through science”; “A Brief History of Viruses for Children”, which helps fight the new crown epidemic, and so on.
Some of these works have been selected into the key publications of the Central Propaganda Department’s themed publications and the key topics of Hubei Province’s themed publications.
Actively explore the road of integrated publishing of science popularization
In He Long’s view, the dissemination of popular science knowledge is very suitable for financial media publishing. Much of the content of scientific knowledge is difficult for the public to understand simply by relying on text descriptions. Multimedia forms such as videos and animations are intuitive and concrete in their expressions, which can well make up for the shortcomings of pure text descriptions. Therefore, from the perspective of media integration and publishing, He Long continues to use new media and new technologies to empower children’s popular science publications, and continues to explore in the multi-modal presentation and diverse carrier dissemination of popular science publications.
“New Insects: An AR Technology-Based Publishing Project of Popular Science and Media for Teenagers” is the first domestic original insect science and media publication project hosted and planned by He Long at Hubei Science and Technology Publishing House. The project was later selected into the National Press and Publication Reform and Development Project Library, the Top 100 Digital Publishing Quality Projects of the National Press and Publication Administration, and the Digital Publishing Quality Selection and Recommendation Plan, and was funded by the National Publishing Fund. Supported by AR technology, the project breaks the page limitation of paper media, realizes multiple presentation methods of integrated media resources, and greatly enriches the scientific reading experience of young people.
In Changjiang Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House, He Long has cross-border integration with well-known companies such as Middle and Young International, Haier Multimedia, and iQiyi, and has successively launched the AR technology-based “Knowing Astronomy and Geography” integrated media picture book on PC, TV, etc. , The mobile terminal is fully online. Each picture book is subdivided into 4 parts: “reading, listening, speaking, and explaining”. Whether it is the picture book audio or the experimental video, the content is rich and detailed: younger children can listen to the audio; older children, You can complete the experiment yourself by following the video.
In the early stage of the epidemic in 2020, He Long presided over the planning of the war “epidemic” fusion media publication “Wearing a Mask”, aiming at the real front line of anti-epidemic in early 2020, and popularizing basic knowledge about virus infection and transmission, and masks to prevent viruses for the public The principle and scientific wearing method, etc. The documentary was shortlisted for the “New Era Health Popular Science Works Collection Competition” list of outstanding works, and has reached millions of views on Guangming.com, Learning Power, CCTV North America and other platforms.
In 2022, He Long published his book “Application of New Technology in Popular Science Publishing”. In the book, he mentioned that with the rapid development of new technologies, new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, AR, VR, Internet of Things, and blockchain are used in the field of popular science publishing to integrate existing publishing resources into publishing. The development of products and services will be able to obtain better marginal benefits. Previously, he created the “Green Finger” gardening book brand that ranks first in the market in Hubei Science and Technology Publishing House. In fact, he has realized the extension from traditional book publishing to all-media publishing, popular science knowledge service platform and other vertical fields. It can be called a successful case of popular science integrated publishing.
Based on his unique planning vision and skilled editing ability, He Long has been working hard in the front line of popular science publishing business, and has written a splendid chapter of excellent editing with his blood. Winning the 14th Taofen Publishing Award is a full affirmation and praise for his 33 years of editing work. He said that his biggest feeling is: choose one thing, the whole life, luckily!
Source: Popular Science Times Author: Hu Xing Chen Jie
Source: Visual China
Editor: Wu Qiong
Reviewer: Wang Fei