Berkshire Goes to China (Again)

A landmark work is being published in Chinese more than a decade after the translation agreement was signed

Before turning to China, a word about the UK. It’s been a long 45 days, but Liz Truss is going. (The lettuce outlasted her. But, we ask, did it vote leaf or romaine?) My children were born in London and have UK passports. Tom has followed UK news from Beijing and told me months ago that Liz Truss, back when she was foreign secretary, was a disaster. How right he was.

It was Tom who made a deal in August 2012, a very long decade ago in US-China relations, with Shanghai-based Sanlian Joint Publishing. They would translate our then-new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History, a massive 6 volumes written by hundreds of scholars, into Chinese.

This encyclopedia was a second edition, dramatically improving Berkshire’s first independent publication of 2005. I worked closely with the senior editor Bill (William H.) McNeill on the new edition, and had a meticulous copyeditor go over every article, many of them new and the rest thoroughly reviewed and revised. This was time-consuming and expensive. When I heard that Sanlian wanted to translate the whole thing, it made the whole effort worthwhile. I took the news to Bill knowing that this would mean a lot to someone who had spent his life trying to show the myriad ways we humans are, and have always been, connected.

He was then 95, and I pressed Sanlian to move quickly because I wanted to place a Chinese version in his hands. Knowing this might not be possible, I asked him to write a preface specially for Chinese readers. To celebrate, I made Chinese food for our regular Wednesday supper and brought chopsticks. Bill made a good try at using them, and we also managed to get him on a Skype call with Tom in Beijing.

It’s typical with translation rights agreements to require the new publisher to publish the book within a certain number of months. This was a very large project, expensive for them to produce, and US-China relations were deteriorating. Publishing at this scale wasn’t doing so well either, and Sanlian wasn’t one of the PRC publishers with a team of young English speakers. Communication was a challenge after Tom switched careers and took a finance job with a big healthcare company. (He is, I should mention, back in the US now and looking for a job.)

Bill died in 2016 (read about him here), the encyclopedia hadn’t been published, and I told Sanlian the contract was null and void. But a new editor persuaded me that they were committed to the project and asked to renew the contract. We did so, with another small advance payment, and waited. Every year or so I would check with him. As US-China tensions grew, the prospects seemed worse, but the editor was always positive and amiable, asking me to be patient a little longer, explaining about the next round of government approvals they were seeking.

This is, by the way, one of the largest publications ever to be translated from English into Chinese, putting Berkshire in company with Encyclopedia Britannica and Cambridge University Press.

Then came COVID-19, and, more recently, the lockdowns in Shanghai, economic troubles, and the new tensions over Ukraine, technology, and the impending congress that just took place. But to my surprise (and perhaps to the surprise of the editor) the project has moved ahead and will, I’m told, be published at the end of 2022. I will light a candle for Bill McNeill when our copies arrive.

And I’ll make sure they send a set for Tom, a reminder of the days when he was, as he put it, an encyclopedia salesman in China.

Indeed, it’s going to be interesting to see how some of our articles have been translated, and we’ll no doubt have more to say on that subject. It seems fortuitous that Berkshire published a book called World History Teaching in Asia, with contributions from educators in many countries, including China, Japan, and Korea.

Berkshire’s China activities and cooperation have been curtailed, but this doesn’t mean that we’re giving up on China or China-related education. We need to understand China more than ever, and to remember all the things we have in common. There’s much beauty, wisdom, and pleasure to be found in Chinese history and Chinese culture. China is a lot of fun. And, of course, the food is magnificent. I’m working on a new publishing strategy that keeps in mind the serious political challenges we have to deal with, but also provides wider context.

Another Shanghai press is interested in publishing a translation of Ray Oldenburg’s classic on third places, The Great Good Place, a very good sign indeed. In fact, UNESCO has just asked us to write an article about third places for their magazine. I’ll be including some of the ideas I’ve heard in conversations with people in China, Brazil, France, and Norway this year - the idea of third places is gaining new momentum as we think about designing a post-pandemic, climate resilient future.

Finally, a word about the Berkshires, our part of New England. The tourists - known as leafpeepers - are back in force and the autumn colors have been superb, in spite of the semi-drought of the summer. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the Berkshire hills in such glory. Here’s a photo of Lake Mansfield, just up the street, where I’ve been swimming. It’s an amazing spot, with a tiny beach and only one house in view. There have been a lot more people swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding this year. I ventured in once this month just to have a chance to see the colors from the middle of the lake.

As Ray Oldenburg wrote at the end of The Great Good Place, here’s to Better Times . . . and Places.