We all know China matters in a big way to the US and the world economy.
They fund much of our debt and probably hold the future of any recovery in their hands. They produce goods for American companies at prices that make them competitive in the world market. And they have a lot of potential consumers with growing income and wealth!
Today when I showed up at my office I was reminded in a very personal way that China matters because they are also becoming an entrepreneurial hotbed as well as an economic powerhouse.
There on my desk was a box from Prentice-Hall, which is one of my publishers. I opened it and out tumbled five copies of a book that was in Chinese.
“What the heck is this?,” I wondered.
Upon a closer look I realized that it was my Bootstrapping textbook translated into Chinese.
(By the way, if you prefer a Chinese edition of the book you can get it here).
For some reason I was always under the impression that you must obtain an author’s permission in order to translate his book – guess it is the publisher who has total control over such matters. Then, do you, the author, have any input on who gets to translate your work? What if multiple parties are interested?
It appears that a large group of university professors and graduate students participated in the project, so I’m sure they did a good job. I still remember (and keep a copy of) the first book I translated as a student – many sleepless nights over a six-month period, sometimes just for a short sentence.
As to China becoming an entrepreneurial hotbed, I definitely second that. For college students, starting a business is as hot a topic as anything. It was only recently that social, economical and political environments began to allow them to pursue their dreams. As many start-ups as we’ve seen so far, imagine ten years from now.