Parker has been working in China for a month. In addition to making videos, he is also working part-time as a primary school English teacher in China.
Although he has only been formally learning English for two years, Parker's English proficiency is already very good. At least his Chinese proficiency is among the best among all foreign teachers.
During this time, because his mother was not in good health, and Christmas was coming soon, he planned to return to the United States to stay for a while, and then come back after finishing things there.
He specially scheduled his trip for the afternoon of December 12th, just so that he could buy a new pz book in China before going back.
After I bought the book, I ran to catch the plane without even having time to read it.
After the plane flew smoothly, he took out the "Lord of the Flies" he just bought today and prepared to read it at high altitude.
He even regretted that the book was too thin, it only seemed to be about a hundred thousand words.
With this length, I'm afraid he can only kill a few hours. If it could be thicker, his time on the plane wouldn't be boring.
Sure enough, before the trip was even halfway through, Parker had already finished reading "Lord of the Flies".
Rubbing his sore eyes, Parker looked outside through the porthole.
Because of the flight time and route planning of this plane, it will basically be daytime along the way, so it is still bright outside at this moment.
When flying, reading a novel about an air crash is not a good choice. Even though there are not many descriptions of air crashes in "Lord of the Flies", Parker can't help but think of the book when he looks at the scenery outside.
The scene inside.
He straightened up and looked down, trying to find if there was an island. However, he was disappointed. Apart from the faintly visible land in the distance, he did not see any island.
But this is also good news. At least if an accident occurs, the plane can make an emergency landing towards land.
"What am I thinking?" Parker shook his head. He felt that his idea was really strange.
After adjusting his mood, Parker began to close his eyes and rest.
…
After arriving in the United States, Parker found a bookstore on the way back and bought another copy of "Lord of the Flies".
Although he is good at Chinese and can understand "Lord of the Flies", English is his mother tongue after all, so he plans to watch the English version of "Lord of the Flies" again. There may be some content in the Chinese version that he did not notice.
It can be seen through the English version.
But when he opened the English version of "Lord of the Flies", he was stunned.
"Didn't I buy a pirated copy?" Parker said to himself.
Because the version of "Lord of the Flies" he has is different from the one he watched.
"Piracy, what do you mean?"
The friend who came to pick him up looked at Parker through the rearview mirror and asked strangely.
Parker held up the book in his hand and said, "I feel a little strange about this book."
"What's weird? Haven't you seen it?" My friend said with a smile, "I've seen it too, it's quite dark."
"That's not what I'm talking about." Parker shook his head and looked at the book in his hand.
He read the title of the book, the author's name, and the preface several times, but there was nothing wrong with it.
But the content in the book puzzled him.
The description of the scenery at the beginning and the names of the characters are all different.
If the language style and character names will change with translation, Parker can understand it, but the descriptions of the scenery and details are also very different.
After reading it patiently for a while, Parker was sure that he had not bought a pirated copy, because the story inside was generally similar to the Chinese version.
However, in the English version, all the names were changed to English names, and the backgrounds of these children were also changed to British.
Of course, this is not the only difference between the two editions. Parker found that the writing structure and language style of the English edition were quite different from the Chinese edition.
Is this a specially written version so that English-speaking readers can be more adaptable?
Everyone knows that pz's English level is very high, which can be seen from his previous works, and many of his works were translated by himself.
Perhaps it is not correct to say that it is a translation. Some people have speculated before that some of his works were actually written in English first and then in Chinese.
Although this statement has not been confirmed by pz himself, many people firmly believe it.
Parker also feels that this statement has its credibility. After all, he has also read the Chinese version of pz novels. Some works are indeed closer to the English language habits in terms of language style.
What a rare and considerate pz. He just said that someone complained that Zhang Zhong looked down on English-speaking readers, and he was wronged.
Seeing Parker frowning for a while and showing off his face for a while, my friend asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Parker smiled and said, "Did you know? The English version of this book "Lord of the Flies" and the Chinese version are different."
"It's different? Isn't it a story?"
"That's not true. The stories are probably the same, but the writing techniques and story backgrounds are different."
My friend was surprised, "Really? Isn't pz afraid of trouble at all? Do you think the English version is better or the Chinese version?"
"It's hard to say, because I have only scratched the surface of Chinese."
The friend smiled and said, "It seems that during your time in China, you learned their humility."
…
Not many people discovered the difference between the English version and the Chinese version as quickly as Parker. After all, most people would not go out of their way to buy two copies and read them back.
Even if you have this idea, you rarely have the conditions.
However, since Zhang Zhong has such a large readership, some people have discovered this problem.
This incident quickly aroused heated discussion on the Internet.
Some people didn't express it clearly, which made many fans think that the English version and the Chinese version told different stories, so many people were asking what the other version was about. People in the English area asked about the Chinese version, and Huaxia
The language area asked the English area again.
This is not over yet. They have not let go of other languages. Some people have come up with a strange idea: Zhang Zhong will not play that big one this time. There are dozens of language versions with different contents, which is equivalent to silence.
He published dozens of books without any fanfare.
Of course, such conjectures are more of a joke. No one really thinks that Zhang Zhong would distribute dozens of books at once in this way. Even if he had the ability, he would not be so stupid.
Later, everyone also knew the specific situation. It turned out that the story in the English version and the Chinese version were still the same. The only difference was the story background and writing techniques.
In the end, people came to the conclusion that the reason why this happened was entirely because Zhang Zhong was showing off his skills.