I am a literary giant in Japan

Kitagawa Hide expects that "Children in the Dark" should be more popular among Southeast Asian readers.

Because Southeast Asian countries are full of bloody and violent organizations like the Charity Group, and countries such as South Korea and Thailand are also full of official support for such organizations to persecute innocent disabled children.

Relatively speaking, white people in Europe and the United States are just like those Japanese dignitaries who send their children abroad for medical treatment. They are more like the vested interests of this interest chain and it is difficult for them to empathize with people like Hiroyuki Nanbu.

Therefore, Hide Kitagawa's forecast for the overseas market is that Southeast Asian countries (especially South Korea) are larger than African countries, which are larger than European and American countries.

Another major reason why he is quite anxious about the overseas market's response is that Evind Johnson is exactly the opposite of him.

Evander Johnson won the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature for his autobiographical novel The Story of Olof.

This novel tells an "inspirational" story from the perspective of a blacksmith's son, about how a lower-class person gradually grows into the middle class through hard work and struggle in a bad national environment.

It has to be said that Evander Johnson's sense of "political literature" is indeed extraordinary.

He really deserves the award for being able to accurately capture the elements that the powerful class and Nobel Prize officials loved most during World War II, such as "bottom-level perspective", "self-deprecating national writing", and "struggle to become middle class", and successfully integrate them into a best-selling book.

With this political sense, Kitagawa Hide even felt that it was a waste of Ewint's talent to write instead of going into politics.

It is precisely because of this political inclination and writing style that Evander Johnson is very popular in the Western world, and his readership is concentrated among white people and the middle class in Europe and the United States.

Kitagawa Hide really doesn't dare to say that "Children in the Dark" will definitely perform better than "City in Darkness" overseas.

For this reason, he also bought this issue of "New Literature" and read "City in Darkness" carefully.

Ewendt's writing skills and literary creation ability are online.

Even though the literary world of this parallel universe is not as rich as that in the original history, many literary masters have not absorbed enough nutrients, resulting in their current achievements not being as good as their own in the original history.

But compared to most people, their cultural and creative abilities are still online and should not be underestimated. Ewendt is one of them.

Moreover, Kitagawa Hideya is just a plagiarist who is working hard to grow himself and improve his writing skills.

He believes that he is still far from being the kind of literary masters he truly recognizes, and is at best no different from these people.

But Evander Johnson also has the usual problems of writers in this world -

They are conservative, refuse to accept new things, and always live within the old rules.

This can be clearly seen from the fact that when he wrote "City in Darkness", he deliberately made Tokyo similar to Edo during the Warring States Period.

This is also one of the reasons why this novel did not receive such a good response in Japan.

It's 1999 now, and your understanding of other people's capitals is still stuck in the past hundreds of years. It's quite humorous like the indigenous Taiwanese commentators mocking the people next door in the new century for not being able to afford tea eggs.

Taiwanese commentators said this, on the one hand to gain traffic, and on the other hand to deliberately provoke cross-strait disputes. This behavior may seem insane, but in fact it has its underlying logic.

But Evindt came to Japan to vent Arnault and Maehara's anger, to invade the Japanese literary market, and to speak up for the Nobel Prize officials.

To put it bluntly, you have to "please" this audience with your work.

But you actually want them to pay you money while you scold them. That's too arrogant.

Westerners who reaped the benefits of World War II all have similar tendencies, which is why they collectively despise and deny Eastern culture.

Pure nationalism and bloodline theory have completely corrupted their minds and there is no way to change them.

However, judging from the sales of "New Literature", there are indeed quite a few Japanese people who are embarrassed to accept this.
Kitagawa Hide doesn't care much about these political positions, ideologies and so on.

He turned his attention back to the data reports.

These things are what he cares about the most.

The first report transmitted was the sales report of "Beichuan" in Thailand, which was what Kitagawa Hide was most worried about and the one he was least sure about.

The Thailand branch of "Kitagawa" was just opened in Bangkok at the end of last year. The first batch of employees sent to open up the new branch, like Ishida Yasujun who insisted on going to Yamanashi Prefecture, are all ambitious and passionate young people who "have a heart of a tiger and a nose for roses."

However, Thai people not only believe in Buddhism, but also live a very Buddhist life and are not interested in literary things.

When talking about this country, the first element that most people think of must be "shemales", followed by Muay Thai, and then various folk customs and horror elements.

I don’t even know where literature has been squeezed into.

This can be seen from the fact that Thai literature has basically no status in the world literary scene.

But at this moment, the data in the bright red report presented in front of Kitagawa Xiu completely destroyed his inherent ideas.

The January 1999 issue of Beichuan is not sold in a graded manner in various regions of Thailand, so all Thai people can buy it in bookstores and newsstands.

This sales report with red words on white paper sent by the statistics department staff of the Bangkok branch of "Beichuan" clearly shows that this issue of "Beichuan" sold nearly 35 copies in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand alone!

This is just the data from the first day!

As time goes by, the data department staff estimates that there will be no problem for the total monthly sales of this issue of "Beichuan" to exceed 70 copies!

With a total monthly sales volume of 70 copies, it can only be ranked as the weakest among the weakest in Japan's current literary market.

But in 1999, Thailand's total population was only 6230 million, less than half of Japan's.

The transmitted report specifically pointed out that according to statistics from Thailand's official statistics department in 1998, the size of Thailand's pure literature market is about 50 people, accounting for less than % of the total population.

This size of 50 people is calculated based on the annual sales of pure literary novels and magazines.

Because there are cases where one person among the highly educated people buys literary works multiple times, the actual fixed audience of pure literature may be less than 30 people.
In other words, the sales volume of one district in Tokyo could probably cover the entire Thai literature market.

This is also the reason why the Japanese entertainment industry rarely gives priority to Thailand when going overseas.

The market is really too small, so small that no one even has the desire to compete for such a small piece of meat.

However! The first-day data of this issue of "Beichuan" in Bangkok has exceeded the limited number of 30!
If the sales range is expanded to all of Thailand, even if the sales on the first day are not very good, it will definitely exceed 40 copies, or even approach 50 copies!

In other words, "Beichuan" basically touched the size ceiling of the Thai literary market just on the first day of sales!
You have to know that due to resource and national conditions, "Beichuan" simply cannot make false data in faraway Thailand.

All the Thai versions of "Beichuan" that were sold were purchased by local Thai people out of their own pockets!

"Is this data really not fake?" This time even Kitagawa Hide himself was a little skeptical. He couldn't help but call Saito Rena first, and then found the overseas market manager of "Kitagawa" to confirm it several times.

Reina Saito and Shizuko Kawaide received the data reports at the same time, and they were also shocked by the data from Thailand.

The ceiling of the literary market, which is less than 50 in size, was shattered by "Beichuan" on the first day?

Is this really not fraud?
The two women were not too sure about this, so they immediately mobilized their various connections in Thailand, bypassed the statistics department of Beichuan Entertainment, and went to investigate the real market feedback themselves.

Almost at the same time, Kitagawa Hide received calls from officials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After Machimura Nobutaka left the Ministry of Education, the new Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Arima Akira, a physicist and a die-hard fan of Machimura's books, often invited him to dinner and drinks.

Therefore, Kitagawa Entertainment's relationship with the Ministry of Education remains strong, and there is even a slight upward trend.

This time it was Arima Akira who called personally, and on the other end of the line was Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.

Masahiko Komura is one of the core members of the Liberal Democratic Party and belongs to the Obuchi Keizo faction. He has served as Minister of Justice, Minister of Defense and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance.

After Obuchi Keizo came to power, he immediately handed over his post of foreign minister to Komura Masahiko, thus allowing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the most sensitive part of the political system, to complete a smooth transfer of power.

Masahiko Komura is also a very famous pro-China figure within the Liberal Democratic Party. Because of this identity and political philosophy, he has a good relationship with Kitagawa Hide.

At this time, Masahiko Komura was looking at the several top-secret documents he had just received, and he was very excited. He felt that the "Lucky Star Theory" of Speaker Machimura Nobutaka and Minister Kan Naoto was indeed magical!
“.To sum up, after Children in the Dark became a hit in the literary market, Thailand immediately sent people to investigate certain organizations and groups mentioned in the novel, and they actually followed the clues and uncovered a group of criminals.

While destroying several criminal dens, the Thai police also rescued about 300 deaf-mute children who were about to be harmed!
Teacher Beichuan, you have done a great deed this time. You will be worshipped in the temple by the Thai people!"

Even Arima Akira, this tough science and engineering guy, was a little excited and incoherent.

He didn't expect that he, a science and engineering man who was forced to take over the position, would have such amazing results after taking over the position of Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology!
Masahiko Komura on the side was even more excited. Thailand was strongly supporting "Children in the Dark" and there was a tendency to "deify" Kitagawa Hidetsuai there.

Due to differences in political ideologies and national policy inclinations, Japan and Thailand have always been in a state of apparent harmony but actual disunity in recent years.

As foreign minister, his favorite diplomatic status is when everyone is happy, his country has harmonious relations with everyone, and his status as foreign minister is popular wherever he goes.

But the reality is that Japan is not much different from a rat crossing the street that everyone wants to beat. Because it is subservient to the United States, it is also unwelcome in Southeast Asian countries.

Although diplomacy is far away from most people, everyone just sits in front of the TV, watches the news and complains about this and that.

But as foreign minister, this is his job and responsibility. The more distorted the country's diplomatic situation is, the more difficult the foreign minister's job will be.

Kitagawa Hide's external output directly relieved most of the pressure on him, making Komura Masahiko want to bow down to Mr. Kitagawa!

Now it seems that the fact that "Beichuan" was able to break through the ceiling of the Thai literary market on its first day of publication is most likely related to official promotion.

Since the official is pushing "Children of the Dark", it will inevitably suppress "City of Darkness" which is challenging it.

In the Thai market, Kitagawa Hide has already won!

Although he was happy, Kitagawa Hide was very curious why there was such a big response from Thailand.

Masahiko Komura and Akira Arima conducted a simple analysis and reasoning based on the information they obtained, and finally agreed that crimes involving children, especially children with disabilities, would never be tolerated in any country or region.

This is the bottom line for humanity.

Whether this is the reason or not is actually not important.

Anyway, the Thai side wants to make use of this to make "Children in the Dark" a benchmark in the Thai literary market and, by the way, save Thailand's bad image abroad.

". In addition, they also hope to invite you, Mr. Kitagawa, to serve as an honorary professor of the Faculty of Literature at Chulalongkorn University. It would be even better if the filming location of "Children in the Dark" could be in Thailand!"

Masahiko Komura said excitedly, and told Kitagawa Hide this in as negotiating a tone as possible.

For him, these are all real political achievements!
After the millennium, Japan's political arena will undergo visible changes. If a mediocre politician like him wants to rise, he must have some political achievements and opportunities.

Now that he has achieved political success, and seeing that Mr. Beichuan, this "lucky star", will bring opportunities to himself, how can he not be excited?

However, no matter how excited he was, he didn't want to anger Teacher Kitagawa and make things worse because of his bad tone and attitude.

After saying this, Masahiko Komura glanced at Arima Ranto with a hint of pleading in his eyes.

The Arimalang people saw what he meant, nodded slightly, and decided to help him and add a little fuel to the fire.

But before Arima Lang could say anything, Kitagawa Hide's voice of agreement came from the other end of the phone.

"No problem. As long as Thailand maintains a zero-tolerance attitude towards these people and things, I would be happy to be a professor or even teach at Chulalongkorn University.

As for the filming plan, I originally planned to go to Thailand to shoot and collect materials. I was worried that they might refuse me entry due to the subject matter, so it’s great that they are willing to cooperate.”

Kitagawa Hide remembered that in the original history, when "Children in the Dark" wanted to shoot in Thailand, it was severely rejected by the Thai side.

In the end, the crew was expelled from the country by Thai police and customs before they finished filming, resulting in the second half and ending of the film having to be hastily shot on a shooting platform built in rural Japan.

After all, no one likes other countries to make movies that expose illegal activities in their own country.

But this time, the Thai side's attitude changed 180 degrees, which really shocked and surprised the Japanese officials.

"Okay, okay, then we will contact the Thai side right away and make sure that Mr. Beichuan's novel can be successfully published and adapted, and become a sensation in Asia!"

Masahiko Komura almost bowed 90 degrees to the phone. (End of this chapter)