Chapter 1215: A great opportunity!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
The direction of the third milestone in the "Reach the Summit" plan was set.
Everyone's plan was just to wait? To ask around for information? To depend on luck?
But that was not what Zhang Ye was thinking. He had his own ideas and knew that he had to contend for an opportunity like this. Getting included in the Chinese language textbooks was a great opportunity. Only an idiot would not want this! Of course, Zhang Ye wasn't doing this for himself, he really wasn't. He was doing this for the great scholars from his previous world. If the essence of those scholars' wisdom from his previous world could not even make it into the Chinese language textbooks over here, then damn, what would that mean?
Wouldn't it be too goddamn insulting!
Wasn't it as good as getting pushed around!
Could he tolerate that? Of course he couldn't!
Even if he could tolerate it, would Old Li (Li Bai) tolerate that? Would Old Du (Du Fu) tolerate that?
And so, Zhang Ye hoped that he could seize a spot in the textbooks however small it was!
After the meeting, Zhang Ye went to call his Peking University colleague, Su Na. Teacher Su was from the university's Chinese Department and had maintained a good relationship with him. Her father was also someone in the literary field.
"Teacher Su."
"Yo, Teacher Zhang."
"What have you been up to recently?"
"Teaching, what else?"
"By the way, can I ask you something? The textbook curriculum revision will be implemented soon, have you heard about it?"
"Yes, I've heard. The literary field is stirring up because of it, so who wouldn't know? Why are you asking? Do you intend to contend for it too? That's right, Teacher Zhang, you're qualified to get selected!"
"Aiyah, please don't say that. How am I qualified? I'm still lacking by too much. I was just asking. Anyway, what are the requirements to get selected for the textbook curriculum revision?
"Didn't you say that you were still lacking by too much?"
"Yeah, but a person cannot have no goals. Otherwise, what difference would that be from being a salted fish?"
"Pfft, you can say whatever you like. In any case, I don't know much. I've heard some things from my parents, but I'm not exactly sure what the selection criteria is. That's something that the Education Department Textbook Revision work groups are handling. All I know is that they should probably be finishing the revision soon and should've prepared everything that needs to be prepared. I think it should be happening tomorrow morning. They'll be holding a meeting to discuss the specifics to tie up the changes. As for when they'll announce the changes and start the actual printing of the new textbooks, I'm not sure. For the mathematics and physics revisions, they might delay it until a later time because there's a bigger debate over them. They probably wouldn't be able to get it settled in the short term—that's what I heard from the Math Department. So yeah, that's about it."
"Tomorrow morning?"
"I think so."
"Don't just think so, are you sure?"
"I'm sure!"
"Alright, I got it. Thanks, you sure are well-informed."
"That's because you don't even come by Peking University anymore. If you came here to teach every day, what news in the education field would you not know?"
The call ended.
Zhang Ye went to find Ha Qiqi and Zhang Zuo. "I've found out that the curriculum revision for the Chinese language textbooks will be tied up by tomorrow morning."
Zhang Zuo said in anticipation, "I hope for good news then!"
Zhang Ye suddenly remembered something and looked at Ha Qiqi. "By the way, Sister Ha. You told me earlier at Old Rao's house that something happened at Central TV? What was it about?"
Ha Qiqi hesitated for a while before saying, "It's insider news. I learned of it from a former coworker at Central TV. It hasn't been announced yet, but it's been confirmed."
Zhang Ye asked, "So what's the matter?"
Ha Qiqi said, "Central TV Department 1 will be filming a second season of The Voice!"
Little Wang's ears were sharp and caught what they were saying. "What? How'd they get the copyright! Back when they signed the contract, the copyrights were all given to Director Zhang!"
Ha Qiqi shook her head. "It was just a figure of speech. In fact, they're going to film a new show and have already started prepping for it. The name of the show will be Sing! China, but to put it plainly, they just changed the name from The Voice to Sing!. In reality, it's just the second season of The Voice. The Voice was incredibly popular with the audience last year, and since Central TV Department 1 does not have any good reality shows lined up for this year, they're resorting to using The Voice again to carry the banner. They'll probably be putting together a new program team and invite a new panel of guest coaches, although I heard that there won't be many changes to the stage. The show's format will also remain the same."
Little Wang exclaimed, "That's considered infringement too!"
Wu Yi said angrily, "They're only changing how the show looks! Sue them!"
But Zhang Zuo said, "If they just change the segment where the guest coaches turn around in their chairs and make them stand up to turn around instead, or use some similar methods to block their views, it would really be very difficult to sue them. They can just claim that it's a new show with a new design. What can we do about that? We couldn't win even if we went to court."
A year had already passed since The Voice was broadcast. Counting the days, Central TV Department 1 could no longer continue sitting on it. Earlier, a lot of netizens were discussing whether there would be a second season of The Voice after Zhang Ye ended his contract with Central TV. Who would do it? And how were they going to do it? It seemed like there was an answer now. Central TV Department 1 would still carry on filming it. They would just ditch Zhang Ye, Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the rest of the old program team, then take the show and film it by themselves!
How devious!
But this was expected!
Zhang Ye was not at all surprised. "Let's put this issue aside for now."
What else could he do? Such things had happened even in Zhang Ye's previous world. Although they were no longer authorized to make the show due to not having the copyrights, there had always been striking similarities 1 in history and was difficult to enforce.
Forget it, just ignore them for now. The plan to reach the summit was still the most crucial of all.
…
Later that afternoon.
The news started to spread!
The curriculum revision for the elementary, middle, and high school textbooks was finally revealed. In fact, it was the Ministry of Education that held a press conference to announce this important news. For a lot of those in the industry, this wasn't really news. But to the majority of the public, this was the first time they were hearing about it.
A lot of information was made available through this press conference.
Like how there would be an increase in difficulty for the high school math textbooks.
And how the patriotic education in the elementary school textbooks would be enhanced.
Or the increase in vocabulary words used in the English language textbooks.
But of course, it was still the revision of the Chinese language textbooks that attracted the most attention. Every time there was a curriculum revision, the elementary and middle school Chinese language textbooks would get the most attention!
"Math is already so difficult, but they still want to make it harder?"
"No, please, no! Math is the only subject I'm bad at!"
"Hai, they shouldn't put so much stress on children."
"The Chinese language textbooks will be getting a major revision as well?"
"Whose essays do you guys think will get into the textbooks?"
"Hard to say."
"Right, any master in the literary field stands a chance of getting in. Isn't the prose by Master Liu super famous? There's been a heated discussion for the last two days, so it should probably get selected, right?"
"Who knows?"
"The winners of the last two Yanhong Literary Prizes should stand a chance, right?"
"Eh, does that mean that Zhang Ye has a chance as well?"
"Yeah, he probably has a chance as well!"
"Ahhh, I like Zhang Ye's 'The Answer.' 'Debasement is the password of the base.' I really love this poem, but maybe it'll be too dark for the younger people? It probably won't get chosen."
"'Ode to Young China' has a higher likelihood of getting selected!"
"Right, 'Ode to Young China'! How did I forget that!"
"That's right, I just remembered it too. It was even featured on People's Daily!"
"Zhang Ye's essays and poems are usually too aggressive in nature. If he really stands a chance of contending for one of the spots in the Chinese language textbook revision, 'Ode to Young China' is probably the most hopeful one!"
"Teacher Zhang, we'll be cheering you on!"
"Damn, if Face-smacking Zhang really gets selected for the textbooks, he'll be so awesome! Won't that fellow be soaring to the skies then?"
"He's already an author, poet, host, singer, mathematician, calligrapher, crosstalk comedian, skit actor, variety show director, documentary director, Go master, and so on and so forth, so would he still need to soar to the skies? That fellow is already fucking standing shoulder to shoulder with the sun!"
"Pfft!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"This is such a great opportunity, so let's see if Teacher Zhang can grab hold of it!"
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_recurrence#Striking_similarity