借势而为:民国时期中华书局的公共危机处理——以“英语八五运动”的应对为例

Marketing by Taking Advantage of the Situation:The Public Crisis Management of Zhonghua Book Company in the Period of the Republic of China——A Case Study of“Movement of Basic English 850”

1933年5月,中华书局发起的“英语八五运动”受到著名英语教学专家林语堂的嘲讽和中国世界语者充满民族主义意识的激烈批评,从而引发了一场出版史上的公共危机。本文依据危机管理的经典理论,讨论中华书局化解这场公共危机的方式及其过程,即由初期的针锋相对,转而采取“去政治化”的策略,凸显“基本英语”语言交流的“工具”特性,既维护中华书局“在商言商”的立场,亦消解了批评者的批评指向。相关的出版数据也表明,中华书局借助双方论争的公共效应,加大营销力度,取得了显著的出版实效,成为这场公共危机的最大赢家。

In May 1933,Zhonghua Book Company introduced Ogden's Basic English and ini-tiated the Movement of Basic English 850,which sparked widespread debate and criticism from English teaching expert Lin Yutang and Chinese Esperantists.To avoid political conflicts,Zhong-hua Book Company adopted a“de-politicization”strategy.Taking advantage of the situation,they intensively published the relevant advertisements to promote sales of the Basic English books by the exaggerated and bold advertising design and a variety of marketing approaches.This publish-ing strategy proved to be effective,as Zhonghua Book Company realized their expectations and be-came a beneficiary in this cultural debate.