Hu Xiaofei: Proofreading for 23 years, "I should be invisible with work"丨Don't confuse 2024

Hu Xiaofei (Nongjian/Photo)

Southern Weekly's first official proofreader was an internal auditor from Shanxi. It was 2000, 27-year-old Hu Xiaofei left the tire factory where she had worked for six years and went to the south, and for the next 23 years, she strictly followed the work process, did not take every detail lightly, and defended the precision of every expression.

Many people can recognize a certain kind of courage in Hu Xiaofei's body, which belongs to the people of the Southern Zhou Dynasty. The tire factory where she works is a star enterprise, and it is envied to be able to work in the factory. But in the summer of 2000, Jiang Yiping, then editor-in-chief of Southern Weekly, asked her ten questions on the phone, and she answered all of them correctly.

In her eyes, the editors and editors-in-chief who silently bear the pressure to make room for each interview and strive for the opportunity to publish important articles are the representatives of courage.

But perhaps there is another kind of ordinary and solid courage. For more than 20 years, Hu Xiaofei has witnessed the birth of almost every manuscript, but she is willing to hide behind each manuscript. The editorial team has also changed over the generations, and the content of the report has changed with the times, but she is there when readers enjoy every hearty and accurate reading.

The following is Hu Xiaofei's own statement.

After graduating from university in 1994, I was assigned to a tire factory, which was a pioneer in reform at that time, and was famous for the reform of the three systems of labor, personnel and wages (commonly known as "breaking the three irons").

The factory is tall and square, the red and gray pure Soviet-style building, the huge equipment roars 24 hours a day, the light yellow, milky white rubber and complex ingredients and accessories, through the mixing, calendering, molding, vulcanization and other processes, into strong and solid tires, supporting the flow of materials and wealth.

At first, I was in charge of legal writing and management at a sales company. Later, the company introduced overseas managers, in order to develop overseas markets, it was necessary to carry out the internationally accepted quality management system certification, first of all, to establish a team of internal auditors, to understand the system provisions and implement them to the on-site management, I transferred to the post to become an internal auditor of the ISO9001 quality management system.

Earlier, my family had a subscription to Southern Weekly. At that time, Nanzhou was attractive, because she did not have a serious and stereotypical macro sense of daily reporting at all, and she cared about the world and spoke with emotion and affection, which was unique. Therefore, when you come to Nanzhou, you can't talk about courage, you don't need to make up your mind, you are walking towards the light.

"Resign immediately"

In May 2000, the newspaper mentioned in the "Editing and Reading" column hosted by Mr. Jiang Yiping, "We are looking for proofreading" - Mr. Jiang often compiled and sent letters from readers to correct errors, but I was surprised that there were no proofreaders in Nanzhou.

I put down the newspaper and immediately wrote a correction + cover letter, listing the mistakes, doubts and possible answers from the colonel of the current newspaper one by one, I remember that one of the doubts is that the new culture section selected a still, the life scene of the Jiangnan family, from the position of the inscription of the hanging calligraphy and painting in the main hall, the photo is reversed, and it is a mirror image on the left and right.

A few weeks later, I received a postcard from my editorial assistant, Sister Tang Min, telling me that there was a candidate for proofreading, a former high school Chinese teacher. On the front of the postcard is a group photo of the editorial team at that time, two rows of people, young and handsome faces, old and dignified faces, and the background is the office building of the Southern Newspaper that has won the Luban Prize, the big logo of the phoenix, and the tall palm trees. I clipped the postcard to the glass door of the bedroom bookcase, and I could see it as soon as I entered the bedroom and as soon as I looked up. Later, my mom said that the south-facing bedroom was too sunny during the day and would burn, so I tucked it into the book.

One afternoon two months later, the phone rang, and a very gentle, articulate voice with a southern accent came, and I was catching up on sleep after being on duty, not very sober, otherwise I might have jumped up in shock by "Xiaofei? I'm Jiang Yiping" - I knew I was too far away from her to be impossible.

After chatting for half an hour, Mr. Jiang asked me about my basic academic employment, my cognition and reading feelings of Nanzhou, and 10 knowledge questions. The call ended with "Xiaofei, resign immediately, you come". Two days later, I found out that Mr. Jiang's test for me was a mistake in the newspaper of the week - at that time, our province did not have a printing point in the Southern Zhou, and I had to receive the newspaper from the printing factory on Wednesday until Saturday.

My dad said, go ahead, ask for leave if you can, and resign if you can't.

- What should I do if people don't want me after the trial, and I have lost my job now.

- If you don't want you, you'll come back, and you can't be supported at home?!

I don't want to come back, I want to stay in Guangzhou, see a different world, try a different life.

So, after more than 30 hours of train ride, I arrived in Guangzhou on the morning of August 11, 2000. On the elevator of the East Railway Station, I saw someone holding my name in the crowd of people who picked up the station, who was a colleague of the newspaper administration.

Mr. Jiang has short hair, is thin, and wears a very unfashionable suit with small lapels and short sleeves, with a slight speed of speech and gentle eyes. This afternoon, I had a desk.

The first version of the proofreading was sent to me by Mr. Xiang Yang, the reading version.

"Depression and frustration"

A month later, I moved to a small windowless room with three tips and eight corners, which was also the newspaper's library, with several bookcases and the latest weekly foreign issues, mainly in English, German, French, and Spanish.

The freedom of Nanzhou lies in the fact that "you look at it yourself", employees outside the administrative team do not have a fixed commuting time, at the beginning I Xi was not used to it, I followed the rhythm of the administration to work, and when there was no version to school, I seized the time to learn Xi——

I made mistakes when I first started working. "A pillar of incense", the wooden word next to the column, the correct one should be the fire word next to the fire, which was hooked out by Mr. Huang Hui, the editor in charge.

I have no acquaintances in Guangzhou, and I can't go out in the hot summer, so I spend seven days a week at the newspaper office, reading newspapers and magazines, reading through modern Chinese dictionaries and dictionaries, and eagerly trying to strengthen my basic knowledge and improve my basic skills.

Because of the strict process of two schools, after more than a year, I had a partner. His current partner, Hu Xin, joined the company in 2004, and he was patient, careful and calm, and did a good job of proofreading the first level and provided clear and smooth texts for the second proofreader. I do the second and final proofreading, mainly dealing with logical problems, the thoroughness and unity of layout elements, and the comprehensive inspection of the newspaper before it is released. We've been working together for almost twenty years.

In the past, manuscripts had a lot of typos. At that time, there were still handwritten manuscripts, and when transferring to the electronic version, colleagues in the publishing room had to carefully identify and input them carefully. Second, the initial stage of computer writing font group words, association function is not very powerful, with pinyin input is easy to mistake for homophones, with five strokes is easy to form nearly typos, now the font is powerful input method intelligence, "self" written as "self" "time" written as "time" such problems are also less.

As for the comparison between the old and the new, judging from the presentation of the manuscript alone, I think that in the era of online communication, young journalists grasp the information points very well, but the information barrier in the old era is physical, and it is more difficult to get the information itself. The author's readers are younger, and the language of young journalists can be seen to have a high level of foreign language proficiency, and the sentence structure is often more Western-style.

After reading so many manuscripts of the Southern Zhou Dynasty, when it comes to the style of the Southern Zhou Dynasty...... It should be depressed and frustrated.

What is a typical Southern Weekender like? kind, rational, outspoken, and full of skills.

After doing proofreading work for so many years, I can say that Nanzhou has reshaped my life and three views. As the dedication over the years said: people get happiness in the performance of their duties, although they are not enough, but they are willing to do their best for it. Concerned about the fate and fate of specific people, because the individual's yearning for beauty is related to the direction of the country.

"Be careful"

Over the years, every bit of progress and harvest has been happy. Especially when you are especially thanked and praised by the editing teacher.

In 2001, an external auditor read the cover letter outside the form, saying, "I have been doing external review for more than ten years, and Nanzhou finally issued a report that made me unable to find faults." Mr. Jiang posted the letter on the bulletin board, and the editors who were familiar with me and unfamiliar with me also came to watch me. I am happy and cautious, because I know that publishing a newspaper is a collective labor, and it is possible for everyone, in all links, to be fine, precise and keep improving. I never dare to loosen my own strings, and I don't often silently say "Please", everyone......

In fact, I rarely have the opportunity to chat with the editorial teachers, the proofreader is small, the process is tight, and I can't be distracted at all. I see.

But those names and faces are in my heart.

Over the years, a manuscript that has been impressive should have a unique point of view and distinctive textual characteristics. No special memory is required. Or maybe it's reinforcing your memory when a classic work is repeatedly quoted and recited. There is always a power that brings tears to our eyes, makes the powerless powerful, and makes the pessimistic move forward, no winter is insurmountable, my paper wraps your fire in it, and connects the isolated islands into continents...... Some events happen, some nodes come, and they will naturally be remembered. The reader will also reawaken your memory repeatedly.

It can be said that almost every article in the newspaper is relevant to me. But proofreading should be invisible, and in addition to signing to show responsibility for it, I should also be incognito with my work.

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of Southern Weekly. Forty is not confused, I don't know how other people's confusion is done, I think I see problems every day that arise for no reason, I don't know how to solve them, I don't think about whether I want to be confused or I can not be confused. I'll never be able to reach that level. I just want to keep up with the pace of the times with great iterations of knowledge and skills, and complete the proofreading work of every page, every manuscript, and every video.

Nanzhou is determined to be a century-old newspaper, I can only accompany her through a short period of splendid youth, I hope that Nanzhou has a bright future and is fearless.

Southern Weekend reporter Su Youpeng Southern Weekend Xi Huang Xiaoying

Editor-in-charge: Wu Xiaoyu