Now, my AI Compass is also available in Chinese. With a translation by Yongmei Chen-Wegmann, who has lived and worked in Germany for many years and attached great importance to understanding my text in depth. That was a good collaboration. Now the book can also be purchased in China.
Link to ordering in China
My first book on Industrie 4.0 was published in 2013. It was also the first book ever under the title “Industrie 4.0”. In 2015, it became a bestseller in China. Xi Jinping had declared the German Industrie 4.0 initiative to be the model for China’s long-term industrial strategy, the first 10-year plan of which was adopted under the title “Made in China 2025”. Well over 200,000 Chinese then searched for literature in bookstores and found my book as the first to feature a German expert in Chinese. What a stroke of luck.
My second book, “The Internet of Things – Industrie 4.0 Unleashed”, unlike the first, not only contained two chapters by me about China, but also one by the CEO of the online news portal Xinhuanet, in which Industrie 4.0 and Made in China 2025 were compared and put into context. It was not a big hit. When it came out, Trump had just become US president and declared “Made in China 2025” to be the devil’s work and started his trade war with China. That had just as negative an impact on my second book as the 2015 announcement of China’s industrial strategy had had positive ones on my first.
So now my latest book, which deals with the application of AI in industry and is intended to be a compass for industry decision makers to use it, is being published in Chinese. And this time I can’t go to China for book launches and lectures because of Corona. But maybe the book will still be successful.
The book is out and Corona will soon eventually no longer be an obstacle. And then I’m already looking forward to continuing my lecture tours in China.
There are so many differences between our cultures that open up. And many things are handled so differently than here. Many things are more beautiful.
Before each conference, all the speakers are invited to a separate room where there is tea and fruit or cookies. And then they get to know the organizers, the political leaders of the province or region, the local representatives of the administration and party, exchange cards and have initial conversations.
Often, the conversations continue over dinner at round tables. And the conversations that take place go deeper and are much more interesting than they can ever be with politicians from any party in our country here.
My great wish would be that Germany, with its enormous industrial know-how and its special kind of industrial training, would offer itself to China as a partner. Instead, there are apparently many who believe that China’s resurrection and its becoming a leading industrial country can be prevented. Wishful thinking, that is.
