First Reading Session Of NJ Hydraulic Adapter: A Gathering Connected By Books

On the Sunday afternoon of September 16th, the first-floor conference room of NingBo NJ Hydraulic Adapter Co., Ltd. was filled with warmth, where the company's first reading session kicked off. More than 20 employees, accompanied by their family members, gathered here to attend this cultural event of making friends through books. The reading focus of this session was Chapter 6 of A Dream of Red Mansions – "Granny Liu's First Visit to the Rongguo Mansion".

 

At 1 p.m., the pioneer team composed of company employees had already gotten busy. Distributing reading materials, arranging refreshments and fruits, and debugging demonstration equipment, all preparation work was carried out in an orderly manner, laying a solid foundation for the smooth progress of the reading session. The event started promptly at 2:10 p.m.

In the opening session, Ms. Lu Yan gave a sharing titled Leadership from the Perspective of World Classics. Centering on "the core mission of enterprises", she stated, "To clarify the essence of an enterprise, we must first figure out its purpose – the significance of an enterprise goes far beyond itself, and its only accurate definition is 'to create customers'." Later, she recommended Peter Drucker's classic work The Practice of Management to everyone, and quoted Chairman Mao's teaching of "reading extensively", emphasizing that "scholarship cannot do without extensive reading, and language is the external expression of thought", so as to clarify the importance of reading for the growth of both individuals and enterprises.

 

Following closely was the self-introduction session. Each participant needed to complete a "self-introduction card" within one minute: sharing their name, hobbies, life goals, as well as favorite books or movies, and achieving effective self-presentation through concise expressions.

 

In the subsequent core reading session, everyone studied together the story of "Granny Liu's First Visit to the Rongguo Mansion" from A Dream of Red Mansions: Granny Liu, who was in a difficult financial situation, went to the Rongguo Mansion for help with her grandson Ban'er at the persuasion of her son-in-law Gou'er. She managed to find Ms. Zhou, who had once worked in the mansion, and with her recommendation, met Wang Xifeng, the actual person in charge of the Rongguo Mansion. Faced with Wang Xifeng's authority, Granny Liu seemed a little uneasy but still politely stated her purpose. Wang Xifeng did not agree readily at first, but after learning that Granny Liu had an old family tie with the ancestors of the Rongguo Mansion, she finally gave her twenty taels of silver, saying it was "for the maids to make clothes". Granny Liu accepted the silver with great gratitude and left with this "emergency money", temporarily relieving her family's urgent financial needs.

 

The in-depth value of this plot can be interpreted from two dimensions. First, it is a true reflection of the survival wisdom of the underprivileged: Granny Liu put aside her worries and took the initiative to ask for help. Her words were humble yet dignified, and she accurately understood the mindsets of Ms. Zhou, Wang Xifeng and others. This showed the practical and flexible way of dealing with things of the underprivileged in difficult situations, which was not currying favor with the powerful, but the helplessness and perseverance of striving for a living for the family. Second, it is a vivid reflection of class differences: the attitudes of people in the Rongguo Mansion towards Granny Liu – from Wang Xifeng's somewhat charitable manner to the servants' scrutiny – formed a sharp contrast with Granny Liu's uneasiness. It straightforwardly exposed the social reality of the huge gap between the rich and the poor, and the mixture of warmth and coldness in human relationships in the feudal era, and also laid the groundwork for the subsequent decline of the Rongguo Mansion from prosperity.

 

After the joint reading, the atmosphere at the scene became even warmer, and participants actively shared their insights combined with their own experiences.

Gong Juhong spoke first. She believed that the plot of "Granny Liu's First Visit to the Rongguo Mansion" was permeated with the "reciprocity principle" from the book Influence, which could be regarded as a vivid example of this principle in the Chinese human relationship society. She explained that the core of the reciprocity principle is "wanting to repay after receiving favors", and this psychology is deeply rooted in the cultural genes. In the story, Granny Liu was able to enter the Rongguo Mansion precisely because her son-in-law had once helped Ms. Zhou's husband; the old favor became a "stepping stone" for her today. Facing Wang Xifeng, she conveyed "emotional value" with simple local products and a respectful attitude, gaining help with sincerity. Before leaving, she specially set aside some silver for Ms. Zhou's children to buy snacks, promptly repaying the kindness of the guide. The twenty taels of silver that Wang Xifeng gave casually back then eventually led to Granny Liu sparing no effort to save Wang Xifeng's daughter Qiao Jie when the Jia Mansion declined. "When you give roses to others, your hands will also be scented", Gong Juhong used this to encourage everyone, noting that small kindness might shine unexpectedly in the future.

He Tingting, a salesperson with ten years of experience in the foreign trade industry, once engaged in the sales of automatic coffee machines. Now she is responsible for the sales of hydraulic pipe fittings, and also takes on the duties of training new foreign trade staff and leading the sales team. Recently, recommended by Sister He, she has been studying Influence and gained a lot of marketing ideas from the cases in the book. She highly praised Gong Juhong as the "best speaker" of this event, saying that her interpretation of A Dream of Red Mansions was not only in line with the plot but also went deep into the core of the characters. When talking about her gains from the event, she particularly mentioned the sentence "Speak in a way that pleases others, act in a way that touches others, and behave in a way that makes others miss you", believing that it accurately revealed the essence of marketing – the key lies in "how to conduct oneself and handle affairs". In addition, she was deeply impressed by Ms. Lu Yan's approachable and insightful sharing, the courage shown by colleagues in breaking through themselves during self-introductions, and the sparks of thought generated during the exchanges. She hoped that her child would be more courageous to express himself/herself in future activities and improve his/her literary literacy. She also expected the reading session to continue for a long time, attracting more participants and enabling the power of knowledge to empower more families.

Lou Jinong, the manager of the Warehousing Center, joked that he participated in this event "by accident". Ms. Lu Yan's approachability made her fully engaged throughout. Walking into the conference room, the positive slogans all over the walls and the scene of He Tingting attending with her whole family made him feel the dedication put into the event, and he was particularly grateful to Sister He who made this event possible. Through the self-introduction and reading reflection sharing, he truly felt the gaps between people, especially the expressive ability of Gong Juhong and He Tingting, who integrated A Dream of Red Mansions with Influence, which deeply touched him. "Ms. Lu still insists on learning English every day; I have no reason to be lazy," Lou Jinong stated on the spot that he would keep reading to enrich himself no matter how busy he was in the future.

Tang Ming, the supervisor of the Technology Department, has worked in the company for ten years. He witnessed the growth and transformation of the enterprise with his own eyes, and also accumulated rich experience in his position. Not long ago, General Manager He distributed the book Influence to various departments, which benefited him a lot. He was studying and understanding the seven core methods elaborated in the book word by word. When talking about this reading session, he recognized Ms. Lu Yan's plain explanation of the significance of reading, and believed that everyone shared their understanding of A Dream of Red Mansions from different perspectives, each having its own highlights. Among them, He Tingting's speech, which analyzed the plot from the marketing perspective combined with the relevant principles in Influence, was particularly profound. The sentence "Infinite distances and countless people are all related to me" deeply touched him. He sighed that reading could allow people to cross time and space, communicate with the past and present, and connect with the world. Finally, he thanked Sister He for building the platform of the reading session, and also thanked Ms. Lu Yan and Teacher Sisi for their guidance, hoping that the reading session would be like a beam of light, illuminating everyone's way forward.

The core value of this gathering connected by books lies in building a platform for ideological exchange. Specifically, first, it breaks the thinking barriers: reading alone is easy to fall into fixed cognition, while the collision of different experiences and viewpoints can enable people to interpret books from a new perspective and deepen their understanding. Second, it gathers learning synergy: the atmosphere of group reading can effectively dispel the laziness of individual reading, forming a positive cycle of "joint reading – sharing – improvement", making reading more efficient and sustainable. Third, it empowers growth and social interaction: it provides a high-quality communication scene for like-minded people. In the sharing, people not only gain knowledge but also improve their expressive, empathic and critical thinking abilities.

 

The book pages are temporarily closed, but the thinking continues. We look forward to more new partners joining the next reading session to continue this growth journey accompanied by books.