Complex sentence: He joined the press in 1918 as an editor and took up novel-writing as a hobby, the first of his novels serialized being "A Pining Song for the Southern Country" (南国相思谱, "Nanguo xiangsi pu", 1919).
Split into simpler sentences: He joined the press in 1918 as an editor and took up novel-writing as a hobby. The first of his novels being serialized was "A Pining Song for the Southern Country" (南国相思谱, "Nanguo xiangsi pu", 1919).