[Explanation] Hunan Miluo was the place where Qu Yuan, a world cultural celebrity, lived and wrote in his later years and died in Shenjiang.

Here, Qu Yuan created classics such as "Questions of Heaven", "Lisao", and "Nine Songs", which created the source of Chinese romantic literature.

From December 11th to 14th, 2020 China Miluojiang International Poetry Art Week was held here. Hundreds of Chinese and foreign poets, writers, and university heads of liberal arts gathered together to promote international exchanges of poetry.

　　Tang Xilan, a Russian poet and translator living in Hangzhou, has been majoring in Chinese language and literature since he came to China to study in 2013, so he has the opportunity to learn ancient Chinese poetry and modern and contemporary literature.

In her view, due to the long-standing friendship between the two countries, many Russian poets are very famous in China, and Chinese modern and contemporary literature and Russian literature in the 20th century also have many similarities, which well reflect the achievements of cultural exchanges between the two countries.

　　[Concurrent] Tang Xilan, Russian poet and translator

　　In fact, I found that slowly starting to get in touch with Chinese and understand Chinese culture has actually brought me a lot of creative inspiration.

Then I started from what should be the simplest hobby, to writing for the purpose of practicing Chinese, and then to express my inner feelings heartily.

So this is how I learned in Chinese, turning my love of China into a line of poetry.

　　[Explanation] Tang Xilan said that the biggest difficulty for foreigners to learn ancient poetry is to understand the meaning of ancient Chinese, because the structure of ancient Chinese and modern Chinese is completely different.

When she first arrived in China, the teacher asked her classmates to try to write poetry in the flat tone of archaic poetry. As the only foreign student in the class, she "has suffered a lot."

　　[Concurrent] Tang Xilan, Russian poet and translator

　　I (at the time) didn't have a particularly deep understanding of ancient Chinese. I could only write in some modern aspects, that is, modern Chinese, but such a poem could not be complete.

This is the way of writing Chinese archaic poetry. It is best to understand ancient rhyming rhythms and so on.

　　[Explanation] Later, when studying Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", Tang Xilan found that first understanding Qu Yuan's personal story and the creative background of each poem can help her understand the meaning of the poem well.

She also learned about the origin of the Dragon Boat Festival, one of the most popular Chinese festivals among foreigners.

　　Tang Xilan said that the Dragon Boat Festival is not only a day for family reunion, but also a commemorative meaning.

Qu Yuan is a world cultural celebrity and a great patriot in Chinese history. His literary attainments and patriotic sentiments are worthy of the respect of contemporary people.

At the same time, the Dragon Boat Festival can also be a day for foreigners far away to miss their homeland and relatives.

　　[Concurrent] Tang Xilan, Russian poet and translator

　　After I learned about Qu Yuan's story, I actually found that he can also become an idol for us foreigners.

　　Xu Zhixiong reports from Guan Ziwen in Yueyang, Hunan

Editor in charge: [Sun Jingbo]