China News Service, Miluo, December 14 (Reporter Xu Zhixiong) "After I came to China to major in Chinese language and literature, I discovered the charm of Chinese ancient poetry." Russia is participating in the 2020 China Miluojiang International Poetry Art Week in Miluo, Hunan Poet and translator Tang Xilan shared how she fell in love with writing poems and said that Chinese culture has given her a lot of creative inspiration. She has learned to express her inner feelings in Chinese and turn them into lines of poetry.

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

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, who came to China to study in 2013, first studied Chinese at Changchun University, and then entered Zhejiang Sci-Tech University to major in Chinese language and literature a year later.

When I first came into contact with ancient Chinese literature, the teacher asked the students to try to write poems in the flat tone of ancient poetry. As the only foreign student in the class, she "has suffered a lot."

Chinese and foreign poets in Miluo, Hunan, make friends with poetry.

Photo by Xu Zhixiong

  "For foreigners to learn ancient poetry, the biggest difficulty lies in understanding the meaning of ancient Chinese, because the structure of ancient Chinese is completely different from modern Chinese." Tang Xilan said. Later, when learning Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs", she discovered that she should first understand Qu Yuan's personal story and the 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.

"After I learned the story about Qu Yuan, I discovered that he can also become an idol worshipped by foreigners."

  In Tang Xilan's view, many Russian poets are very famous in China due to the long-standing friendship between the two countries. There are many similarities between Chinese modern and contemporary literature and Russian 20th century literature, which well reflects the achievements of cultural exchanges between the two countries.

  Ji Di Majia, vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, said that today China has deeply integrated into the world. Qu Yuan belongs to China and the world. He is not only in the history of Chinese romantic poetry, but also in the world of romantic literature.

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