Interview with Mai Jia, the winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award, and talk about how Chinese literature is spread internationally——
"The power of the country is helping Chinese literature go to the world"
Our reporter Liu Shaohua
Hangzhou, Xixi Wetland, it is early autumn, the blue trees are engulfed in the humid air, and birds fly over the lake from time to time.
Writer Mai's "Ideal Valley" bookstore is here, and many of his best-selling books are also completed here.
This writer is a household name in China, and now his works have sold well in many countries.
In the country, the novel "The Accusation" won the 7th Mao Dun Literature Award.
Overseas, the novel "Deciphered" was rated as "2014 World Top Ten Theory" by The Economist, and the English version was included in the famous "Penguin Classics" library.
His latest work "The Sea of Life" has become one of the best-selling works in the Chinese book market in recent years, and it is also being translated into many languages and sold overseas.
On May 31 this year, when presiding over the 30th collective study of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to better promote the Chinese culture to go global, to convey the truth with the text, to spread the voice with the text, and to share the culture with the world. Explain and recommend more outstanding cultures with Chinese characteristics, embodying Chinese spirit, and containing Chinese wisdom.
Mai Jia’s works spread from a corner of Hangzhou to the world, which proves that Chinese literature and Chinese culture want to go out, not only need a pen from a writer, but also need to have the vision and ability of international communication.
And its background is an increasingly powerful China, which is becoming the focus of world attention.
Promoting Chinese culture to go out, Mai's family has found a way worth learning.
From Spanish bus advertising to "Mai's Night"
Mai Jia still remembers that when he went abroad to Latin America and Europe in 2014, he discovered that his work was really popular.
On the streets of Madrid, the Spanish capital, the Spanish version of his work "Deciphered" was printed on the buses of 18 bus routes and shuttled for a full three weeks.
From the end of June to the end of July 2014, he accepted hundreds of local media interviews during his visit to Spanish-speaking countries for nearly a month.
For contemporary Chinese writers, large-scale advertisements and intensive media reports are unprecedented treatment in Spanish-speaking countries.
One of Spain’s largest newspapers, “Abbeza,” commented on the book “Decrypted”, “It is a subtle and complex story, a combination of spy stories, historical legends and digital codes. Mai’s elegant brushwork makes his works both Literary and very popular."
In Argentina, the largest local newspaper, "The Clarion", linked the country's well-known writer Borges with Mai's.
"Mai's family has talked about his deep connection with Borges more than once. Borges has also become an entry point for dialogue between him and local media and scholars during this trip to South America."
Before leaving, he was still a little nervous, wondering whether foreign media and readers would buy it.
Facts have proved that worrying is a bit redundant. "Deciphered" is very popular in the local area. Even its publisher and the largest publishing house in the Spanish-speaking world, "Planet", are surprised.
In English-speaking countries, "Decrypted" is also popular.
In the United Kingdom, in 2013, Penguin Random House, the world's largest publisher, purchased the copyright of the English version of "Decrypted" with a prepaid copyright of £50,000 and included it in the "Penguin Classic Library".
Up to that time, the only works of Chinese writers included in the library were "A Dream of Red Mansions", "The True Story of Ah Q", "Besieged City" and "Lust Caution." 33 translations.
Subsequently, Mai Jia's work "The Dark Calculation" was also included in this library.
In the United States, FSG (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroud) is responsible for publishing "Decrypted". This publishing house is the most distinctive brand in the United States that can continue the tradition of literary publishing houses. The publishing targets include dozens of people. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
After mainstream languages such as English and Spanish have become popular, Mai's books have also become popular in many other language markets.
In the spring of 2016, at the invitation of Europe's largest reading festival "Leipzig Reading Festival" and Denmark "Hawsons Writers Festival", Maijia made a 20-day publicity tour.
During the period, the Danish Minister of Culture personally received Mai's house, and the "Denmark Daily" also reported on Mai's house and "Decrypted" in two full pages.
In Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, the Mai family expressed emotion when meeting with local readers that Chinese literary works must go to the world and must have choices and trade-offs in themes, so that foreign readers must understand them.
On the evening of October 9, 2018, the Frankfurt Book Fair, the world’s largest book fair, held the "Mai Jia Night" on the opening day. As the first hot event on the opening day, the major release of Mai Jia’s third novel "The Wind" International copyright.
This is the first time a personal theme event for Chinese writers has been held at the Frankfurt Book Fair, attracting nearly a hundred publishers from more than 20 countries.
Today, Mai's works have been translated into 33 languages, including "Deciphered", "Darked", and "The Wind". They have been published in more than 100 countries and have been positively reported by at least 400 overseas media.
With a pen, he has made outstanding contributions to the promotion of Chinese culture "going out".
All this, as the headline of the Wall Street Journal in April 2014 said-"A Chinese Novelist Goes Global".
Going to the world at the right time
"Compared with the popularity of foreign literature in China, the influence of Chinese literature in the world is still limited. Against this background, the degree of attention that works such as "Deciphered" have received overseas in recent years is indeed a bit beyond my expectation. "Mai Jia admits that there are some elements of luck here.
He attributed his success to "coincidentally"—wrote a good story, met a good translator, "catch up" with the publishing industry giants, and the world is desperately in need of understanding China.
Mai Jia said that he is most grateful to Mi Oumin, the first English translator, because the translation is the second parent of the work.
British Sinologist Miumin mainly studies pre-Qin history. Her previous research topics were related to Chinese classical literature, and she also translated many ancient books, but she did not know much about contemporary Chinese literature.
Because of an airplane delay, she saw "Deciphered" in the bookstore at Shanghai Airport, picked it up and read it all in one go, feeling "it's too late to meet."
After returning home, she amused herself and translated a few chapters for her grandfather, who participated in the work of deciphering German codes under the leadership of Turing, the "father of computer science" during World War II.
After her classmate and famous Sinologist Lan Shiling saw it, she showed it to the editor of Penguin Publishing House. The other party showed strong interest.
"It is difficult for many contemporary Chinese novels to have readers in Europe, because Europeans do not understand China's historical and cultural background, and they do not know much about contemporary Chinese life. If there are no relevant annotations, it is difficult for readers to appreciate these books. But in the West There are also spy war novels.” Mi Oumin felt that Mai’s works had a readership in the West, and they were willing to read a Chinese spy novel.
The first copyright sold by "Deciphered" was English copyright, which laid a good foundation for subsequent global publishing.
It is not accidental that as soon as Mai's works went abroad, they cooperated with well-known international publishing companies, and had a high standing and brand effect, which laid a solid foundation for the distribution of the works.
The reality at the time was indeed not optimistic.
The famous British Sinologist Julia Lovell once pointed out the dilemma of Chinese literature overseas publishing: "In 2009, only 8 Chinese novels were published in the United States", "The best academic bookstore in Cambridge University, China All the books of literature, ancient and modern, occupy only one floor of the bookshelf, and their length is less than 1 meter."
"Products made in China have already spread all over the world. In contrast, our literature and even our culture has been struggling to'go global'." Mai Jia believes that it is indeed difficult for literature to go abroad.
In addition to "natural disasters" such as the epidemic, what is more important is that some developed countries in Europe and the United States are unwilling to recognize China's rise, deliberately ignoring us, and facing us with unwillingness.
Of course, part of the reason is that Chinese writers no longer vilify themselves in order to please the outside world, and no longer follow the practice of "going abroad to win prizes and returning home to show off".
"If the world wants to understand China, literature is the only way to go, because it represents the people's standpoint and reflects the scene of life." Mai Jia said, as Balzac said, novels are the secret history of a nation, nothing like literature. A subject category where you can hear the footsteps and heartbeats of a nation or country.
Tell the story of the "Chinese Hero"
In September 2021, two years after its publication, Mai Jia’s latest work "The Sea of Life" sold more than 2.2 million copies.
Many readers find that the Mai family no longer writes familiar spy wars and no longer focuses on geniuses. Instead, they set the background in their hometown, a small southern village, and tell the story of the ups and downs of a "colon" in a hidden mountain village.
Interested people will also find that, in the final analysis, the protagonist of the story, the "colon," is still a "Chinese hero" with the motherland in his heart and silent dedication.
Looking back at each of the previous works on the subject of "Spy War" by the Mai family, no matter how different the protagonist is, the core is always such a "Chinese hero" with the country and the people in his heart.
In the complex environment, under insurmountable pressure, they walked by candle night, with absolute loyalty, and assumed the responsibility to the country and the nation.
Such "Chinese heroes" are very different from heroes in Western works. They are not as public and personal as the latter.
However, loyalty and responsibility are in line with the simple values of the people of the world, and they have a popular foundation for the world.
The national integrity presented in this way will easily impress readers and audiences once they go overseas.
Mai Jia said that he hopes that his work "provides an outlet for foreigners to correctly accept Chinese heroes" in order to express the wisdom and energy of Chinese people.
This kind of good stories and characters with Chinese characteristics have long crossed national boundaries and become a part of world culture.
South Korean film production company LAMP has taken a fancy to this point. Since the end of 2018, it has contacted Mai's three times to discuss the film copyright cooperation of its work "The Wind", and finally reached an agreement.
In January of this year, the movie was launched.
It is worth noting that, as a work that tells the story of the underground workers of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s, it was locally adapted when it entered the Korean market.
For example, according to the characteristics of Korean, it was renamed "Ghost" when it was introduced to the Korean market.
In addition, the script has also been greatly changed, and the identity and decryption process of the agent "old ghost" have been changed.
However, Mai Jia told reporters that the spiritual core and story shell of "The Wind" will not change, because the protagonist "old ghost" in the story is not a specific person, but a spirit and a belief.
The core of the "Chinese Hero" spread out in this way.
Why can such a "Chinese hero" move people?
Mai Jia told reporters that as a writer, he was very "cruel" to the heroes in his works, and none of the heroes in his works had a good end.
However, this is also the universal "hero principle"-Mai Jia concluded, "The so-called hero, but his vicissitudes of life are deeper than others."
In a sense, this is also a general art rule. In order to make people love heroes, we have to be cruel to heroes, but also to make people cherish the good life.
"My works have a wide audience ranging from novels to film and television, which also shows that the era needs lofty, the people need heroes, and positive energy." Mai Jia analysis, through "Deciphered", "Dark calculation", "The Wind" and other works, shaped the A group of unsung heroes who silently contribute to the cause of national security.
"'Chinese hero' is also a'world hero' in essence."
Let literature become a channel for the world to understand China
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that literary and art workers must tell Chinese stories, spread Chinese voices, interpret Chinese spirit, and show Chinese style, so that foreign people can deepen their understanding of China and increase their understanding of China by admiring the works of Chinese writers and artists.
In recent years, many Chinese literary works have become popular among overseas readers.
In addition to Mai Jia's works, Liu Cixin's "Three-Body" series, etc., have been on the bestseller lists in European and American countries.
"It is the power of the country that is helping Chinese literature to go to the world. Today's China has its voice, footprint, and influence in any corner of the world. It is so powerful that no one dares to ignore it. Everyone wants to understand it, and literature is a cognition. The most convenient way for a country and nation to usher in the "red fortune" and win the entrustment." Mai Jia said with emotion, at this time we should be most grateful to the motherland behind it-it is a giant, carrying 1.4 billion people Of glory and dreams.
"I believe that as long as China continues to develop, the outside world will be more interested in Chinese literature, because literature is the most convenient way to understand a country." Mai Jia said.
Literature is the most objective and popular way to understand a nation, a country.
China is now getting stronger and stronger in the world, and the world's curiosity towards the Chinese is also increasing. At this time, literature will become a channel for them to understand the Chinese.
In fact, China's literary territory in the world has expanded significantly in recent years. Chinese writers have frequently won awards overseas. The world has shown unprecedented enthusiasm for Chinese literature.
The Mai family has played a very good demonstration effect.
As a pioneer, he has taken the initiative to lead Zhejiang writers to "go out" for several years.
In 2017, through the coordination of the Mai family, the British Penguin Publishing House launched a five-volume series of Zhejiang writers, which concentrated on showing the strength of the "literary Zhejiang army" to overseas and telling the story of Zhejiang to the world.
However, Mai Jia also believes that, for the time being, Chinese literature cannot yet take on the important task of letting the world understand China, because too few works have been translated.
"Western media can create rumors about China all day long. Part of the reason is that our literature has not'goed out'. If foreign people don't understand China, rumors can come in."
As an explorer of successful international dissemination of literature, Mai Jia believes that writers should tell stories about the broad and enterprising spirit of the Chinese people like martial arts stories.
Mai Jia believes that compared with Westerners, Chinese are humble, broad-minded, not arrogant, and have a strong enterprising spirit, but we lack a positive interpretation of the good quality works of Chinese people.
Of course, the spread of culture requires patience.
The reason why Mai Jia's works were discovered by Planetary Publishing House also benefited from a promotion conference organized by Wuzhou Communication Publishing House.
Entering the other party's field of vision is an important prerequisite for international communication.
The Mai family hopes that more sinologists and famous brand publishing organizations can be invited in in the future to deepen mutual understanding.
"History and reality have proved that the Chinese nation has strong cultural creativity. At every major historical juncture, culture can feel the changes in the fortune of the country, set the tide of the times, and be the forerunners of the times, and serve hundreds of millions of people and the great motherland. Drum and shout." Mai Jia believes that the development of Chinese literature and art is inseparable from the correct leadership and attention of our party.
"I am grateful for this era, giving me the best creative soil and writing good stories. My works can still go abroad, fulfilling my mission, and winning glory for the country."
Looking forward to the future, Mai Jia said: “Next, I will sink my heart and write more and better Chinese stories in the future. We must write works with the bones of the Chinese nation and the body temperature of our ancestors. Only such works are possible. "Going out", and only such works "Going out" is meaningful, so that the people of the world can truly understand China."