The "circle of friends" in Chinese literature is getting bigger and bigger (in-depth observation)

  Expanding the team of native-speaking translators, continuing to carry out contemporary literary translation projects, and innovating to build a platform for Chinese and foreign literary exchanges... In recent years, the Chinese Writers Association has steadily promoted literary exchanges and external dissemination, and expanded the "friend circle" of Chinese literature, so that it has Chinese characteristics, Literary works that embody the Chinese spirit and contain Chinese wisdom are approaching more and more overseas readers.

  Internal and external linkages promote good books to go abroad

  "Going deep into life can truly see the ups and downs experienced by people in the changing times, their persevering spirit of struggle, and the texture of life in China." The writer Qin Ling talked about his reportage "High and High Yuan". "Gudui" said so.

  Starting from September 2019, the Chinese Writers Association has cooperated with the former State Council’s Poverty Alleviation Office to organize and select 25 writers to go to poverty alleviation points in more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country for in-depth life and on-site interviews, and creations reflecting the progress and achievements of poverty alleviation work Reportage works.

Qin Ling, as one of the writers involved, described in "The High Yuan Gudui", the Yuan Gudui Village in Weiyuan County, Dingxi City, Gansu Province changed from a "mud pile" butterfly to "beautiful" in the fight against poverty. Gansu·Ten Beautiful Villages" and the historical feat of the national poverty alleviation demonstration village.

Today, this book will be translated into English and published by the British Unicorn Publishing Group.

  In recent years, literary works reflecting the reality of contemporary China have continuously attracted the attention of foreign publishing circles.

Jiang Wei's "National Temperature-My Field Survey 2019-2020", Li Di's "Eighteen Stories of Eighteen Cave Villages", and Wang Song's "Azalea and Azalea" will be translated by the British Unicorn Publishing Group Published in English; Ren Linju's "The Story of Out of the Mud" will be translated into English and published by Phoenix Wood Publishing House, United Kingdom; Ai Ping's "Spring Breeze Stains Green and Red Under the Mountains", Ding Yan's "Lingnan All Households Are Spring Scenery-Guangdong Precision Poverty Alleviation Documentary" will be published by Translated into English and published by European University Press in Germany.

The "People's Literature" magazine cooperated with Foreign Languages ​​Publishing House to compile the translation of excellent works in the journal's "New Era Chronicle" and other columns, and planned and published the English version of "Bao De San Chun Hui" with the theme of "Poverty Alleviation". "De San Chunhui", "The World Is Sunny Sky", "Bao Haas Sanhui Keyouzhongqi" and other works, tell the story of China's poverty alleviation; "The Eye of the Sky" with the theme of "Excellent Grassroots Communists", contains " "Eye of the Sky", "Ice and Fire in the South China Sea", "This Thought, This Heart" and other works tell overseas readers the advanced deeds of grassroots party members.

  Meng Na, a young Iranian sinologist, said: "I am full of expectations for these works. Publishing them overseas will help foreign readers better understand the current situation in China."

  Overseas publishing organizations are paying more and more attention to contemporary Chinese literature.

Since 2013, the Chinese Writers Association has implemented the Chinese Contemporary Works Translation Project and the Chinese Contemporary Literature Fine Translation Project of the Chinese Writers Association, and solicited projects from the society. Up to now, it has funded 365 foreign translation and publishing projects involving 36 languages.

The works of well-known writers such as Wang Meng, Wang Anyi, Feng Jicai, and young writers such as Zhang Yueran, A Yi, and Shuang Xuetao have taken the east wind of the translation project and traveled across oceans to the world.

  "Every year after the "Announcement on the Collection of Chinese Contemporary Works Translation Project" is issued, many domestic and foreign publishing houses and translators will contact us. In recent years, more and more foreign publishing houses have begun to make great efforts to introduce Chinese contemporary literary works. For example, the British Chase Publishing House, the French Biezier Publishing House, the German European University Press, the Egyptian Hikmet Culture Company, the Russian Shangs International Publishing House, the Spanish Planetary Publishing Group, the Italian White Star Publishing Group, etc., there are new Foreign publishers came to consult.” said the relevant person in charge of the Translation Engineering Office of the Chinese Writers Association.

  As the pace of Chinese literary works going overseas continues to accelerate, the categories of Chinese literature in libraries in various countries have also been continuously enriched.

The "Report on the Influence of Chinese Books Overseas Collections" jointly produced by China Publishing Media Business News and Beijing Foreign Studies University School of International Journalism and Communication shows that in the past 10 years, writers’ publishing houses that mainly publish literary books have accumulatively selected 2,741 types of books. .

In 2021, Jia Pingwa's "Temporary Sitting" published by the agency has included 38 overseas libraries, and Wang Meng's "Laughing Wind" has included 36 overseas libraries.

  Native translators expand the translation team

  In 2000, the American young man Eric Abu Hansen just came to Beijing. He was not very fluent in Chinese. At that time, he could not imagine that he would cooperate with the prestigious Chinese literary magazine "People's Literature" in the future and become its foreign language edition. Translator.

  After finishing his studies at Minzu University of China, Eric worked as an editor and a freelance writer, and later moved to the translation of contemporary Chinese literature.

In 2007, he and his friends founded the English website "Papertopia", which translated the works of his favorite writers such as Su Tong, Bi Feiyu, Xu Zechen into English for publication-the original author provides the copyright for free, the translator provides free translation, and the reader reads for free .

Because of the excellent translations, "Paper Topia" quickly attracted the attention of foreign netizens, and slowly gathered a group of like-minded translators, working together to introduce excellent Chinese literary works to the English world with high-quality translations.

  The translation on "Paper Topia" also attracted the attention of "People's Literature", which coincided with the magazine's plan to launch an English version, and the two sides hit it off.

Since the launch of the English edition of "People's Literature" in 2011, "PATHLIGHT" (PATHLIGHT) became the translator of the journal, and Eric has been the editorial director of the English edition.

  With the support of many prestigious translators and translators with rich practical experience in translation, "People's Literature" has successively launched 9 foreign language editions since 2014: including the German version of "Street Light" and the Italian version of "Chinese Characters" , French version of "Dawn", Russian version of "Light", Korean version of "Lighting", Spanish version (Latin America) "Street Lamp", published once a year, Arabic version of "Silk Road Light", Spanish version (local ) "Silk Road on Paper" and other irregular publications, and plans to release foreign language editions in Vietnamese, Polish, Dutch and other languages.

  "Good works need good translations," said Shi Zhanjun, editor-in-chief of "People's Literature." The editions of Vimartin and Mahaimo, the Italian editions of Li Sha and Fu Xuelian, the Korean editions of Kim Tae-sung, Lin Chuncheng, etc. Among them, well-known translators such as Han Bin, Li Sha, and Kim Tae-sung are all winners of the China Book Special Contribution Award. "

  It was late at night when the reporter contacted Kim Tae-sung. Although he was going to be hospitalized for surgery a few days later, he was still busy translating a collection of essays by the Chinese writer Li Jingze, "Wing and Going".

"This book is very well written! The author has vividly written the characters in the Spring and Autumn Period." Jin Taicheng said.

He originally came to China every one or two months to participate in literary exchange activities, by the way, to see what new books and good books are available.

Now affected by the epidemic, he has more time to stay in his studio in Seoul, translating the dozen or so books included in the plan.

“A good translation requires readers to read it without thinking that it is a translation. It requires a translator to have the rhetoric power of Korean and a thorough knowledge of various categories of Chinese culture. This depends on a lot of reading.” Kim Tae-sung said.

Since 1995, he has translated about 130 Chinese literary works.

  With the joint efforts of native-speaking translators and the Chinese editorial team, the foreign edition of "People's Literature" has also attracted many foreign publishing houses such as Penguin Langdon Group, German Longjia Publishing House, and Mexico 21st Century Publishing House. Realize publishing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico, Egypt, South Korea and other countries.

Among them, the German version with the theme of "Urban Life" also won Germany's Top Ten Hot Book Awards in 2019, and was warmly welcomed by German-speaking readers.

  Feel Chinese literature at your doorstep

  On the afternoon of October 24th, French local time, on the rippling Seine River, the sound of poetry recitations came from a cruise ship.

Accompanied by the Guzheng music played by Chinese living in France Sun Ming, Chinese living in France Jiang Chu and French guest Anthony Gefal recited the famous piece "Chun Jiang Hua Yue Ye" by Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ruoxu in Chinese and French respectively. More than 20 guests were present. All are infected by the charm of Chinese literature.

  This is the first event organized by the French "Chinese Literature Readers Club". In August this year, in order to allow overseas readers to have access to fresh, vivid and three-dimensional Chinese literature without going abroad, the Chinese Writers Association initiated the establishment of the "Chinese Literature Overseas Readers club".

After the club landed in the first batch of 12 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Turkey, the response was strong. Publishing houses, sinologists, translators, and literary planning experts from various countries made full use of their local influence to carry out book clubs, lectures, and lectures. Various forms of literary activities such as essay competitions and work recitations have been held so far. 16 activities have been held.

  With the efforts of the club, Chinese literary works have achieved "zero distance" with foreign readers.

In Malaysia, the Malay version of "The Ordinary World" was listed as extracurricular reading materials by the local education department and recommended to middle school students across the country; the Malay version of the online book club "Muslim's Funeral" attracted more than 4,000 readers.

As the most translated 20th-century Chinese writer, Lu Xun’s works have 21 pamphlets in Russia, with a total circulation of more than 1.4 million copies.

To commemorate the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun’s birth, Ye Kejia, a sinologist at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Luo Yulan, a sinologist at St. Petersburg University, and Rodionov, took Russian readers to appreciate Lu Xun’s masterpieces such as The True Story of Ah Q.

The Singapore and Turkish clubs centered on "Dust Settled" and other works, guiding readers to think deeply about the reasons and enlightenment behind the changes in China's social development.

British translators immediately recommended Zhou Daxin, Li Juan, Dongxi and other contemporary Chinese writers to local literary lovers and college students to show the prosperity of the Chinese literary world in a timely manner.

  The relevant person in charge of the External Relations Department of the Chinese Writers Association said: “In response to the inconvenience of exchanges of visits between Chinese and foreign writers under the influence of the epidemic, the Chinese Writers Association, through the innovative planning of the Chinese Literature Overseas Readers Club, allows Chinese literature that was originally only found in books to be used in rich and diverse forms. , To enter local schools, communities, and media to achieve localization, normalization, and community communication, so as to satisfy overseas readers’ desire to understand Chinese literature."

  In countries along the “Belt and Road”, Sino-foreign literary exchanges have also gathered new forces.

In September this year, in order to promote the normalization and institutionalization of Sino-foreign literary exchanges, the Chinese Writers Association initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" literary alliance. 30 literary organizations from 35 countries and many writers and translators joined as founding members.

The alliance will provide services for members in building a literary exchange and cooperation platform, conducting exchanges of personnel visits, promoting the translation and dissemination of excellent literary works, strengthening the training of young literary talents, and promoting cooperation in literary copyright protection.

  The reporter noticed that on November 23, a "Call for Contributions for "The Belt and Road" Theme Works" was published on the official website of the "Belt and Road" Literary Alliance. 6. Literary information in 6 categories, soliciting excellent literary works and literary trends from countries along the "Belt and Road" for Chinese and foreigners.

  "In just a few days, we received more than 200 Chinese and foreign manuscripts. The contributors included not only well-known Chinese and foreign writers and poets, but also laborers and builders struggling in the countries along the'Belt and Road', which fully demonstrated the'Belt and Road' initiative. "The unlimited prospects for literary exchanges and cooperation." said the relevant person in charge of the External Relations Department of the Chinese Writers Association.