Chinese literature heads overseas

By Du Guodong

BEIJING, Jan. 25 --Chinese literature, rich in history and variety, lacks a strong presence in the West due to cultural differences, language barriers and little exposure. Several programs have recently been initiated in cooperation with Chinese and U.S. universities in an effort to introduce Chinese classics and modern works to the Western world.

The Chinese Literature for Overseas Communication project was officially launched at Beijing Normal University (BNU) last Thursday and is dedicated to presenting a panoramic view of major developments in contemporary and modern Chinese literature to the outside world.

Jointly established by BNU and the University of Oklahoma (OU) in the U.S., the project is geared to translate and publish a total of 10 volumes of literary works into English that will be published by the Oklahoma University Press and made available to the public within the next three years.

The book series will see English translations of complete works of prose and collections of poetry by authors currently unknown outside of China, in addition to classic novels by well-known writers.

Tie Ning's Rose Gate, He Jiping's modern drama The Number One Restaurant under Heaven, together with works from Wang Meng, Yu Hua and Mo Yan, will be among the first batch of titles in the series.

An English academic journal, Chinese Literature Today (CLT), will also be published in cooperation with OU and BNU, mainly reporting on Chinese writers of today, their works and literary criticisms. The periodical is slated to meet readers this summer with Robert Con Davis-Undiano as chief editor. Davis-Undiano is a professor at OU and executive director of World Literature Today, a leading literary journal in the U.S..

CLT will funnel ideas from Chinese scholars, literary critics and writers to foreign readers so they can become more familiar with Chinese literature, not just from Western sinologists, but from Chinese writers as well. "World Literature Today has long recognized and honored China's vital contributions to literature and human culture. This partnership enables a unique and truly vital opportunity to promote Western readership of Chinese literature and enhance intercultural understanding and the exchange of ideas," Davis-Undiano said at the project's launch ceremony in Beijing.

CLT will also publish poems and excerpts of prose by Chinese writers. Davis-Undiano said that the first edition would showcase recent developments in Chinese literature and help readers gain a better and deeper understanding of the world's literary diversity and richness.

"Many of us have the understanding that a major barrier to the litera-ture of modern China being respected and appreciated internationally is the lack of translated works available outside of China," he added.

"By bringing the creative works of China's best writers to the attention of people around the world who are unable to read them in the original Chinese, CLT will make a significant contribution to international under-standing and mutual respect and help create a safer world and a better quality of life for all people around the world," commented Paul Bell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the OU, at the ceremony. The magazine and book series will be distributed commercially and provided free to Confucius Institutes around the world.

Early this month, another project aimed at popularizing 20th century Chinese literature to the world was unveiled at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In the next three years, six volumes of An Anthology of 20th Century Chinese Literature will be translated into English and published by Yilin Press in conjunction with leading international publishing houses.

The six volumes will comprise of novels, poetry, opera and literary criticisms written by representative authors of contemporary China selected by a board of well-known translators and literary critics from both China and aboard.

"The literary significance of the works is the prime criteria for the selection, which has long been overlooked," Wang Lixing, director of the Foreign Literature Center at the Nanjing-based Yilin Press, told the Global Times. Wang said that along with the strong presence and global influence of China on the world, its culture, especially in terms of literature, has failed to live up to its overall strength and modern literature has a very limited reach on global readership.

"The current world structure of Chinese literature study is dominated by sinologists in the West," Wang explained.

"Who to introduce, what to translate and when to do so is usually up to the discretion of those sinologists if Chinese writers want to receive even a fraction of the attention they deserve."

The level of a work's literary value is often a matter of opinion, with acclaimed Chinese writer Wang Meng commenting that Chinese literature is currently at its peak while German sinologist Wolfgang Kubin went on record as saying that modern Chinese literature is full of garbage, with little excellent works available.

"It is a common thing for different experts to have divergent opinions and for me, a major barrier for the access and acceptance of Chinese literature in the West lies in the cultural differences," Zhang Jian, dean of BNU's School of Chinese Language and Literature, told the Global Times.

"There is a long way to go to present a true and overall outlook of Chinese literature to the world."

"A number of modern Chinese literary works have been translated into English, but it is also a fact that the number of foreign works being introduced to China far outweighs the number of Chinese works disseminated to the world," added Tie Ning, chairwoman of the Chinese Writers Association.

"The condition has spurred Chinese writers to reflect on the situation and has also motivated them to produce more excellent works both in content and artistic value and present an innovative and dynamic China to the world," she said.