Shelf lives

A "China shelf" of Chinese titles appeared in a bookstore on Sept 12 in Minsk, Belarus, the fourth specialist section to spring up after Cuban, Thai and South African ones.

The shelf brought 200 copies of 80 titles to Belarusian book lovers, covering titles about contemporary China, traditional culture and Chinese literature. Another similar project, "That's China Bookshelf", organized by China Intercontinental Press, has brought Chinese titles to 15 bookstores or organizations in 13 countries since 2016.

Xi Jinping: The Governance of China is one of the featured books, together with selections from children's writer Cao Wenxuan and classical tales writer Pu Songling (1640-1715).

From left: Balan Luminita of Romania, Olivia Milburn of Britain, Jack Hargreaves of Britain and Ana Goguadze of Georgia were among the translators and Sinologists who visited China for various book events and exchanges last month. Photos Provided to China Daily

Sinologists who came to China to attend a slew of book fairs, workshops and exchanges in August would no doubt appreciate these China Shelf presentations of translated Chinese titles in local bookstores.

Their passion for Chinese writing and culture sometimes runs so deep that they often encourage their children to follow in their footsteps.

Romanian Sinologist Balan Luminita was so fascinated by the stories in Journey to the West that it inspired her to start learning Chinese at the age of 8 in 1972.

She graduated from the University of Bucharest and began teaching Chinese there in 1990. She spent 20 years translating the works of Zhuangzi and offered notes for Romanian readers to help them better understand ancient Chinese philosophy.

"With interest in China growing in my country by the day, I think contemporary literature serves as a good way of getting started," Luminita says. To this end, she has translated works by Mo Yan and Yu Hua and is currently translating works by Liu Zhenyun.

When she met Yu Hua in late August, she told him how well-received he was in Romania.

She started several Chinese language classes for children in Romania. During one class, she told her students: "The Chinese language will open doors for you, to a world full of cultural enlightenment that can enrich your spiritual life and help you to grow into a happier person."

"I'm fulfilling my dream of translating Chinese works, but I know I can only achieve this partially during my lifetime," she says. "So I want to train more people."

Her daughter also shares her dream and is now studying Chinese at Shanghai International Studies University.

Ana Goguadze, a Georgian journalist and translator, came to Beijing for the 2018 Sino-Foreign Literature Translation and Publishing Cooperation Workshop in August.

Goguadze, the founder of the Sino-Georgian media platform Sinomedia, has translated Tang Dynasty (618-907) poems and been part of the Chinese-Georgian Dictionary and the Georgian-Chinese Dictionary projects. She has also translated works by Georgian writer Giorgi Kekelidze into Chinese.

"I'm deeply influenced by my mother, who's also a Sinologist," she says. Her mother is Marine Jibladze, a winner of the Special Book Award of China and director of the Confucius Institute at the Free University of Tbilisi.

Other younger generations of translators include Scott Ian Rainen from the United of States, who studied at Sichuan University, got a master of arts degree in religious studies and now runs a translation organization he founded in 2016; and Jack Hargreaves from the United Kingdom, who has translated Buddhism-related books and seeks to improve his mastery of the ancient Chinese language.

Meanwhile, those of the older generation of Sinologists and China experts tend to focus on the country's recent development, as well as the contemporary literature scene.

French writer and Sinologist Marianne Bastid-Bruguiere has been following the history of education in China.

"All my family members study law, so I chose China as my field for its diversity and strong cultural and historical traditions," she says.

"The progress China has made in improving standards of living is important," she adds.

In his book China and Us, Moroccan writer Fathallah Oualalou explains the reasons behind China's development from both a historical and a cultural perspective.

The former mayor of Rabat, the capital of Morocco, attributes China's growth to a carefully designed, top-down revitalization plan.

"China went through the global financial crises and has been investing in the digital and green economies since 2014. The Belt and Road Initiative is bringing about the chance to rebalance the global economy," he says.

British translator Olivia Milburn was born into a family of professors of foreign languages.

When her father once told her that Chinese was the most difficult language on Earth, she decided to tackle it and became a specialist in ancient languages and culture.

Now a professor with the Department of Chinese Literature and Language at Seoul National University, she thought she needed to learn more about contemporary culture and began reading works that have been awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize. Through this she learned about Mai Jia and was attracted to his novels - which were the kind of stories that could be enjoyed without a stack of notes about Chinese history and culture.

Her translations helped to establish Mai Jia's works in many overseas markets.

"In present-day society, many people hold grudges against and show resentment toward foreigners or people from other ethnic groups. Translated works enable us to understand the history, culture, mindset and dreams of other nations, and allow people with different ethnic backgrounds to be more tolerant and accept each other's cultures and customs," says Milburn.

Iranian author and translator Elham Sadat Mirzania says: "Translators are the ones that help foreigners gain a sense of how Chinese people live and love, and about their history and way of thinking. They are able to touch the souls of the Chinese."

Wei Qun contributed to this story.

meijia@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 09/28/2018 page21)