Shelf lives

Sinologists who came to China to attend a slew of book fairs, workshops and exchanges last month would no doubt appreciate these China Shelf presentations of Chinese titles in local bookstores, after being rendered into their native languages.

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 age of 8 in 1972.

She graduated from 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 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.