Strengthening ties between China and Serbia through Chinese literature

The 2022 Serbia's Chinese Literature Readers' Club held an activity themed on "The Translation of Chinese Contemporary Literature in Serbia" in the "Ilija M. Petrović" National Library of Požarevac in Serbia on Sept 12, local time (Sept 13, Beijing time).

The event comprehensively and systematically introduced to local readers the development of and the translation of Chinese contemporary literature in Serbia to increase Serbian readers' understandings of Chinese literature and culture so as to continue to enhance people-to-people ties between China and Serbia.

The activity was hosted by Vera Zaric, director of National Library of Požarevac. Mirjana Pavlovic, an associate professor of Chinese language and literature at the University of Belgrade and a literary translator, was the speaker. More than 30 people, including local college students and literature fans, attended the lecture.

Pavlovic presented an overview about the development of Chinese literature since the 1980s and gave a general introduction to the contemporary Chinese literary works that had been rendered into Serbian. She also introduced literary creations by Mo Yan and by Yu Hua – the two writers who have more works translated into Serbian than their fellow Chinese writers – and shared her own feelings when translating Red Sorghum: A Family Saga. To Pavlovic, both writers are good at focusing their attention on the ordinary Chinese, depicting their vitality as well as their moral and emotional predicaments in the torrent of unpredictable historical evolution.

Library director Vera Zaric said that the library has collected almost all of the Chinese contemporary literary works that have been translated into Serbian. It is hoped that the Chinese Literature Readers' Club will bring Chinese literary works closer to local readers, and the library will continue to share excellent Chinese literary works with the readers. Many members of the audience said they learned a lot about contemporary Chinese literature through this activity.

The Serbia's Chinese Literature Readers' Club has successfully held two literature exchange activities, which not only aimed to introduce more and better Chinese literary works to Serbian readers, but also intended to seek more young translators from Serbia. It is hoped that through holding various club activities, more young Serbians would be motivated to read Chinese stories and understand Chinese culture in an effort to promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning between China and Serbia.

With the support of the China Writers Association, the activity was jointly planned and organized by CNPIEC, the Serbian Geopoetika Publishing House and the "Ilija M. Petrović" National Library of Požarevac. The event was covered by local well-known mainstream media, such as boom93 and urbancityradio.