Fan Hua gets 'lost in translation' at top French book fair

Last year, Jin Yucheng's Fan Hua (Blooming flowers) was taken to Salon Du Livre, France's largest book fair, along with other contemporary Chinese literary works such as Bi Feiyu's Subei Youth "Don Quixote".

The two books attracted the attention of Editions Philippe Picquier, a French publisher that specializes in translating books from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam and other countries in Asia. This publisher reportedly purchased the copyright for Subei Youth "Don Quixote", a nonfiction work about the writer's childhood in East China's Jiangsu province, for 130,000 euros ($143,000).

Editions Philippe Picquier was also interested in Fan Hua, but didn't follow up owing to translation issues.