Spreading the words

Eric Abrahamsen has remained devoted to introducing Chinese literature to Western readers for years.[Photo by Feng Yongbin/ China Daily]

A longtime promoter of Chinese literature will return to the US this fall, but his mission continues, Yang Yang says.

After living in China for 15 years, American Eric Abrahamsen is returning to his hometown, Seattle, late this year. He is the founder of Paper Republic, a company devoted to translating Chinese literature and introducing it to the West.

He plans to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October to seek cooperation opportunities to publish Chinese books in other languages.

"In the US, we will do the same thing we have been doing here-to bridge the cultural communication between the two sides," he says as we walk from the courtyard where his office is located to a nearby cafe in Beijing's Dashilan on a humid hot day.

Abrahamsen founded the Paper Republic website in 2007. At first, he invited other Chinese learners to share online the books they had been reading and translating. In 2011, Paper Republic started to do its own projects and in the past two years, the business has grown.

At first, he found it difficult to persuade foreign publishers to buy Chinese books.

"They didn't know good books and writers in China. They all think it's risky to buy Chinese books because, compared with domestic books, they have to pay extra money for translation and spend a longer time to make the book," he says.

As a result, Abrahamsen developed other programs to provide information about Chinese books and writers. His role has gradually changed from translator to consultant, and his promotions included Northern Girls by Sheng Keyi, published by Penguin in June. He translated some sample chapters and wrote the introduction of the book.

"I love the novel. The language is very vivid, full of vitality. I love the way the story was told and how the writer dealt with the power sex has on a girl,which I've not seen in other Chinese writers' works," he says.

He also was involved in the promotion of The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, but decided not to translate it to English because the trilogy is too long. The third book in the series, Death's End, is coming out soon.

Other successful promotions include Ge Fei's The Invisibility Cloak, which is coming out in October, and Jia Pingwa's Happy.

About two meters tall, Abrahamsen speaks fluent Chinese with little accent. With his profound understanding of both Chinese and Western literature, he is often invited to translate and interpret for cultural exchanges, such as during a dialogue between Irish writer Colm Toibin and Chinese writers in Beijing last year.

Born in 1978, Abrahamsen visited China at age 10, which left good memories. Ten years later, he came to visit China's west, eager to master Chinese.