Is China's classic literature known in the West?

Seneca (Expat in China)

I have read the Dream of the Red Chamber; the English translation is a very insipid piece of literature. The reader sifts through the words searching for the meaning but finds puns that only make sense in Chinese. The story as such is nothing extraordinary but it is a good introduction to manorial and aristocratic life centuries ago.

My choice of a good Chinese novel would be more modern: Jiang Ron's Wolf Totem There are many other books, of course, most of which have been penned in the last one hundred years.

Zhang portrays the Monkey King in the hit 1986 TV series Journey to the West.[File photo]