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Chinese, French writers condemn Paris attacks

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese and French writers who gathered in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, for French literature week on Saturday have condemned the terror attacks in Paris and vowed to fight terrorism through their work.

The cultural event, sponsored by the Hubei provincial writers' association, opened Saturday and will last for a week.

"We are gathered here to witness solidarity, in the wake of the unprecedented terror attacks in Paris," said Robert Lacombe, cultural counsellor at the French Embassy to China, at the event's opening ceremony.

At least 120 people were killed during the shootings and explosions in Paris and its suburbs Friday.

Lacombe said literature has no borders and writers from the two countries should be united in fighting terrorism with the power of words.

French literature week has drawn renowned French writers and publishers including Nobel literature prize laureate Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, Marie Nimier, sinologist Annie Curien and Manuel Carcassonne, president of the Stock Press.

Le Clezio, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008, said literature helps him feel alive and brings him a sense of happiness. "Language is common to man. Any reader can cross the line and feel the tie that binds human beings together," he said.

The writers will also visit the Yangtze River's Three Gorges and write stories focused on water themes. Their work will be published in Chinese and French.

The event is the biggest literary exchange between Chinese and French authors in a century, said Du Qinggang, dean of Wuhan University's School of Foreign Languages and Literature.

He said the event is expected to promote academic exchanges and cooperation and cement friendship between the Chinese and the French. Endi