Feature: Chinese contemporary literature has magnetic appeal in Vietnam

Under the scorching sun here on Sunday, a crowd of prolific Vietnamese readers occupied part of the Ho Chi Minh City Book Road to talk to six Chinese writers whose well-known novels and short stories will be translated into Vietnamese soon.

The six Chinese writers include Dong Xi, Fan Yiping, Huang Peihua, Li Yue Re, Zhu Shan and Tian Er. Most of them are members of the China Writers Association or leaders of China's local literary and art circles associations.

On Sunday morning in District No. 1 of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Xi introduced his outstanding novel "Cuan gai de ming"printed in Vietnamese with the title of"Mong doi doi"(Dream of having a new life). His compatriots will also have their works published in Vietnamese in the coming days.

Dong Xi, born in 1966 in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China, bordering Vietnam, talked to Vietnamese readers and reporters in an amiable and humorous manner. The fairly heavily built Chinese man answered many questions about China's ancient and contemporary literature, and literary cooperation between China and Vietnam.

Vietnam has translated many Chinese classical literary works, including the four great classical novels, namely "Water Margin,""Romance of the Three Kingdoms,""Journey to the West,"and "Dream of the Red Chamber," but the number of translated versions of Chinese contemporary works is still limited, Dong Xi told Xinhua.

"Therefore, when more and more Chinese novels and short stories are being translated into Vietnamese, Vietnamese readers will have more chances to understand more deeply about life and reality in modern China," the Chinese writer said, blossoming into a magnanimous smile.

He proposed the Vietnamese side translates more Vietnamese literary works into Chinese so that "we will have better understanding of contemporary life and thoughts of Vietnamese people, and the two peoples will realize that they have many things in common."

Fan Yiping, born in 1964 in Guangxi, who has had several novels adapted into television and feature films, including "The Missing Gun,"and "The Music Box,"echoed Dong Xi's statement, saying "China and Vietnam in general and Chinese and Vietnamese writers in particular are very close. As the saying goes, 'Better a neighbor near, than a brother far off'."

Fan Yiping continued"Presently at the Ho Chi Minh City Book Road today, I feel very surprised. I realize that Vietnamese people treasure reading and cultural exchanges like Chinese people do. In a nutshell, the two people share many similarities."

China in general and Guangxi in particular want to beef up exchange and cooperation among literary and art circles in various countries in the world, including Vietnam, the 52-year-old man said, noting that in Guangxi there is a center for such purposes.

Translator Nguyen Le Chi, founder and director of Chibooks Company, is one of the first Vietnamese people to buy the copyright of foreign books to publish them in Vietnam. She has succeeded in bringing China's contemporary literature to Vietnam.

"Most of Dong Xi's works have been adapted into feature and television films because they contain a lot of cinematic traits. Through them, readers can feel contemporary life clearly with a variety of color and sensational appeal. That's why I have chosen his works,"the Vietnamese translator and businesswoman told Xinhua.

Chi, who has either translated or published more than 30 foreign literary works into Vietnamese, said she wants to introduce more novels and short stories by foreign writers, including Chinese ones to Vietnam.

Many Vietnamese readers are as keen as mustard when it comes to reading Chinese literary works, both classical and contemporary, Chi said, adding that one of their favorite Chinese writers is Mo Yan.

In 2012, Mo Yan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work as a writer who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.

"I like China's classical literature because it is succinct and really meaningful. I also like its contemporary literature because it is very practical, and manifests various aspects of Chinese society nowadays," Thai Ha, a renowned reader from Ho Chi Minh City, told Xinhua.

The young woman said she often read novels by Mo Yan, Yu Hua and Dong Xi because she sometimes sees herself in the works, and always draws useful lessons from them. "I think that Vietnamese readers can know more about Chinese literature through novels adapted into movies," she said.

On Sunday evening at a book café on the city's Nguyen Hue Street, Vietnam's first pedestrian street, many Vietnamese young people were sipping coffee with milk, with their eyes glued to Vietnamese versions of foreign novels, including those by Mo Yan, Yin Yong, Yu Hua and younger Chinese writers such as Guo Jingming, Han Han and Jiu Dan. Endit