Classic French literature sets the scene

French literature's profound influence on Chinese writers, translators and scholars was fully recognized at a forum featuring the literary ties between the two countries.

The forum, held in Beijing on July 2, celebrated the release of a hardcover series of classic French literature works by the Writers Publishing House.

The first batch of 20 titles contain Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Romain Rolland's Jean-Christophe, Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, Andre Gide's Strait Is the Gate, and Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince.

Works of French literature translation gurus, including those of Fu Lei (1908-66), Zheng Kelu (1939-2020) and Luo Xinzhang (1936-2022), can be found in this selected series.

"To our generation born in the 1950s and '60s, classic French literature works are collective memories," says writer Xu Kun, also editor-in-chief of literary magazine Selected Stories.

She says that her college years in the 1980s coincided with a time when a lot of French literature works were introduced to China.

"French literature accompanied me throughout my youth, as I established my world view and value system step by step. Guy de Maupassant's Ball of Fat, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Alexandre Dumas' Camille sparked my initial feminist consciousness," Xu adds.

The female writer also recalls how she was invited to write a book review for The Years by Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, when its Chinese version was first published in 2009, and how she was impressed by the power of Ernaux's autobiographical narrative, which the author published at age 68.

Che Lin, French literature professor at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, introduced how French writers such as Voltaire, Balzac, Camus and Jules Verne gained inspiration from Chinese culture.

For example, Voltaire's play The Orphan of China was adapted from The Orphan of Zhao, a Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) revenge tragedy attributed to Ji Junxiang. The second story of Voltaire's philosophical novella Zadig is also based on a Chinese vernacular story written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

In Balzac's writing, there are numerous descriptions about Chinese items. In his review of his painter friend Auguste Borget's album Sketches of China and the Chinese, the prolific writer claimed his childhood was largely influenced by the oriental culture.

Che says, in her more than two decades-long career, she was deeply nourished by French literature. From these stories and characters that writers of different periods and genres have created, she sees the truth of the world and becomes more open and clear.

Yu Zhongxian, researcher at the Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, reviews some more recent writers' sojourns in China and their observations, including Paul Claudel, Victor Segalen and Saint-John Perse.

The researcher, who has also translated the works of Francoise Sagan, Claudel and Milan Kundera, among others, expresses hope for deepening Sino-French literary exchanges and that the younger generation of book editors and translators can introduce more quality French literature works to Chinese readers.

Jiang Xiao, lecturer at the School of Chinese Language and Literature of Beijing Normal University, talks about Chinese readers' decadeslong fascination for Marguerite Duras' works.

In 1985 and 1986, six versions of The Lover by Duras were published in China. Jiang views such long-term fascination as having reflected a generation of Chinese readers' imagination for modern life.

She also talks about how contemporary readers find resonance in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, featuring the essential absurdity of life, in revolt against nihilism, and how she was personally attracted by Simone de Beauvoir's The Mandarins and Marguerite Yourcenar's Oriental Tales.

According to writer Li Er, French literary theories also have great influence upon Chinese literature creation, and French readers' understanding and interpretation of Chinese literature works has in turn influenced "how we view our own works", he says.

"It is through literary exchanges that we've shaped our literary traditions," Li says. He calls for more effective exchange activities as well as enhanced cooperation to promote Chinese literature works overseas.