Andersen’s influence on China remains profound

Andersen’s works are like the matches lighted in the famed story You, Little Match Girl. His tales have enlightened generations of Chinese children, as well as writers.

According to Oriental Outlook magazine, Chinese scholars have also penned over 150 essays from 1949 to 2005 on Andersen’s work.

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In 2005, China joined the world with a series of grand events to celebrate the great writer’s 200th anniversary of his birth.

During that year when professor Zhu Ziqiang with Ocean University of China said in a public speech, “Andersen’s works help build the faith and confidence of creating Children’s literature in the country.”

“In the process of Chinese modernization, Andersen is a unique writer whose contributions are beyond being a writer. His works penetrate Chinese-speaking culture, and help shape the nation’s spiritual world,” Peking University professor Che Jinshan told Chinese media.

Established children’s literature writer Yang Hongying, known for her Mo’s Mischief series and Diary of the Smiling Cat series, believes that Andersen was her early “instructor” upon the path of writing, influencing her with, “l(fā)anguage, artistry and mode of thinking,” as Yang said in previous interview.

Yang is also among the Chinese writers, as well as illustrators, who have been nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award, the world’s top award for children’s writing under the Danish master’s name.

“Andersen’s works showcase a literary master who has a great soul and who is a vivid character. He’s a true romanticist as well as a realist,” Andersen’s major Chinese translator Lin Hua wrote in an article.

As a former diplomat with the Chinese Embassy in Denmark, Lin was an award-winning translator who devoted half a century studying and translating Andersen. His wife Yuan Qingxia helped source out his drafts of translations before and after he passed away in 2005.

“Working with Lin Hua on Andersen, I learned about the writer’s self-respect, his love for the country and nature, and his energetic, enthusiastic vitality against life’s adversity,” Yuan told China Daily.

“He told me not to lie down in sadness,” the 83-year-old widow added.

Praising Andersen’s ability to turn trivial everyday details into wonderful tales, both Yuan and the editor Gao said Andersen’s works are profound and philosophical books for Chinese adults, besides being merely “children’s reads” as some Chinese feel. And Andersen’s entire body of work, including poetry, plays and essays, serve as a great mine where Chinese readers can always dig for more.