French authors set out on the Yangtze River

[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Five French writers have started a 10-day tour along the Yangtze River in China as part of the events for Festival Croisements 2014.

"I imagine the Yangtze River to be great, wavy, with steam going up, like a revolution," envisioned Marie Nimier, author and the winner of the French Academy Grand Prize for Literature (Le grand prix de littérature de l’Académie francaise).

She and four other French authors, Eric Faye, Pia Petersen, Olivier Rolin and Veronique Ovalde, will find out when they embark on a 10-day journey through the Yangtze River beginning on May 21.

The ship will start from Chongqing and will stop over in Wuhan and Shanghai for discussions and readers’ activities with local Chinese authors and audiences.

As part of the Festival Croisements 2014, the Cruise of Writers "Literature Is an Adventure" project was hatched last year when literary groups from both countries looked for more in-depth communications among themselves.

"For the past 50 years of Sino-French relations, the two have tried hard to learn from each other the arts and culture, including the classics. This time, contemporary authors will get a chance to engage with one another," said Fabrice Rousseau, deputy director at the Institut Francais de Chine.