Spreading its words

Pathlight magazine introduces contemporary Chinese literature and is published in Italian.

While counselor Brandt is looking forward to reading more about Chinese women, youngsters and sci-fi from Pathlight, the French version, titled Promesses Litteraires, offers works of all female writers as its debut, and of male writers born after the 1960s for the second issue.

Zhang Wei and a writer of animal stories, Hei He, are featured in the spring issue of the English edition, dedicating to the theme of nature.

The magazines are now available at universities, some public libraries and the Confucius Institute worldwide. Shi and the team are also working on online versions.

"I think from the very beginning Pathlight was good as a magazine, but most of the experimentation and adjustment that we've done over the years has been trying to make the magazine more visible, and more accessible," Abrahamsen says.

"I hope it will reach more after gaining recognition firstly from the professional readers, like reporters, writers and scholars," he adds.

According to the latest data from the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, China bought 16,918 overseas copyrights in 2014 while selling 10,171. The exporting of publishing copyright has increased by a factor of 6.5 compared with 10 years ago, striking a better balance.

The success of Pathlight would have been a different story back in the 1980s, when China began publishing translated works on a large scale, and there was little demand for reading on China, says Dai Jinhua, a Peking University professor.

"Now with the backdrop of China rising, I think we'll have a series of new stories to tell the world, offering our values and a new perspective of thoughts through our literature and culture," Dai says.

Contact the writer at meijia@chinadaily.com.cn