■By Le Yi
William Brown, an American professor at Xiamen University, had Of the Wall published by the Foreign Languages Press; the book is a collection of more than 30 years of his correspondence with his family and friends in the USA. He hopes that through these letters foreign readers see the real China.This year in July, he completed his plan of driving around all of China, writing a new book about the changes in China in 25 years, he will also write a book about the ?fth great inventions in governance in China.
Five years ago, Romanian television personality Marina Almasan decided that she wanted her son to understand China, and thus every year has come to China to visit a different city; she used her own perspective as well as interviews of Olympic medallists, artists and fashion designers to write a book about all of China, which after being published in Romania was well received, quickly making her a famous author about China. Japanese author Kiyoshi Wakana, through his thirty years of research and personal experiences wrote The Flying Dragon – Why hasn't China collapsed?. His thirty years of experiences in China have led him to see that the pacifism that the Chinese government has pursued over the past 30 years has laid a foundation for development of the country; on the countrary, Japan has witnessed a continual decline over the past two decades. He says that he hopes to show the China he has seen to the Japanese people to help them better understand the real China.
American sociologist, author and folk musician Mark Levin uses American folk songs to describe the village stories of China. He is the ?rst foreign musician to sing to the Chinese guards of honor of the three services of the PLA, and was named as a "hero of folk music" by Chinese media. Unsatisfied with unrealistic media reports in the USA about China, in 2013 he wrote My China Story in which he introduced people he knew in China, the places he had been and things he had experienced.
Constantin Lupeanu, head of the Romanian Cultural Centre in Beijing published We Are All Brothers through the China Translation Publishing House, collecting stories that he had written about China in Romanian newspapers which record his witnessing of almost 20 years of development and change in China. This book will be published in October in Romania.
Famous American scholar and Chinese historian Ross Terril published Mao: A Biography in 1980, a book that was hugely popular in the West. In 2010, China Renmin University Press published his new work Me and China. Currently, he is writing Mao as a Boy and a book on Sino-American relations, Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones.
Kim Sungil, researcher at Dongguk University's Institute of East Asian Comparative Studies and head of the East Asia Future Research Institute, wrote Sino-Korean Relations in My Eyes which, through a historical and cultural macroscopic reference framework, covers the origins of culture between China and Korea, cultural interchange, the history of communication and reciprocal relations, analysing the commonalities and differences in the two nations' development. Upon this foundation he explores hopes for the future of relations between the two countries.
Peter Sragher, head of the Bucharest branch of the Romanian Writers Association, visited China in 2016 and wrote a collection of poems, You are a Dragon. In his book, he described Beijing, Xining, Henan and other areas – what he saw and felt there. It's a book that expresses the joy of experiencing the different culture of China.
Today, more and more foreign sinologists, authors, media personalities, scholars, and famous persons in society are participating in the "Foreigners Writing China Program". These books have become emissaries to disseminate Chinese culture and from diverse angles let overseas readers understand the real China through reading.
In January of last year, as part of the program, there started a "Chinese-Overseas Author Communication Camp", which invited authors participating in the program and authors who write about foreign countries to interact on the topics of innovation, cooperation and literature with Chinese themes.
According to Xu Baofeng, the leader of the project named"China Cultural Translation &Research Network" , through providing a base of communication and innovation for Chinese and foreign authors, we can increase communication and understanding between Chinese and foreign authors, and strengthen the understanding of the foreign masses of China. The plan is already in its fourth stage, and has expanded to allowing foreigners to participate in the selection process, giving authors more of an active role in the entire process. Additionally, there are plans to establish communication camps in Nanjing and Guangzhou, and to invite foreign authors to come to China to live and interact with the locals. Talks are underway with writing bases.
(translated by Moy Hau)