At 7 p.m., November 8, 2017 (local time), the debut and literature seminar of the Romanian version of Yu Hua’s Chronicle of a Blood Merchant translated by Prof. Luminita Balan, Romanian Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest (CI at UB), Romania, was held in Humanitas Publishing House Library in Bucharest. Denisa Comanescu, Editorial Director at Humanitas Fiction Publishing House, Prof. Florentina Vişan and Lecturer Andreea Chirita from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of UB, and Luminita Balan, Romanian Co-Director of the CI at UB were invited to attend the event as guest speakers. This event, which was co-organized by the Humanitas Fiction Publishing House and the CI at UB, were attended also by several local news agencies, many fans of Chinese literature, as well as students and faculty from the CI and the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of UB.
Participants of the event
During the book debut, translator of the book, Luminita Balan, introduced to the readers the life and works of Yu Hua. She also said that she had been deeply moved by this book while translating it. The book tells a story about a man, Xu Sanguan, who sells his blood over the years. It is a story of a man’s life-long suffering written in tender words as well as a dramatized work presenting a man’s desire to survive in profound misfortunes. One Romanian reader said, “I like this fantastic fiction very much. It has made me became interested in the modern and contemporary Chinese literature and I hope that Prof. Luminita Balan could recommend more Chinese fictions to us.”
Later, Prof. Luminita Balan read a letter, To Romanian Readers, written by Yu Hua. In his letter, Yu said that it was a pity that he couldn’t have come to Bucharest due to various reasons. Yu also introduced the similarities and differences between To Live, his first released novel in Romania, and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, his second book introduced to the Romanian readers this year. He told the Romanian readers that both novels had been completed by the beginning of 1980s. But profound changes had taken place in China since then. He encouraged the Romanian readers to travel to China and find out what the country looks like nowadays. Finally, he paid sincere thanks to the readers, translator, sinologists and the publishing house.
(From left to right: Andreea, Prof. Florentina Vişan, Prof. Luminita Balan, Director Denisa Comanescu)
Then, Prof. Florentina Vişan introduced the story, structure and characters of the Chronicle of a Blood Merchant. Andreea mainly talked about Yu Hua’s black humor.
The guest speakers all emphasized Yu Hua’s contribution to the development of the contemporary Chinese literature. One of his works had been translated into Romanian last year and Yu Hua attended the book debut himself during the international book fair. From then on, he become popular among the Romanian readers.
(Prof. Luminita Balan signing for readers)
After the seminar, there was a long queue waiting for book signing.
(Chinese teacher of the CI at UB introducing the evolution of Chinese characters)
Finally, Liu Wencui, a Chinese teacher of the CI at UB, prepared a cultural activity for the participants, i.e. a vivid introduction of the Chinese calligraphy and the evolution of Chinese characters.
Last year, the CI at UB contacted with the Chinese publishing house about the translation and publishing of this book in Romania. After many efforts, the largest and top one publishing house of Romanian literature -Humanitas Fiction Publishing House- published the Romanian translation of the book. The CI at UB is devoted to help Chinese literature to reach international readers and to build a bridge for international communicate through literature. (Reporter: Liu Wencui)
