On July 8th, the Chinese Writers’ Association (CWA) delegation headed by CWA Vice President and Secretary General Yan Jingming, visited the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest (the CI at Bucharest).
The delegation members included Chen Chuan, President of Chongqing Writers’ Association, Shi Caifu, Deputy President of Guangxi Writers’ Association, Lin Lan, Editor-in-Chief of Selections of Novellas (Fujian), Liu Ting, Deputy Director of Comment Column of Post of Literature and Art and Chang Yuanyuan, Section Chief of the International Office of CWA.
Romanian Co-Director of the CI at Bucharest, Luminița Bălan, Chinese Co-Director Dong Jingbo and teachers of the CI met with the CWA Delegation. At the invitation of the CI, Prof. Mugur Zlotea, Prof. Andreea Chirita, as well as Ionela Voicu, alumni representative of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Bucharest, and other Romanian writers also attended the meeting and had an in-depth discussion with the CWA delegation on Chinese and Romanian Literatures.
(Group Photo of the CWA delegation, Romanian Translators and Teachers of CI at BU)
Prof. dong Jingbo extended A warm welcome to the CWA Delegation, and led the delegation to see the classrooms, offices and libraries and other facilities and the CI. Then the delegation watched the promo video of the CI and learned about the progresses that the CI had made in the past years as well as the influence of the CI in Romania.
After that, the CWA delegation had a face-to-face communication with Romanian Translators. In recent years, Romanian Co-Director Luminița Bălan translated many works of Chinese writers like Mo Yan and Yu Hua into Romanian. Prof. Mugur Zlotea and Prof. Ionela Voicu also translated works of Cao Wenxuan and Su Tong into Romanian. The CI at Bucharest has been committed to facilitating Chinese and Romanian cultural exchanges, for instance, through building connections among writers and translators from both countries, assisting them in establishing contacts with publishers and setting up activities to promote Chinese literature in Romania.
Yan Jingming and his delegation expressed appreciations for all the efforts the CI had made, and said that CWA would donate books through various channels as well as forge connections among relevant parties to help publish excellent works of Chinese literature in Romania. Besides, Yan expressed his gladness to have the opportunity of visiting the CI at Bucharest. He spoke highly of the achievements of the CI. Yan then presented books and gifts from the CWA to the CI, and he left a message, “May literature be the bridge of mutual understanding and friendship between China and Romania.”
As a cross-cultural platform, the CI at Bucharest has not only been committed to Chinese language teaching and culture promotion, but also to facilitating literary communication of both countries. The CI has initiated various activities, such as book debuts, book promotion and visits of writers, to further publicize more works of contemporary Chinese literature for local residents and to advance the cultural exchanges between the two countries. The CI beliefs that, more translations of Chinese literary works into Romanian and bilateral people-to-people exchanges will deepen mutual understandings, and eventually further consolidate the friendship between China and Romania.
