Rome poetry festival to mark chapter of success

Phoenix Publishing & Media Group plans to host a China-Italy international poetry festival in Rome at the end of 2025, based on a mutual translation project of contemporary poems from the two countries, Yuan Nan, vice-president of Phoenix Publishing & Media Inc, says.

"Of all the literary forms, poetry is the one most suitable for dissemination, and has a strong impact on people from different cultures," Yuan says, adding that the PPMG and its Italian partner Delufa Press are both leading contemporary publishers of poetry.

In May, the PPMG and the Jiangsu Writers' Association organized a visit to Hungary and France, with writer and poet Han Dong as one of those representing Jiangsu province.

At the Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary's oldest and largest university, Han and other writers, scholars and translators from China and Hungary, read Mother's House, a poem from his latest book Qiji (Miracles), a collection of his mourning poems and poems about animals and to relatives and friends.

"The poems are written for all those people or beings who cannot talk to me anymore. Although they cannot talk to me, thinking of them makes me feel at home," he says. "These are universal themes, and also my reality."

At the Universite Paris Cite, he read excerpts from Fellow Feelings: Selected Stories of Han Dong, which has been translated into French, with students and Sinologists from France and Britain. Some 30 teachers and students from a number of universities participated in the event.

"It was a holiday, but I was surprised to see that they all came, students and translators that I have known for many years," Han recalls.

"The fundamental motivation for my writing is the search for readers with whom I might connect, even if there is only one, even if they are in a foreign country with a cultural background completely different from mine," Han says.

With more than 10,000 employees, the PPMG is a leading company involved in publishing, printing, book distribution, and retail. In 2023, its primary publishing division, the PPMI, reported operating revenues of 13.6 billion yuan ($1.89 billion) and a net profit of 2.95 billion yuan, maintaining its position as the top listed publishing company in China.

For 16 consecutive years, the group has been recognized as one of the top 30 national cultural enterprises. Additionally, it has ranked in the top 10 of the Global 50 Publishing Companies for the past three years.

These overseas Chinese literary events are just some examples of the efforts the PPMG has made to improve international cultural communication and explore overseas markets.

"In recent years, we have vigorously implemented an internationalization strategy that focuses closely on our core publishing business," Zhang Chaoyang, president of the PPMG, said at a keynote speech at the Beijing International Book Fair in June.

"By integrating high-quality internal resources and improving our overseas presence, we have promoted international dissemination and publishing cooperation through key initiatives, such as copyright trade, cooperative publishing, and global content sourcing."

The efforts have yielded results. The group has established strong, long-term cooperative relationships with publishing institutions in more than 60 countries and regions worldwide, he says.

Since May 2017, it has been setting up branches of the Phoenix Library in 18 cities around the world, including Birmingham in the United Kingdom, San Diego in the United States, The Hague in the Netherlands, and Paris in France.

The first was opened at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, in 2017, where the group has provided more than 800 copies of 400 titles targeted at researchers of the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as teachers and students of Chinese language and literature. In the last three years, the library has also expanded its collection to include children's books and picture books about Chinese culture for young readers.

In May 2024, the latest Phoenix Library opened at the China Cultural Center in Paris.

"The main purpose of the project is to provide overseas readers with convenient access to reading, promote the international readership of Chinese books, and create a reading space," Yuan says.

"By displaying physical books and organizing activities, such as reading salons and cultural lectures, the libraries seek to bridge the gap between Chinese cultural products and overseas readers, creating an interactive space for making friends through books."

At a Phoenix Library, readers can borrow books about humanities, social sciences, literature, art, popular science, lifestyle, as well as academic studies. In addition, the publishing and media group regularly organizes author meet-and-greets and reading sessions.

For instance, in the first half of 2022, an exhibition about the classic novel, Dream of the Red Chamber by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) writer Cao Xueqin, was held at the Phoenix Library in The Hague.

As a result of the event, Dutch readers became interested in the novel and cultural and creative products, Yuan says, adding that the Phoenix Library project also serves as a display for sample books in the book copyright trade.

Through these kinds of projects, Yuan says that they have found that foreign readers are particularly interested in contemporary Chinese life, so literature about modern Chinese society is popular overseas, in addition to books about traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese language.

Translating work by contemporary writers has thus become a good way of introducing contemporary China. In 2021 and 2022, the PPMG launched two projects to translate books by prestigious writers and scholars from Jiangsu province that were initiated by provincial authorities to provide a better introduction of the province to overseas readers.

"We translate top writers and scholars, whose work conveys the regional characteristics of Jiangsu, as well as those of literature and thought in contemporary China," Yuan says.

So far, the PPMG has released 22 overseas editions of 14 titles by 12 authors in seven languages, including English, Spanish, Russian, Thai and Vietnamese, that are targeted at 12 markets such as the UK, the US, Canada, Switzerland, France and Belgium.

The translations include Another Life for Women and Three Lamps by Su Tong, Nanjing: The Story of a Chinese City by Ye Zhaoyan, The Straw House by Cao Wenxuan, The Dao of Calligraphy by Sun Xiaoyun. They have sold more than 6,000 copies.

"By 2025, we will finish publishing another eight novels and academic books, including the Thai and Indonesian translations of Massage by Bi Feiyu, the English and Spanish translations of the poetry collection Ding Fengbo (Taming the Storm) by Hu Xian, and English translations of Outline of China's Path to Modernization by Hong Yinxing. We will promote these books in overseas markets in cooperation with our partners," she says.

To guarantee the quality of the translations, the group has been building an expert pool of translators that now includes 120 translators from Britain, the US, France, Spain, Japan, South Korea and Sweden, many of whom are Sinologists and past winners of the Special Book Award of China, the country's top publication prize honoring foreign translators, writers and publishers.

Yuan says that even if the books are translated and published overseas, it does not mean that they truly reach overseas readers and exert an influence, which is something they are still exploring.

Apart from translations and the copyright trade, the group also has been experimenting with other cooperative forms on the international market, including cooperative publishing and global content sourcing.

Since 2020, it has been inviting global experts to write books about the history and culture of canals in different parts of the world.

"The aim is to provide a view of the economy, politics, society and population in different countries and make comparisons through the perspective of canals. We have simultaneously published both Chinese and English versions of seven books about canals in China, France, Belgium, Canadian, the US, Britain and the Netherlands," Yuan says.

In addition to this series, the group has also invited writers from different countries to produce children's books under the theme of beautiful childhoods.

Despite all its efforts and exploration, Yuan says a lot still remains to be done when it comes to creating a better team for international markets, especially training people to understand international markets, who have a good command of foreign languages, a knowledge of different cultures and copyright laws, good digital technology skills and cross-cultural communication abilities.