Avant garde literature spirit enriches Lijiang’s culture

More than 30 novelists, poets, literary critics, translators and editors from China and abroad gathered in Lijiang for the opening of the Chinese Contemporary Literature Forum in Lijiang on Dec 3. They also attended the forum and literature symposium.

“Today, we all hold our hands together. I hope that we can sow the seeds of literature here in Lijiang,” said Luo Jie, Lijiang’s communist Party chief.

The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Jean Marie Gustave Le Clézio, also attended the forum and gave a speech titled Literature in Modern Times. Le Clézio affirmed the significance and function of literature in mass communication. He believes that magazines have played a fairly important role in the development of literature. “Someone said that literature is useless. I think that this kind of uselessness reflects its perfection,” said Le Clézio.

Xu Jun, a translator and professor at China’s Nanjing University, gave a speech titled French Literature and Translation. In Xu’s speech, he emphasized that literature translation has to comply with the principles of delivering the original message in polished Chinese.

Chen Peng, general editor of the Dajia literature magazine, gives a speech. [Photo/Xinhua]

Jean Marie Gustave Le Clézio gives a speech titled Literature in Modern Times. [Photo/Xinhua]