60 People, 60 Stories

Journey to a bright new world

By Marysia Juszczakiewicz (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-30 09:40

There are so many fascinating voices and stories to tell in China - so many that the West has not heard of.

China is acountry that has opened to the West in relatively recent history and there is so much to discover and hear from it.

Our agency itself represents a large variety of authors - Su Tong, who has seen the sweeping changes in China in the 1980s and 1990s. Annie Baobei, whose beautifully written bestselling novel, Lotus, reigned on the bestseller list in China for weeks. Han Han, an icon of Chinese youth, is also a racecar driver and publisher.

The West is very receptive and eager to read Chinese writers. In the past, there have been many books written and published in the West by Chinese expatriates that were often originally penned in English.

This has changed over the years. Writers from the Chinese mainland have been growing in international reputation. Take for example the recent success of Jiang Rong, who wrote Wolf Totem. With the BeijingOlympics and theBeijing Book Fair - which is probably the largest international book fair after Frankfurt, London and Bologna -the West has become much more exposed to China.The Chinese government has also helped to promote Chinese writing with generous subsidies that help with translations. Along with others who recognize the growing importance of Chinese writing, such as Jo Lusby of Penguin China, expert translators of Chinese literature like Howard Goldblatt and Julia Lovell will help to increase the readership of Chinese writing.

Chinese authors have a bright future in the West. It is often a slow journey to get a book accepted by a Western publisher, and one that involves a lot of patience and perseverance, but it is a journey well worth taking.

Marysia Juszczakiewicz runs Hong Kong-based Creative Work, one of Asia's leading literary agencies.