"Besides, civilians there manage to strike a coveted balance between work and life - many of them write after work," Shi says. "That stable, sufficient lifestyle appeals

Iceland, a country the size of China's Jiangsu province with some 300,000 residents, is attractive to outsiders for another reason.

"It is the first country to set up a parliament and let residents equally discuss public affairs. They're the model we look up to," says Shi, who has studied Northern European culture. "The equality, including their civil servants' sense of serving the people, is a very strong pull for us."

Chinese literature came under the influence of Icelandic culture as early as the 1980s, when Edda and Saga were published in Chinese.

"It was the talk of town. Back then, people were so excited to be able to read the original works that lay the grounds for English and American culture that they're already familiar with."

"They also display an entirely different set of aesthetics, which is very masculine," Shi says.

But she still considers Chinese knowledge of the country a little lacking. "We don't have enough of their contemporary works, only ones that already made a splash."

That situation may soon change since China has been offering classes for Icelandic language majors since 2008 in Beijing Foreign Studies University.