I ask the following,You are interested in Chinese literature do?

[wangyiwoai]

I ask the following,You are interested in Chinese literature do?


Sorry, English is not high

[kelby_lake]

I don't know many Chinese books.

[Page Turner]

I'm not very familiar with Chinese literature but I am interested in their culture. I enjoy many of their films. Can you recommend some good places to start with Chinese lit?

[Pollopicu]

No, but I'd be most interested in some good recommendations on classic Chinese novels.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I think anyone who is interested in Literature is interested in Literature. In that sense there is no such thing as "Chinese literature" just literature that happens to be written in Chinese, if you see what I mean...

[JBI]

Yes, but lets be honest - how many people on these boards are seriously, in terms of frequent posters here, committed to discussing it, or at least mentioning Chinese texts?

I can read/identify, essentially 600 or so hanzi, so ultimately my ability to read is limited to rudimentary children's texts and first readers - beyond that, I would wager, there are only a few of us here (some no longer here, others not frequent in their posting) who can read contemporary vernacular literature, and I guess even less wenyan.

That would mean then, essentially everybody here is interested in translation - some translations are better than others of course, but I think uniformly, Chinese translations seem to be on the pricey end for anything good.

How many are interested though - after all the talk and whatnot, I think when it comes down to it, if we are talking about seriously interested, not just a little curious, probably 10 is a high estimate.

[NickAdams]

I'm interested, but I have read little (Tao-Te Ching, handful of Zhuangzi, A Fishing Rod for my Grandpa by Xingjian, little of Soul Mountain, and a few poems by Du Fu and Po Chu-I).

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes, but lets be honest - how many people on these boards are seriously, in terms of frequent posters here, committed to discussing it, or at least mentioning Chinese texts?

I can read/identify, essentially 600 or so hanzi, so ultimately my ability to read is limited to rudimentary children's texts and first readers - beyond that, I would wager, there are only a few of us here (some no longer here, others not frequent in their posting) who can read contemporary vernacular literature, and I guess even less wenyan.

That would mean then, essentially everybody here is interested in translation - some translations are better than others of course, but I think uniformly, Chinese translations seem to be on the pricey end for anything good.

How many are interested though - after all the talk and whatnot, I think when it comes down to it, if we are talking about seriously interested, not just a little curious, probably 10 is a high estimate.

Sure, absolutely, but it is not just the problem of individual, there are other factors to consider. My degree, for instance, is 100% English literature, there is not even a single novel or poem that is not written by an English writer on the course, apart from one or two very small token references to "other cultures"; and this is not unusual.

I could have quite easily gained my degree in literature without ever having picked up anything originally Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish etc, not even to go anywhere beyond that. The insular nature of most degrees, together with the nature of the printed world means that it is not really that easy for the average reader to pick up anything "out of the obvious".

Really, you can maybe talk at length of Chinese literature but that is because you are studying it, (which is cool) but how is your knowledge of Lithuanian literature going? How about the study of those Argentinian texts? Where's the mention of African literature, or the greats of the Icelandic culture? OK, I am being pedantic, but you see what I mean, I'm sure.

I am a lover of literature, of art, and I am interested in anything beautiful in this context, as I am sure many people on these boards are too, but there is only so much one can do and study in our short lifetime.

You cannot blame people for not discussing at length, "other" cultures, (really "other" is such a vulgar term which is why I used inverted commas) because that is the world we live in, one that is deeply imperfect and obviously flawed, it is not always easy to get hold of the best of world literature, or even know where to start and that is not necessarily the fault of the individual.

So, I don't think it is really fair to say that only 10% of people on here are interested in Chinese literature. How many would say that they couldn't care at all for beautiful Eastern literature if it were easily at hand? I don't think many would to be honest.

I still retain the hope that people are interested in reading good and beautiful things regardless of the language they were written in.

[wangyiwoai]

I think anyone who is interested in Literature is interested in Literature. In that sense there is no such thing as "Chinese literature" just literature that happens to be written in Chinese, if you see what I mean...

Yes, literature is no national boundaries. Next I'll release Some China Poetry:santasmil

[Amethyst2010]

I am Chinese. I have minimum exposure to literature as a serious study discipline during school days. I seldom read English translation of text originally in Chinese, but when I was a kid, I had read Chinese translations in abridged version of English literature.
Frankly, this site is not the first place I will look for anything related to Chinese literature. I am glad to find out that there are folks here who are familiar with Chinese culture and literature.

[JBI]

If you guys are interested, we can try to recover the classic Chinese poetry thread in the poetry forum, but it seems to have died quickly due to lack of interest.

[NickAdams]

If you guys are interested, we can try to recover the classic Chinese poetry thread in the poetry forum, but it seems to have died quickly due to lack of interest.

I would be up for that.