BUDAPEST, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The oeuvre of famous Chinese contemporary writer Yu Hua was at the center of a recent event organized by the Contemporary Chinese Literature Book Club of Hungary in a trendy literary cafe-bookshop in Budapest.
The Chinese author greeted the book club, which premiered with his books Thursday evening, in a video message.
"Each of my works is about the lives and experiences of Chinese people, Chinese people who are shaped by experiencing the changes of the times," Yu said.
The literary event was chaired by Klara Zombory, a sinologist and literary translator. The guests talked about Yu's renowned novel "To Live," the grotesque elements and the omnipresence of life and death in his writings.
Zombory told Xinhua that Yu was one of her favorite writers, and translating his work was the reason she became a literary translator.
Explaining Yu's success in Europe, she said Yu's language is easy to understand and the stories he tells are interesting to Europeans.
On the purpose of founding the Contemporary Chinese Literature Book Club, Zombory said she believed that translating books was not enough, and there needed to be such activities to introduce these books to Hungarian readers.
Miklos M. Nagy, an author and director of the Helikon publisher, said that Yu was a well-known and popular writer in Hungary. Five of Yu's books have been published in Hungary, and his latest novel "Wencheng" will soon be published in the country.
The event was co-hosted by the China Cultural Center in Budapest, with support from the Chinese Writers Association.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
