Copyright: Lena Juknevicius
20 October 2009
Tales from 1001 ... Book For five days, the Book Fair stood under the sign of Chinese literature. The put the word “sign” in singular is, admittedly, an understatement – considering that Chinese writing uses 5,000 to 6,000 characters. This fact may well be the reason that few in the west master this language and the rest of us are dependent on the very low number of available translations. The Goethe-Institut pointed out this sorry state of affairs at the closing of a special campaign: “1001 Books”, which were donated by their Chinese owners and brought to a wider audience who, in spite of being unable to read them, eagerly accepted the works. May it be a sign to non-translating-loving publishers! Or even 6,000.
