Mo Yan's works have attracted the attention of the Russian literary and art circles
In recent years, the popularity of Chinese literature in Russia has been rising, and masterpieces of contemporary literature have been widely translated and introduced, and have achieved great market repercussions. Among them, the translation and dissemination of Mo Yan's works in Russia is particularly noteworthy, and his feature "Frog" was published in Russia in 2020 and was nominated for the "Tolstoy Estate Prize" in 2021. This year, the Russian version of the drama "Frog", adapted by the Pushkin Model Drama Theater in Pskov, Russia, was presented for the first time and won 8 nominations for the "Golden Mask Award", the highest award for Russian national theater, reflecting the popularity of Chinese writers' works in Russia.
The Pskov Pushkin Model Theater attaches great importance to the adaptation and dissemination of Chinese literature in Russia. It is reported that from December 6 to 11 this year, the theater held the "Mo Yan Art Festival", which put many classic Chinese dramas and film works such as "Thunderstorm" and "Dragon Whisker Valley" on the stage, and held "Mo Yan and Film" lectures, Mo Yan's works exhibition and other activities to further promote the spread of Chinese modern and contemporary literature in Russia. On December 11, as the finale of the art festival, at the "Sino-Russian Cultural Dialogue", Chinese writer Mo Yan and experts and scholars from the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg State University, Pskov Pushkin Model Drama Theater, and the Chinese Character Copyright Association gathered in the cloud to conduct a three-place connection of "Beijing-St. Petersburg-Pskov", focusing on topics such as "Cultural Relations between Russia and China" and "Russia and China: Friendship Passed Down from Generation to Generation".
During the exchange, Mo Yan talked about the influence of Russian writers such as Tolstoy, Sholokhov, and Bulgakov on him, and interpreted the Russian cultural imprint in his works. Russian experts showed their familiarity with and love for Mo Yan's works and Chinese literature during the exchange, saying that the overseas dissemination of Chinese literature will help the international community to deeply understand the cultural traditions and ways of thinking of Chinese. In the future, the two countries should further enrich the forms of cultural exchanges, intensify the translation of literary works, and let readers of the two countries enhance their understanding of each other through reading.
It is understood that in the past 10 years, with the large-scale publication of the works of Mo Yan, Liu Cixin, Cao Wenxuan, Liu Zhenyun, Yu Hua and other writers in Russia, more and more Russian readers have learned about three-dimensional, vivid and vibrant China through literature.