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Chinese literature thriving in Vietnam
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VISITING Dinh Le street in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, it is not so difficult to find publications of Chinese literature there. Numerous bookshops stand close together along the 200-meter-long street, making Dinh Le a “book street” in Hanoi.
At a bookshop named Hoang on Dinh Le street, Chinese books are displayed on a large bookshelf near the entrance, with mainly classical literature and romantic novels being the prevalent themes. At other stores, Chinese books are also on display in eye-catching areas.
“Sales of ‘Shui Hu Zhuan’ (‘Water Margin’), ‘San Guo Yan Yi’ (‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’) and other Chinese classical literature are good. And the readers are both young and old,” says a shop assistant named Thanh.
According to Thanh, many Vietnamese readers like this kind of book because they are interested in stories about heroes who are brave and chivalrous.
And elderly people buy books they have read years ago and now want to collect.
“Days ago, there was one old man who bought the full sets of ‘Shui Hu Zhuan’ and ‘San Guo Yan Yi’,” Thanh says.
“Sales of works of Chinese contemporary and modern writers, including Lu Xun and Mo Yan, are also stable, unlike romantic novels which are ‘hot’ only when they are newly published,” a manager of Hoang bookstore says, adding that readers of Mo Yan, Lu Xun’s books and other Chinese classical works in Vietnam vary in ages, while romantic novels attract mainly youngsters.
After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, Mo has become more popular in Vietnam, while Lu Xun has a specific reputation in the country with two of his works being printed in Vietnamese literature textbooks.
“I like reading Chinese novels, including those of Jin Yong (Louis Cha), because I like stories of heroic men with superior martial arts skills,” says a male reader in his 30s.
Meanwhile, Linh, a Vietnamese student at a university in Hanoi, says she likes Chinese romantic novels. “I like them as they tell stories with attractive narrative which is closely related to daily life,” she says.
The popularity of Chinese literature in Vietnam is not only being seen in bookstores but also on online forums.
“It can’t be denied that this novel is so good to read. I cried a lot while reading this,” a Vietnamese online reader named “Hue Ngo” comments on a forum on Chinese Internet novels in Vietnam.
“I read this novel. I also watched this TV drama series, and then read the novel again. I have read a lot of novels, but none of them haunted me like this,” another online reader comments.
They are talking about “Bubu Jingxin” (“Startling by Each Step”), a Chinese online novel about time travel.
In recent years, a number of Chinese online literature sites have attracted many Vietnamese online readers.
For those who do not know Chinese, they use online translation tools to learn the content of the story, then wait for translations to be published.
According to statistics, between 2009-13, as many as 841 titles of Chinese books were translated and published in Vietnamese, of which 617 are online titles.
Most of the Chinese outstanding online literature has been translated into Vietnamese, including romantic novels of nearly 100 Chinese online writers.
Since Vietnam and China are close geographically, the two nations share their Oriental culture and heritage. And now Vietnamese readers are increasingly enjoying reading Chinese books translated into their own language.
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