Telling China’s Stories

Publishing house producing works in foreign languages marks 70th anniversary By Ji Jing

Five foreign experts with the Foreign Languages Press (FLP) recently wrote to President Xi Jinping describing their experiences translating and publishing books such asand expressing their pride at engaging in work that helps international readers understand China.

In replying to these foreign experts on August 25,President Xi said that accurate and expressive translation will help the world better understand China in the new era and play a significant part in promoting exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations.

In Xi’s letter, he also extended greetings to all members of the publishing house on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of its founding.

The experts, coming from different countries and cultural backgrounds, have shared their love for China and Chinese culture and made significant contributions to the country’s translation and publication work that serves foreign readers, Xi wrote in the letter.

He urged the foreign experts to continue pooling their strengths in telling China’s stories with excellent translations that can easily break linguistic and cultural barriers, so that more foreign readers can understand China.

Aly Thabet Aly Mohamed Farag from Egypt has been in China for 14 years and speaks fluent standard Chinese. As an expert in Arabic translation at the FLP, he is one of those who wrote the letter to Xi.

Thabet said he was very happy to hear from the Chinese leader and immediately telephoned his family members after learning the news.

“Knowing that President Xi attaches so much attention to translation, I feel that I’m now tasked with a greater responsibility to do my work,” he said.

Understanding China

Founded in 1952, the FLP was the first publishing house producing works in foreign languages after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It has translated and published more than 30,000 book titles in over 40 languages, with a global distribution of more than 400 million copies.

The fourth volume of President Xi’s bookwas recently published by the FLP in both Chinese and English. The book records the thoughts and practices of Xi and the central leadership.

The fourth volume is a compilation of 109 speeches and writings of Xi, dating from February 3, 2020 to May 10 this year.

In 2014, the first volume of the book debuted at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, where it was available in nine languages, including Chinese, English,French and German.

As of now, the book has been published in four volumes and 36 languages and distributed in more than 170 countries and regions.

Du Zhanyuan, President of China International Communications Group(CICG), of which the FLP is a subsidiary, said the publication of President Xi’s works includinghas broken new ground for the international communication of the Party’s innovative theories in the new era and increased the ways in which international readers can learn about China.

In publishing Xi’s works in foreign languages, CICG and the FLP have cooperated with renowned publishing houses in more than 30 countries to translate the works into local languages.

In addition to translating and publishing the leadership’s works, the FLP has played an important role in recording China’s progress and introducing Chinese culture to a foreign audience over the past seven decades.

The hardcover and paperback copies of the Chinese and English versions of the fourth volume of Xi Jinping: The Governance of China

The five foreign experts with the Foreign Languages Press who recently wrote to President Xi Jinping: Aly Thabet Aly Mohamed Farag from Egypt, Kikuchi Shuji from Japan, David William Ferguson from the UK, Timofey Bakhvalov from Russia and Burkhard Risse from Germany(left to right)

On June 4, the Romanian versions of-andwere displayed at the 15th Bookfest International Book Fair in Bucharest, Romania.

Since reform and opening up began in the late 1970s, China’s rapid growth has made its culture more appealing to international readers. In 1995, China launched The Library of Chinese Classics, a key state-sponsored publishing project presenting to the world a set of Chinese classics in Chinese-English bilingual form. The FLP joined the project and was responsible for the translation and publishing of some of the works in the series. The series included classics such as. In 2007, the works in the series began to be translated into more languages, including French, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

In 1990, the FLP and Yale University Press jointly launchedseries., and two other books, namelyand, were published under the series.

, a book series depicting China’s historic changes in recent decades to international readers, published by the FLP, has revealed the secret of China’s rapid development. The series has been published in multiple languages, including Chinese, English, Arabic, Japanese and German.

Passing the baton

The FLP has also contributed to translating and publishing Chinese literary works in foreign languages.

Inspired by Penguin Books, the FLP published the Panda Books series in the 1980s to introduce Chinese literary works to the world, including renowned Chinese writer Ba Jin’s novel of generational change.

By 1984, the FLP had published the English versions of the four great classical novels of China—,,and.

“Over the past 70 years, the FLP has published more than 1,000 Chinese literary works in dozens of languages, which helped strengthen understanding and friendship between China and the world,”Hu Kaimin, President of the FLP, said.

The FLP has given rise to a number of translators and editors. Renowned translator Yang Xianyi(1915-2009) and his wife Gladys Yang (1919-1999)collaborated to translate.

David William Ferguson, a British editor who has worked at the FLP since 2010 and edited important works such as the four volumes of, won the Chinese Government Friendship Award last year—the highest honor the country bestows on foreigners for their contributions to China’s development. BR