Chinese authors meet their 'frenemy' foreign translators

Renowned Chinese writers including Nobel laureate Mo Yan on Monday met with foreign translators of their works at a meeting where they described their relations as "frenemies."

The symposium, held by the China Writers Association (CWA) biennially, was themed foreign sinologists and literature translation.

At the opening ceremony, Tie Ning, chairwoman of CWA, said the meeting of the writers and their translators is like a "reunion of long-lost twin brothers or sisters."

"We always find that although we are living in different cultures and speaking different languages, we are so close to each other that we can feel the resonation from the deep within our spirits," she said.

Liu Zhenyun, novelist and Mao Dun literature prize winner, joked that writers and translators are "accomplices", as both sides have their advantages and weak points and the cooperation between the two should generate a good result.

Mo Yan disagrees. "The most brilliant and distinctive part of a writer's work is always the biggest headache for translators," he said. "And in this sense, authors and translators are adversaries."

Taciana Fisac, a spanish sinologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said she thinks translators are sometimes "traitors" to literature, as their personal understanding and input may "betray" the original work.

"I hope this symposium will help us diminish the deviation," she said.

This year's symposium is the third of its kind. A total of 30 foreign sinologists and Chinese language experts from 16 countries as well as famous Chinese authors such as Jia Pingwa, Mai Jia and Alai attended the meeting.