Chinese authors arrive in Canada for tri-city literary symposium

A group of renowned Chinese authors on Sunday took part in a Sino-centric forum held at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto, the first-ever such event in the festival's history of 35 years.

The event is part of Found in Translation, a yearly festival focusing on the art of literary translation with the goal of increasing Canadian awareness of international talent.

This whirl wind tour began on Saturday in Waterloo in the largest Canadian province of Ontario and will end on Tuesday in Montreal of the French-speaking Quebec province.

The first leg of the symposium was organized by the Confucius Institute at the University of Waterloo. The forum revolved around literature and environment in Chinese and Canadian literature. Among the thought-provoking topics slated for discussion were literature and the urban environment, a sense of place and space in literature, writing about nature, and the role of natural-law philosophy in literature.

The conference was co-hosted by Dr. Darrol Bryant, a distinguished professor emeritus of Renison University College, and Professor Yan Li, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Waterloo.

The delegation from China was composed of award winning authors, publishers, journalists, and literary critics including Tashi Dawa, Jin Yucheng and Shi Zhanjun.

They held discussions with Canadian novelists Dorris Heffron, chair of The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC) 2013, Susan Swan, chair of TWUC 2007, Ann Ireland, Dennis Bock, winner of 2014 Annual Best Foreign Novel Award in China, and poets Harry Thurston and Allan Cooper.

Literature and the environment has become a global hot topic as the meaning of environment has morphed and expanded over the years to be included in every major subject from economy, law, and politics to social advancement.

The symposium began with Quebec-born acclaimed author Dorris Hephron stating that her books, A Shark in the House and City of Wolves, are environmental statements with the City of Wolves exploring the universal interconnection of people, animals and the environment, in particular the wolf-like nature of humans and the human nature of wolves.

The poets and celebrated authors Harry Thurston and Allan Cooper co-wrote The Deer Yard, an ode to 8th-century Chinese port Wang Wei's famous poetry.

"Wang Wei's poems belong to the landscape or wildness or Shan-Shui (Mountains-Rivers). Our poetry is rooted in the natural world and we have looked to the east, to classical Chinese poetry to express our relationship with the environment," said Thurston, current TWUC chair.

These statements added to the rich conversations that were developing in this astute atmosphere. Questions concerning publication and government support were asked by author Susan Swan whose critically acclaimed fiction has been published in 20 countries.

Her probing questions concerning China's support of literary artists was met with astounding surprise by the Canadian delegates.

The Chinese government richly endorses the literary arts, and writers are given privileged access to funding to allow them to grow and write superb literature.

Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan came from such a program that allowed him to become China's answer to Franz Kafka or Joseph Heller.

In Canada, recent publishing rules regarding an author's book sales escalated from 5,000 books to 25,000 books, allowing the already discriminating publishers to decline more writers.

Censorship in Canada, as described by Swan, is driven by economic forces creating a barrier against Canadian voices. Swan elaborates, "I'm sure most small countries are facing this dilemma. It's not China's dilemma but it is ours." The digital age has changed many reader's habits globally and caused publishing to evolve its market paradigm.

Luckily for Tashi Dawa, a member of China's Federation of Literacy and Art Circles, his work has been adapted into films. The award winning writer is one of the most famous Tibetan writers in China. Dawa's books are translated into eight languages including English, Italian and Japanese.

Dawa, along with fellow Chinese authors, will continue to explore Sino-Canadian literature over the next few days. After Sunday's forum at the authors festival, the writers will meet with the Chinese community members at an event sponsored by the Confucius Institute at Seneca College and the Chinese Pen Society of Canada.

On Tuesday, the delegates will participate in further discussions and cultural activities organized by the Confucius Institute in Quebec and the Centre Internationaliste Ryerson Foundation Aubin (CIRFA) in Montreal.

Organizers believed that the 2014 Symposium has delivered more than in the past years, as all the literary parties involved shared an astounding rapport and language and cultural gaps were non-existent.