Culture

Chinese novelist Yan Lianke and his admiration for Latin American Literature

Beijing, Dec 8 (EFE).- Two qualities not always common in great creators coincide in Yan Lianke: he is one of the best novelists in China, if not the greatest, and also a hospitable and charming man with whom you can chat for hours about literature, his country and today's world.The writer welcomed EFE to his home in Beijing and invited us with his wife to a succulent "hot pot" -a pot of boiling water into which the Chinese throw all kinds of food-, as a prelude to a conversation of more than six hours about his life and what he calls the "spiritual realism" of his work.(Camera: JAVIER GARCIA)SHOT LIST: NOVELIST YAN LIANKE IN BEIJING, CHINA.SOUND BITES: NOVELIST YAN LIANKE (IN MANDARIN)Translations:1. I had only read Chinese and some foreign authors but once in the nineties I got sick and I read "Pedro Páramo". He fascinated me. From there my passion for Latin American books began. I admire the literature of Latin America. In the last two or three years, I am also rediscovering Borges. which I like now more than when I first read it. He did not write the emotion of the people but he created a new world with wonderful works.2. Until the stxties the achievement ofworld literature wasn't great, but with Latin American literature, the greatest of the 20th century, a climax was reached, a pont of arrival through which universal literature began to go through after. I want to express the great gratitude that I have to the authors and to Latin American literature, it feeds me a lot in my life and in my writing.