Gathering across the sea on the "Boat of Literature" - The China-Latin American Literature Forum was held in Beijing

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Latin American countries such as Mexico and Argentina. On April 15, the first China-Latin American Literature Forum, sponsored by the China Writers Association, was held in Beijing in a combination of online and offline. Tie Ning, chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, and Robert Rivera, chairman of the Chilean Writers Association, attended and delivered speeches. The opening ceremony of the forum was presided over by Hu Bangsheng, secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association. Chinese writers Zhou Daxin, Nishikawa, A B, and Qiao Ye, as well as Argentine poet Ekdo Dante Singerta, Chilean writer Diego Munoz Valenzuela, Mexican poet Magarito Quial, and Colombian writer Claudia Yvonne Giraldo explore the theme of "the source of creation" through video links. Keynote speeches and free discussion sessions were moderated by Sun Xintang, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Beijing Language and Culture University.

In his speech, Tie Ning thanked the writers who were able to "cross the sea" on the boat of literature. She said that China and Latin American countries have a long history and profound traditions. The Chinese civilization that has lasted for 5,000 years has forged the cultural identity of the Chinese nation standing in the East. The Mayan, Aztec and Inca civilizations of Latin America have been integrated and passed down to the present day to create a Latin American culture with a unique temperament. The literature and art that have developed under the nourishment of rich culture burst out with surging vitality and great energy, vividly recording the historical changes of their respective countries and the mental process of their nationalities. Chinese literature and Latin American literature have always maintained a distant and intimate connection, and Latin American writers or strange magic, or long and broad, or exquisite and profound writing, have had an important impact on the creation of Chinese writers, and have also become a striking label in the literary memory of Chinese readers.

Tie Ning said that over the years, the Chinese Writers Association has actively carried out literary exchanges between China and foreign countries, and the literary exchanges between China and Latin American countries have become more and more frequent, and their understanding of each other has become deeper and more diversified. At present, there are many talented writers in China and Latin American countries, who use the voice of literature to expect each other's attentive listening and heartfelt response. The forum's review of the "source of creation" is a self-questioning and reconfirmation of the writer, and can also be regarded as a re-departure for literary exchanges between China and Latin American countries. It is hoped that the two sides can go further hand in hand and let literature become a beautiful bond of mutual communication, mutual understanding, mutual respect, mutual appreciation, mutual enlightenment, mutual encouragement and mutual cherishing.

Hu Bangsheng said that in September 2021, the China Writers Association initiated the establishment of the "Belt and Road" Literary Alliance, aiming to strengthen exchanges, enhance friendship, promote the translation and dissemination of excellent works, help civilizations learn from each other, and promote people-to-people ties. This forum is the first multilateral literary forum held by the China Writers Association under the framework of the "Belt and Road" Literary Alliance.

Literary exchanges and mutual learning of civilizations

In his speech, Robert Rivera said that in the era of neoliberalism, economic terms such as joint ventures, venture capital, futures stocks and so on have occupied the public's attention, putting writers and literature, as well as the wisdom and creativity behind them, on the verge of "exile". Literature, on the other hand, reunites Latin American countries with China and the East. Everything about social life, such as a dialogue, a book, a history, should have been a free verse to be sung. However, real life is obscured by the false news and post-truth that spreads all the time, becoming a kind of "dark matter", and the duty and mission of the writer is to find out these "dark matter". At the present moment in history, in literature and art, human beings can create the most sincere and free world.

Nishikawa talks about his experience of shuttling, walking, reading, and interacting between Latin American countries and Latin American literature. He believes that "reading Latin American literature is a great pleasure", for example, the Mexican poet Paz used a surrealist way to translate the verses of the Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu, and after reading the Chinese translation of Du Fu's poetry, he had a concrete understanding of the worldview of different civilizations refracted in the poetic language, and the combination of classical and exotic in a strange way formed a new inspiration for contemporary poets. Nishikawa said that writers should not only be satisfied with reflecting the times, but also think about how literary creation can renew themselves and form an equal and powerful symmetrical relationship with the changes of the times. The possibility of literature still exists widely, but only by going deep into one's own life, fully understanding the culture of others, opening oneself up, and accepting various stimuli can we discover more fresh and unknown existences in the way of literature.

Draw fresh nutrients from the life of the times

In Zhou Daxin's view, personal personal experience is vivid and full, making people eager to record it in a literary way and present it to the ideal reader. The hometown is an important storage warehouse for the writer's writing resources, "the impression and memory of the hometown of a writer in his youth and youth is one of the sources of his creation." In addition, the drastic changes in the life of the times will trigger new observations and thinking of writers, "Writers cannot choose the times, but the times can make writers." With the writing skills and personal imagination you have mastered, go to these places to find, and the creative material will continue to emerge in your mind, and you don't need to worry about not having anything to write. ”

Magarito Quiar regards the sea and the birds as the source of his writing, "My writing must be faithful to my peasant origins and combined with the experience of later urban life. "He believes that for the source of personal writing, it is necessary to constantly look back and examine, and draw changing and diverse writing nutrients from the waves of life itself." Writing is a passion and a most serious game", discovered Claudia Yvonne Giraldo, a Colombian writer who always describes the turbulent state of the country in a fantastical and surreal way. She believes that literature should not be far from real social reality and complex and multifaceted human nature, and writers should find their own language and write reality through a strange and profound perspective. Qiao Ye believes that just as the brewing of fine wine is inseparable from the participation of rivers, land, temperature, humidity, grass and trees, grain, air and various microorganisms in nature, literary creation also has a "rich and broad source", writers can write due to inner confusion, curiosity and even pain and fear, and pay tribute to and respond to the classic writers of different time and space in writing. In her view, how to effectively draw vitality and nutrition from the source is a lifelong task of the writer.

Arrive at the realm of literature in reading the classics

"You love the sea, I love the sea. We sail on the sea forever," the poet Ai Qing wrote in the 1950s as a poem for the Chilean poet Neruda. "This forum is a very distant and gracious invitation," echoed Ekdo Dante Singerta, who spoke more than 60 years in time and space. He believes that "there is no only answer to creation, a valley, a sky, a cloud, time, death, love, constantly summon the writer's creative inspiration." Writers and poets such as Novalis, Shelley, Whitman, Byron, pushkin, etc., find and return to the era in which they lived between the lines, which is very important for writers. Arriving in a state of pleasure and happiness in the imaginary world is the charm of literary creation. ”

From avid readers to unwittingly becoming a writer, Diego Munoz Valenzuela speaks of reading and writing being inseparable and mutually reinforcing, up to the point where the writer's personal existence is constituted. "Every work I have ever read with pleasure exists in some unfathomable part of my consciousness and has an invisible and powerful influence from there." Before stepping on Latin American land, A B took the lead in arriving in Latin America by reading, and "met" countless Latin American writers on paper. The literary works of Borges, García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, Cortázar, Carpentier, Bolaño and other writers have become an important nourishment for his writing. Under the influence and enlightenment of Latin American literature, Ah Yi found his own writing "mineral deposit": the self, and the world wrapped, dissolved and swallowed by the self. In his view, the author's fictional characters, spaces and worlds are all things that have been dissolved through the "my spirit", which can make people re-enter the realm of creative freedom.

WeChat Editor: Lv Yimeng

Second Instance: Cong Ziyu

Third trial: Ren Jingjing

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