When a literary encounter with the French produces a little magic in Beijing

Chinese author Tie Ning attends the Chinese-French writers event in Beijing.

"Being a diplomat is my way of earning money for more travel," he says.

He says he feels "comfortable from the top of his head to the soles of his feet" in China, thanks to its charm and hospitality.

"When I read books introducing China to the world ahead of the 2008 Olympics, I saw pessimism in books by foreign writers, which was different from what I felt. So I began to write travelogues," says Hein.

His works include In the East of the Cloud (A l'est des nuages) and The Monkey Tree (Arbre a singes).

Meanwhile, renowned French-Chinese translator Sylvie Gentil shares her views on travel at the conference. She says that translation is like taking a journey between cultures and even history.

Speaking on how she tries to bridge the culture gap with her work, she says: "The French love reading Chinese books and other translated works, and the genre and themes they are reading are wide and still expanding. But I don't think that there is enough understanding among them about China, So, I am working on bringing out more books for them, containing contemporary information."

The first Chinese-French writers "encounter" was held in 2009. The theme of the encounter this year was "Literature and Life".

Other writers participating in the event were Laurence Cosse and Liu Zhenyun, and the topics they discussed included urban and rural writing, and even their childhoods.

Tie Ning, chairwoman of China Writers Association, one of the organizers of the conference, says: "Literary classics from both countries hold charm for both the peoples, because they dwell on shared emotions and are about life, about overcoming hardships and sharing the power of humanity."

meijia@chinadaily.com.cn