An Intermediary Between Chinese Literature and European Readers

German amateur author Helmut Matt's 2009 publication of "The Legend of the White Snake" is remarkable for several reasons. He first heard the basic storyline of this ancient epic during a visit to Leifeng Pagoda near China's famous Western Lake three years ago. A series of wooden carvings depicted the main turning points of the story. When he returned to Germany, Helmut Matt started to study the text.

"I did some research and found out there are many variants of the story", says Matt. "There is actually no such thing as a single version of the Legend of the White Snake, but many, many different ones. So I decided to sit down, sort out what I had found and write my own version – and to tell it in a way that readers in Germany would understand."

Adapting and explaining

Helmut Matt's narrative is simple, but compelling. It jumps back and forth between the story itself and numerous explanations about the cultural context. For instance, when two characters marry, the author switches to information about wedding traditions, typical bridal garments, and so on. The author also talks about Chinese mythology or the political history of the 20th century. He even reveals the secrets of a traditional tea ceremony.

But Helmut Matt's adventure as an author went further: After finding a small publishing house in Germany, he also contacted Foreign Language and Teaching Research Press, a publishing giant based in Beijing.

"I presented my story to them. They were quite fascinated by it – told from the perspective of a German, non-Chinese person so to speak. They decided to publish a bilingual edition. It's a beautiful book that can be used as a school textbook but can also be sold to people who love books."

The bilingual edition has the German and Chinese texts on opposite pages. They are accompanied by photos and ornamental drawings. After seeing sample pages on the internet, readers in Germany started asking where they could buy the Beijing publication because they found it more beautiful than the monolingual version.

A shortwave enthusiast

As the year is drawing to an end, Helmut Matt is back at his desk, drafting another book based on an epic story from China. It seems that the author has a lot of material to work with – especially as he has a steady input from a particular source: international radio.

"Quite early in my life I discovered shortwave radio", Matt recalls. "That was back in the days of the Cold War. I contacted some stations, including Radio Beijing. They sent me the usual propaganda but also beautiful magazines with pictures of Chinese landscapes and articles on culture and so on. I really liked that and I was fascinated by it."

Now German readers who want to understand China’s many legends are benefitting from this early fascination.

Author: Thomas Völkner
Editor: Thomas Bärthlein