From the Asia Times, a bit more on the motivation behind Chinese government’s drive to popularize, not just Chinese language, but Chinese culture generally, China’s new cultural revolution.
It is high time to make ourselves better understood by the world’s people,” said Du Ruiqing, a scholar from Xian International Studies University… As the language is popularized, books and publishing are also being made a focus of China’s cultural offensive. Officials are looking for a success story that would firmly re-establish China on the literary map of the world and make foreign publishers engage in bidding wars for the translation rights.
Anyone fancy writing a novel in Chinese? Just something to compete with Harry Potter.
Ken Carroll
I should be up for a novel in a couple of years. If it turns out to be crap, I can always play the “…but it’s my second language!” card.
China already has it. Just do (yet) another version of Monkey…directed by Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou, with the script by Han Shaogong and starring (somehow) Zhang Ziyi!
And since Han Shaogong’s doing it, Zhang Ziyi could play both the 观音菩萨 and 白骨精! (Assuming Han’s still on his magical-realism kick.)