So close and yet so far

Chen Xiaoying, translator, writer and expert on Russian issues, is never happier than when reciting The Song of the Stormy Petrel in Russian, because the 72-year-old believes the poem represents the best of Maxim Gorky.

Chen has a deep love of Russian and Soviet literature, and has not only translated some of the classics into Chinese, but also written several books about Russian and Soviet writers.

His 2010 book, Love of Russia, won the Chekhov Literature Prize, one of Russia's top literary prizes, and his latest book, My Russia: Faraway and Close, recalls his experiences of the country.