Helping Chinese writers win more fans abroad

Writer Liu Zhenyun returned on Tuesday from a 20-day trip to seven European countries, including the Netherlands, Italy, France and Germany. There he observed obvious changes in Western readers' perspectives about Chinese literature.

"Twenty years ago, their interest was only confined to works on Chinese society and politics, which misled a bunch of Chinese writers to go for shortcuts and seek to be opportunists, and thus China became a strange country through their pens," says Liu.

"But now, Western audiences care more about the depth of life represented in Chinese literature," he adds.