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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 January 2019
This paper investigates the literary translation between China and Brazil from 1952, when Jorge Amado visited China for the first time, to 1964, when the Brazilian military government detained and expelled Chinese diplomats after the coup d’état. It is mainly focused on Chinese and Brazilian writers who traveled between the two countries, and the role they played in literary translation as part of the hot battles in the cultural Cold War. I will show how important literary translation, assisted by writers’ lectures and travel writing, were in the construction of a revolutionary China and Brazil that were sympathetic with each other in their struggles, which aimed at creating viable alternatives to not only the existing bipolar world order but also the discursive practices of the dominant colonial/imperial powers.
I would like to especially thank Professor Lydia Liu, Professor Ana Paulina Lee, Professor Márcia Schmaltz, Wei Yiran, and Larissa Costa da Mata, who generously helped me during writing this paper.
1 I participated in this event as an audience member. The Chinese writers include Li Er, Jiang Tao, Xu Yue, and so on. There is no specific record of the details of their discussion.
2 Zhongyi, Chen, ed., “ Mohuan ji xianshi: Lading meizhou wenxue jiyi [Magic Is Reality: Memories of Latin American Literature],” Ming 12 (2010): 150–161 Google Scholar . Right after Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize, the Chinese magazine Ming (Ming Ri Feng Shang) published a special feature “Magic Is Reality: Latin American Literary Memories,” which combined a series of articles written by Chinese scholars and writers (including Chen Zongyi, Ling Yue, Zhi’an, Chen Dongdong, Hu Xudong, Zhou Chonglin, Liao Weitang, and Zhao Deming). Zhang Zhongjiang, “Nuobei’er wenxuejiang dezhu Lvesa zai shekeyuan yu Zhongguo zuojia jiaoliu [The Nobel Prize Winner Llosa Communicates with Chinese Writers at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences],” Sina News, last modified June 18, 2011. http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2011-06-18/095322663498.shtml. On June 2011, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and some other institutes invited Mario Vargas Llosa to visit China. Many Chinese writers, for example, Mo Yan and Yan Lianke, met Mario Vargas Llosa and enthusiastically recalled their memories of reading his works in 1980s. These Chinese writers agreed that the way Llosa deals with the relationship between literature and politics had a profound impact on contemporary Chinese literature.
3 Kun Zhang, “Some Nobel Sentiments,” China Daily, last modified October 30, 2012. http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2012-10/30/content_15857142.htm. The Nobel committee member Kjell Espmark had clarified the mistranslation of the word during his visit to China. “It was an intentional choice to avoid using the phrase ‘magical realism,’ which was a worn-out term, and the literary wave has passed,” he explains. “We didn’t want to give Mo Yan the wrong associations with Latin American Magical Realism writers.” See Zhang, “Some Nobel Sentiments.” Despite such clarification, however, this new trend resulted in republication of translated works of boom writers, particularly the first authorized Chinese translation of García Márquez’s novel Cien años de soledad [One Hundred Years of Solitude] in 2014.
4 So far there have been some discussions among Chinese scholars about how magical realism was transmitted to China and how it generated cultural misinterpretation of Latin America. Particularly, Teng Wei provides an insightful research mapping the dynamics of power relations that contribute to the changing process of the canonization of Latin American literature in China since the 1950s, which mainly focuses on Spanish American literature. In her book, she presents a sharp contrast between two periods: in the first period, between the 1950s and 1970s, “third world” literature became an essential reference for Chinese literature through state-oriented institutionalization of literary translation and publication. In the second, since the 1980s and after China’s entrance into the world market, the third world view disappeared due to Chinese writers’ aspiration to modernize local literary sources and marketize literary translation and publication. The cultural misinterpretation that magical realism generated, Teng claims, not only shows Chinese writers’ use of local cultural resources to step onto a Western dominated world stage, but also constituted an attempt to defend themselves using the social commitment that the boom writers evinced. Wei, Teng, Bianjing zhi nan: Lading meizhou wenxue hanyi yu dangdai Zhongguo (1949–1999) [South of the Borders: Chinese Translation of Latin American Literature and Chinese Contemporary Literature (1949–1999)] (Beijing: Peking University Press, 2011)Google Scholar . For more discussions about magical realism, see Ruochuan, Duan, Andisi shanshang de shenying: Nuobei’er jiang yu mohuan xianshi zhuyi [The Condor over the Andes: Nobel Prize and Magic Realism] (Wuhan, China: Wuhan Publishing House, 2000)Google Scholar . Since the 1980s, Chinese scholars have been consciously distinguishing Brazilian literature from Spanish American literature in their writing of the history of Latin American literature. Previous research has shown contemporary Chinese scholars’ reflection on the problem of magical realism and the divergence of Brazilian literature. The most representative work is Lading meizhou wenxue shi [History of Latin American Literature], which was published by Peking University in 1989. Particularly, Sun Cheng’ao wrote a book about Brazilian literature separately. See Cheng’ao, Sun, Baxi Wenxue [Brazilian Literature] (Beijing, China: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1999)Google Scholar .
5 For example, Han Yuhai criticizes contemporary Chinese writers for ignoring the fact that these Latin American writers who are popular in China—including Jorge Amado, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Louise Borges, García Márquez, and other boom writers—are all leftists and revolutionists. “Latin American people never give up their revolution against tyranny,” he claims, “[they] never forget the dream of a society of peace and justice.” By crediting these Latin American writers as leftists without acknowledging and allowing for any difference among them, Han clearly attempts to construct an imagination of “Latin America” as part of a third wold united against imperialism through fetishizing the revolutionary identity of these writers. Han Yuhai, “Meige zuojia jiuxiang gemingjia yiyang [Every Writer Is like a Revolutionist],” China Book Business Report, March 12, 2004.
6 Rothwell, Matthew D., Transpacific Revolutionaries: The Chinese Revolution in Latin America (New York: Routledge, 2013), 4 Google Scholar .
7 The International Stalin prize for Strengthening Peace among Peoples was founded in 1949 to award those who support the Soviet Union and international communist movement in the name of “strengthen the peace among comrades.” In China, this prize was well known when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and Soviet writer Ilya Ehrenburg visited Beijing and represented the Soviet Union to award it to Madame Sun Yat-sen in 1950. Chinese writer Guo Moruo won this prize in the same year as Jorge Amado.
8 Zélia Gatai, “Três Viagens à China I,” Correio Braziliense, October 18, 1987. All articles and photos from Brazilian newspapers come from the online database Biblioteca National Digital (BNDigital).
9 Ratliff, William E., “Chinese Communist Cultural Diplomacy toward Latin America, 1949–1960,” The Hispanic American Historical Review 49.1 (1969): 53–79 CrossRefGoogle Scholar . It is hard to know the exact number of Brazilian visitors because the Chinese official archive is unavailable. According to the calculation of Ratliff, there were about fifteen hundred Latin Americans visited China between 1949 and 1960. The number of Latin American visitors increased sharply between 1959 and 1960. The estimated number of Brazilian visitors is thirty-plus in 1959, one hundred-plus in 1960, and fifty-plus in 1961.
10 Zhiliang, Huang, Xin dalu de zai faxian: Zhou Enlai yu lading meizhou [Rediscover the New Continent: Zhou Enlai and Latin America] (Beijing: World Affairs, 2004), 58–66 Google Scholar . According to former Chinese diplomat Huang Zhiliang, China had sent about eighteen delegations to Latin America. He mentioned that China sent art delegations (in 1956 and 1959), journalist delegations (amount unknown, but China Daily shows that they visited in 1959), and economic delegations (1955 and 1964) to Brazil.
11 Franco, Jean, The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City: Latin America in the Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002)Google Scholar , 1. Jean Franco describes how culture became a battle field in Latin America during the Cold War, “The United States staged its cultural interventions during the Cold War as a defense of freedom against censorship, while on an altogether different plane, in what was pitched as a war of ‘Values,’ the Soviet Union defended a realism in which the ‘real’ was defined as class struggle and ‘peace’ became a political tactic.”
12 Huang, Xin dalu de zai faxian, 48.
13 Ibid, 54. Huang Zhiliang recalled that before the trip of Chinese art delegations, Zhou Enlai carefully censored the content and costumes of the art performances that might be perceived as communist propaganda. Zhou said to those delegates, “You have a ‘red hat’ on your head, people were afraid that you went there to ‘communize’ (chi hua) and to instigate revolution. Therefore, you should not even choose ‘Havoc in Heaven’ (‘Da nao tian gong’).” Tad Szulc, “Chinese Troupe Opens in Brazil: ‘Peking Opera’ Received Rave Notices,” New York Times, September 13, 1956. Tad Szulc, who was a Latin American correspondent of New York Times, noted the cautious erasure of political propaganda in the Peking Opera performance at Rio de Janeiro in 1956, “The Chinese were careful to leave obvious propagandizing or politics completely out of the performances and social contacts.” Rupprecht, Tobias, “Socialist High Modernity and Global Stagnation: A Shared History of Brazil and the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” Journal of Global History 6.3 (2011): 519 CrossRefGoogle Scholar . Members of the Instituto Cultural Brasil-URSS, which was founded in Rio de Janeiro by a group of local intellectuals for the purpose of increasing the cultural influence of the Soviet Union, warned of the threat of its Chinese competitor at the same time. These reports show that no matter how carefully the Chinese government selected its art delegates, it still aroused anxiety from both the United States and the Soviet Union.
14 Iber, Patrick, Neither Peace nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 49–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar . The World Peace Council was originally the Permanent Committee of Partisans of Peace, which was established by the World Congress of Partisans for Peace in 1949. The committee was reformed to the World Peace Council in 1950 for the WPC’s role in the Cold War era and its connection with Latin American intellectuals.
15 Emi Siao, “Jieshao Yamaduo he Jili’an: lading meizhou de liangwei jiechu de wenhua zhanshi [Introducing Amado and Guillén: Two Prominent Cultural Warriors],” People’s Daily, February 6, 1959.
16 Teng, Bianjing zhi nan, 5–6.
17 Rothwell, Transpacific Revolutionaries, 22.
18 Halperin, Ernst. “Peking and the Latin American Communists,” The China Quarterly 29 (1967): 119 CrossRefGoogle Scholar . Diogenes Arruda, who was the chief aide to Luise Carlose Prestes, was said to be more inclined to China after the congress, “Like so many other delegates to the 20th Congress, it was only in China that he [Arruda] had heard of the existence of Khrushchev’s secret speech and had been told some of its salient points. Angry about this and seeing that the situation was changing, Arruda decided to change himself, and in a radical manner. . . . One afternoon, stretched out on his hotel bed, cleaning his nails with a penknife, Arruda related to me his list of grievances against the Soviet bureaucrats. He compared them unfavourably with the Chinese. Proudly he told me how he, together with the rest of the Latin American Communist delegation, had been received by Mao Tse-tung, who had talked with them for two hours and even asked whether they wanted to continue the conversation. In the Soviet Union on the other hand, he said, he had never had the honour of being received even by the most obscure member of the Central Committee.” Translated by Ernst Halperin.
19 Rupprecht, Tobias, Soviet Internationalism after Stalin: Interaction and Exchange between the USSR and Latin America during the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 153 CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
20 Ibid., 141–42.
21 Rothwell, Transpacific Revolutionaries, 21.
22 The pro-Soviet force changed its name from the Communist Party of Brazil to the BCP. About the detail of the split within the PCB, see Johnson, Cecil, Communist China & Latin America, 1959–1967 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970), 181–207 Google Scholar . About the influence of the Cuba revolution and the pro-Chinese inclination among Latin American countries, see Szulc, Tad, The Winds of Revolution: Latin America Today and Tomorrow (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1963)Google Scholar .
23 Alba, Victor, “The Chinese in Latin America,” The China Quarterly 5 (1961): 56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; William E. Ratliff, “Chinese Communist Cultural Diplomacy toward Latin America, 1949–1960,” 77–78.
24 Rupprecht, “Socialist High Modernity and Global Stagnation,” 508. The National Congress of Intellectuals [Congresso Nacional de Intelectuais Reunido] at Goiânia in 1954 was a remarkable event.
25 Wayne A. Selcher, The Afro-Asian Dimension of Brazilian Foreign Policy, 1956–1968, dissertation, University of Florida, 1970, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. Accessed Apr. 12, 2016.The interests in Afro-Asian countries were limited within the elite circle. Also, the elite interest in connection with Afro-Asian countries varied from one another in the 1950s. For example, Gilberto Freyre criticized Pan-Asianism when he participated in Congresso Internacional de História dos Descobrimentos at Lisbon in September 1960. Greyre compares Pan-Asianism’s ethnocentrism to Pan-Europeanism and claims that the Bandung Conference and Pan-Asianism is just a competition between China and India to increase their political influence in Asia and Africa. Greyre, Gilberto, China Tropical: E Outros Escritos Sobre a Influencia Do Oriente Na Cultura Luso-brasileira, complied by Edson Nery Da. (Fonseca, Brazil: Editora Universidade De Brasília, 2003)Google Scholar .
26 Tad Szulc, “Red China Seeking Links with Brazil: Program of Inviting Leaders of Professions to Visit Nation Helps Peiping,” New York Times, November 20, 1960.
27 Amado, Jorge, Navegação De Cabotagem: Apontamentos Para Um Livro De Memórias Que Jamais Escreverei (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil: Editora Record, 1992), 151–154 Google Scholar ; Rupprecht, “Socialist High Modernity and Global Stagnation,” 507–15. From 1956 to 1964, all three Brazilian presidents showed strong interest in Afro-Asian countries. Kubitschek sent politicians on numerous visits to China. The Quadros government founded an Afro-Asian Institute (Instituto Afro-Asiático) that consisted of many left-wing intellectuals and advocated Brazil’s new independent foreign policy. The establishment of the Afro-Asian Institute, Jorge Amado claimed, indicated that the Brazilian government had abandoned its support for the Portuguese colonial activities in Africa.
28 “Gu la te de yanjiang [Goulart’s Speech],” People’s Daily, August 18, 1961.
29 Jin Yanxia, “Wang Weizhen zai yi ‘baxi Shijian’ [Wang Weizhen Retold the ‘Brazilian Incident’],” Da Di 5 (2000). Accessed March 21, 2016. http://www.people.com.cn/GB/paper81/661/77220.html.
30 Cesar Vieira Da Costa. “Brazil’s Land Reform.” The New York Times, May 4, 1959; Gilberto Freyre, “Why a Tropical China.” in New World in the Tropics: The Culture of Modern Brazil (New York: Knopf, 1959), 257–85. For Gilberto Freyre’s connection with the CIA supported Cadernos Brasileiros, see Patrick Iber, Neither Peace nor Freedom, 180; Jean Franco, The Decline and Fall of the Lettered City, 32.
31 Tad Szulc, “Marxists Are Organizing Peasants in Brazil,” New York Times, November 1, 1961; Tad Szulc, “Brazil Plans Ties with 3 Red Nations,” New York Times, February 24, 1961; Julian Hartt, “Brazil May Recognize Communist China Soon.” New York Times, February 20, 1964.
32 “Chinese Held in Brazil Called ‘Just Plain Spies.’ ” Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1964; Huang, Xin dalu de zai faxian, 227–38; Jin, “Wang Weizhen zai yi ‘baxi Shijian’ ”; Jules Dubois, “Red China Tie to Goulart in Brazil Bared,” Chicago Tribune, April 4, 1964.
33 Amado, Navegação De Cabotagem, 464. Jorge Amado mentions that he had a conversation with Ting Ling when they met in the hotel. He expressed his doubt about socialist regime. To his surprise, however, Ting Ling had never doubted her belief (or she did not allow herself to doubt) and said to him, “If I step on the mud, I clean my feet and move on.” For more memoir of their experience, see Zélia Gatai, “Carta De Zélia Amado a Amália,” O Pupular, January 22, 1987; Qing, Ai, Lvxing riji [Travel Diary] (Shanghai, China: Shanghai Literature & Art House, 2004), 518–535 Google Scholar ; Ying, Gao, Wo he Ai Qing de gushi [Stories of Ai Qing and Me] (Beijing, China: China Drama Publishing House, 2003), 42–44 Google Scholar .
34 Ai Qing, Lvxing, 313, 337, 361.
35 Gatai, “Carta De Zélia Amado a Amália.”
36 Emi Siao, “Jieshao Yamaduo he Jili’an.” Emi Siao published an essay about Amado and Guillén on People’s Daily before their visit. Like other articles, Siao described Amado’s political activities in Brazil and appraised him as faithful to revolutionary career. While introducing his works, Siao emphasized Cacau (1933), The Knight of Hope (1942), and The Bowels of Liberty (1954).
37 Wu Lao, “Epilogue,” Wubian de tudi [The Violent Land] (Shanghai, China: Shanghai Culture Publishing House, 1953), 465. The English version that Wu mentioned was published by an American publishing house called Alfred A. Knopf in 1945.
38 The four works are: Fuluo’er he tade liangge zhangfu [Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands], trans. Cheng’ao Sun and Weixin Fan (Kunming, China: Yunnan Renmin Chubanshe, 1987 [reprinted in 1994 and 2008]); Huangjinguo de tudi [The Golden Harvest], trans. Yonghui Zheng and Mancheng Jin (Beijing, China: Writers Publishing House, 1956); Ji’e de daolu [Red Field]. trans. Yonghui Zhen (Shanghai, China: Pingming Chubanshe, 1954 [reprinted by Writers Publishing House in 1956]); Wubian de tudi [The Violent Land], trans. Wu Lao (Shanghai, China: Shanghai Culture Publishing House, 1953 [reprinted by Writers Publishing House in 1958]); Xiwang de qishi [The Knight of Hope], trans. Yizhu Wang (Beijing, China: People’s Publishing House, 1953).
39 Teng, Bianjing zhi nan, 8.
40 Black, Jeremy, The Cold War: A Military History (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015), 65 Google Scholar .
41 Hong Zicheng, “Literary Norms and the Literary Environment,” in A History of Contemporary Chinese Literature [Zhongguo dangdai wenxueshi], trans. Michael M. Day (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 21–40.
42 Mao Dun, ed., “Bei sunhai minzu de wenxue hao [Literature of the Oppressed Nations],” Xiaoshuo yuebao [Fiction Monthly] 12.10 (1921): 2–7. Teng Wei also mentions this tradition in her book Bianjing zhi nan. In 1921, Xiaoshuo yuebao [Fiction Monthly] published “Bei sunhai minzu de wenxue hao [Literature of the Oppressed Nations],” which included literature from Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. In the preface of this issue, the writers identified themselves with the literature of the oppressed nations. In the preface, the editor claims that the nationality of literature, taking Argentinian and Brazilian literature as an example, does not depend on languages but rather on the specific environment and history of each nation. It is having suffered from oppression, they believe, that gives shape to the distinct character of national literature.
43 Zhao Jiabi, ed., Zhongguo xinwenxue daxi [Compendium of New Chinese Literature] 10 (Shanghai, China: Liangyou, 1936), 363–81.
44 Aluísio Azevedo, “Zuihou yizhi (O último Dado),” trans. Shen Yanbing, Xiaoshuo Yuebao [Fiction Monthly] 14.5 (1923): 59–62; Issac Goldberg, “Baxi wentan zuijin de qushi [Brazilian Literature],” trans. Pei Wei, Xiaoshuo Yuebao [Fiction Monthly] 13.12 (1922): 87–90; Shen Yanbing, “Baxi wenxuejia de yiben xiaoshuo [A Novel of a Brazilian Writer],” Xiaoshuo Yuebao [Fiction Monthly] 12.2 (1921): 108.
In these publications, Mao Dun used his original name Shen Yanbing and another pen name, Pei Wei.
45 Zhou Qiying. “Baxi wenxue gaiguan [Review of Brazilian Literature],” Xiandai Wenxue Pinglun [Modern Literature Review] 2.1–2 (1931): 1–16. Zhou Qiying is Zhou Yang’s pen name.
46 Mao Dun, “Wei fazhan wenxue fanyi shiye he tigao fanyi zhiliang er fendou—1954 nian 8 yue 19 ri zai quanguo wenxue fanyi gongzuo huiyi shang de baogao [Work Hard for Developing the Career of Literary Translation and Improving the Quality of Literary Translation—Report on the National Conference of Literary Translation Work on August 19, 1954],” Fanyi lunji [Selected Essays on Translation], eds. Luo Xinzhang and Chen Yingnian (Beijing, China: The Commercial Press, 2009), 570–81. “Through these [literary] works, we can deeply understand how peoples of these countries are carrying out arduous struggles for their own liberation from reactionary rule, imperialist invasion, and enslavement. We empathize with them not only because the miserable life that they are suffering today is what we had just experienced yesterday but also because their struggles for independence and freedom today is also part of the fight of peoples all over the world who defend peace and oppose aggression. It is through such fights that we Chinese people are as close to peoples all over the world as flesh and blood.” (My translation.)
47 Zedong, Mao. Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung (Peking, China: Foreign Language, 1965), 89–90 Google Scholar .
48 All Students of Year 57 from French Major, Department of Spanish of Peking University. Zhongguo fanyi wenxue jianshi (chugao) [Brief History of Chinese Literary Translation (first draft)]. Reserved at Peking University Library, 1960.
49 Ma Shikui, “Wenge qijian de waiguo wenxue Fanyi [Translation of Foreign Literature during the Cultural Revolution],” Chinese Translators Journal 3 (2003): 65–69; Teng, Bianjing zhi nan, 27–29. In the early 1950s, private publishing houses went through a process of nationalization, after which they were either owned by the state or under joint state-private management. Under the guidance of the PRC government, these publishing houses transformed their previous commercial mode of literary translation and publication catering to the demand of the market into a state-oriented mode that aimed at serving and educating the masses. In accord with this transformation, the magazine Yiwen (Translations), which claimed to be an inheritor Lu Xun’s spirit of translation, changed its name to Shijie wenxue (World Literature) in 1959 and positioned itself to become the most influential literary journal publishing translations and reviews of foreign literature and introducing literary developments in foreign countries. In this period, translating or introducing literary works and criticism was as important for professional translators as service in diplomatic affairs. Therefore, it was common to see their names appear on literary magazines or translated literature. In short, the state’s stress on collectiveness further intensified such that group translation became the predominant practice during the cultural revolution.
50 Huang, Xin dalu de zai faxian, 22–28; Rothwell, Transpacific Revolutionaries, 19. For example, the first Spanish teacher of the first Spanish major at Beijing Foreign Languages Institute was Peruvian painter José Venturelli’s wife, Delia Baraona. In addition, the institute also hired Spanish refugees who went to the Soviet Union after the end of the Spanish Civil War.
51 Zhao Linlin and Hongliang Kou, “Yong shengming he ai tuohuang Zuo Ying tongzhi yu guangbo dianshi jiaoyu [Pioneer through Life and Love: Commrade Zuo Ying and TV Broadcasting Education],” Modern Communication [Journal of Communication University of China] 1 (2001): 121–27.
52 Fang Chang’an, “Lun waiguo wenxue yijie zai shiqi nian yujing zhong de shanbian [The Transmutation of Translation of Foreign Literature during the Seventeen Years],” Wenxue Pinglun [Literary Review] 6 (2002): 78–84. During this period, literary translation was mainly focused on three types of literature: first, literature of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries; second, classical Western literature (especially the realist literature in the 19th century); third, literature that reflected the struggles for independence in colonies and semi-colonies. The importance of each type of literature varied in different periods. Before the mid-1950s, literary translation was mainly focused on the first type under the advocacy of Hu Feng and Zhou Yang. Since the mid-1950s, the translation of Afro-Asian literature increased due to the Bandung conference and Afro-Asian writers’ conferences. After the Cuban revolution (1959), the translation of Latin American literature also increased.
53 Besides Jorge Amado’s works, the Chinese publishing houses also translated Alina Paim’s novel A Hora Próxima (1955; Chinese: Shihou jiuyao daole, 1958), Euclides da Cunha’s novel Os Sertões (1902; Chinese: Fudi, 1959), Afonso Schmidt’s two stories “A Marcha” and “Misterios de Sao Paulo” (1945 and 1955; Chinese: “Yuanzheng” and “Shengbaoluo de mimi,” 1960), selected poems from Castro Alves: Poesias Completas (1955; Chinese: Ka si te luo a’er wei si shixuan, 1959), Guilherme Figueiredo’s drama A Raposa e as Uvas (1953; Chinese: Yi Suo, 1959), and Monteiro Lobato’s children book Histórias de tia Nastácia (1937, Chinese: Na si ta xia gugu jiang de gushi, 1959). There were also several pieces published on Shijie wenxue [World Literature] including Machado de Assis’s short story “Pai Contra Mãe” (1906; Chinese: “Fuqin gen muqin guobuqu,” 1960), Lima Barreto’s short story “O Homem que Sabia Javanês” (1911; “Dong zhaowa yu de ren,” 1964), and some other poems.
54 “Dificuldades Editoriais Na China [Editorial Difficulties in China],” Diário da Tarde [Curitiba], November 8, 1952.
55 Lygia Fagundes Telles, Passaporte Para a China: Crônica de Viagem [Passport to China: Chronicles of Trip] (São Paulo, Brazil: Compania Das Letras, 2011), 63–65. Lygia’s memoir is a collection of the articles she wrote for the newspaper Útima Hora during their trip to China in 1960. Lygia went with a group of Brazilian writers, including Helena Silveira, Peregrino Júnior, Raymundo de Magalhães Jr., and Adão Pereira Nunes. Helena Silveira visited China again in 1963.
56 Jurema Yari Finamour, “Encontro com Editores Chinêses [Encounter with Chinese Editors],” Para Todos, January 15–30, 1957.
57 Eneida Costa De Moraes, “Duas Editôras Chinesa [Two Chinese Publishers],” Diario de Noticias, August 23, 1959.
58 Ibid.
59 The English translation is quoted from H. Yang & G. Yang, Selected Stories of Lu Hsun (1960) published by Foreign Languages Press.
60 Ai, Lvxing, 213–415.
61 Chen Lin-jui. “O Teatro Chinês—Um Drama Dançado [Chinese Theatre—a Drama Dancing],” Para Todos, September 15–30, 1956.
62 “Salão ‘Para Todos’ de Gravura De Desenho [“Para Todos” Salon of Graving and Painting],” Para Todos, October 15–30, 1957. Since the second issue of March 1957, Para Todos published a series of articles about Chinese cinema written by French critic Georges Sadoul.
63 “Revistas da China [Magazines from China],” Novos Rumos, December 18, 1960.
64 Gustavo Orsolon (de Edições Zumbi), “‘Rebeliões Da Senzala’” Diálogos, Memória e Legado de um Intelectual Brasileiro,” dissertation, Universidade Federal Rural Do Rio de Janeiro, 2013, 70–76.
65 “Edições Zumbi LTDA: Apresenta Ao Público Brasileiro,” O Semanário, September 18, 1958.
66 “Ganhou Na Índia Mas Perdeu O Céu [Won in India but Lost Heaven],” Tribuna da Imprensa, May 15, 1957.
67 “Escritor Na China Não Tem Liberdade: Yutang [Writers in China Have No Freedom: Yutang],” Diário De Notícias, September 29, 1959.
68 Humbert Droz, “Lading meizhou de geming yundong [Latin America’s Revolutionary Movement],” Shijie Zazhi [World Magazine] 1.2 (82): 291–310. Before the 1950s, Chinese intellectuals had paid attention to the American imperialist activities and the anti-imperialist revolution in Brazil and other Latin American countries, however, these efforts were quite limited.
69 F. Ke’in, “Lading meizhou de shige [Latin American Poetry],” trans. Yue Chen, Renmin Wenxue [People’s Literature] 34.Z1 (1952): 76–79.
70 Jorge Amado, “Gechang sulian [Canto à União Soviética, Song for Soviet Union],” trans. Sun Wei, Yiwen [Translation] 10 (1953): 1–7.
71 Liu Huai. “Baxi de Heping Doushi [Shiren Yamaduo],” Shijie Zhishi [World Affairs] 24.25 (1951): 13. My translation.
72 Xiangsheng, Yuan, “ Heping zhanshi Qiaozhi Yamaduo [A Fighter for Peace: Jorge Amado],” Wen Yi Bao 4 (1952): 38–39 Google Scholar .
73 Rougle, William, “Soviet Critical Responses to Jorge Amado,” Luso-Brazilian Review 212 (1984): 35–36 Google Scholar .
74 Ellison, Fred P., Brazil’s New Novel: Four Northeastern Masters, (Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1954), 91 Google Scholar .
75 Chilcote, Ronald H., Intellectuals and the Search for National Identity in Twentieth-century Brazil (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 126–172 CrossRefGoogle Scholar . Chilcote mentions the spread of Marxism among Brazilian intellectuals and their disputes over the adaptability of Marxisim on Brazil.
76 F. Kel’in, “Lading Meizhou De Jinbu Zuojia [Latin American Progressive Writers],” Guang Ming Daily, October 4, 1952.
77 Caballero, Manuel, Latin America and the Comintern 1919–1943 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 76–96 Google Scholar . Interestingly, Wang Ming, who was an important figure in Chinese Communist Party and later responsible for liaison with the Latin American Communist Parties in the Comintern, was also involved in the discussion. He gave a speech at the Seventh Congress in 1935, “The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries,” which brought up the question of the anticolonial struggle in colonial countries, especially Brazil. See Chen Shaoyu, The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries: Speech, Revised and Augments. Delievered August 7, 1935 (New York: Workers Library, 1935).
78 Caballero, Latin America and the Comintern 1919–1943, 151.
79 Wang Yangle, Lading Meizhou Wenxue [Latin American Literature], (Beijing, China: Zuojia Chuban She, 1963), 2–3. This book was not written for the public but particularly for party and government leaders. The writer was the editor of the People’s Literature Publishing House. His major was English. After studying Spanish, he started translating and introducing Latin American literature to Chinese readers. See Teng Wei, Bianjing zhi nanBianjing zhinan, 35.
80 Wan Qing. “Jinbu de lading meizhou wenxue [Progressive Latin American Literature],” Guang Ming Daily, May 20, 1963.
81 Wang Congcong. “The Road to Revolution: The Imaginary World of Literature and Culture during China’s Socialist Period,” dissertation, Shanghai University, 2012, 81–98. In his dissertation, Wang Congcong also discusses how the imagination of world revolution was inscribed in literary creation during cultural revolution.
82 Mu Zi, “Wo xihuan “Huang jinguo de tudi [I like São Jorge dos Ilhéus],” China Youth Daily, February 23, 1957. My translation.
83 Mao Zedong, “Tong lading meizhou yixie guojia gongchandang lingdaoren de tanhua [Talks with Some Latin American Communist Leaders].” China Femine 1959–1961 Accessed Apr. 21, 2016. http://www.yhcw.net/famine/Documents/mzdwj/mx08016.htm. My translation.
84 “Nanmei Baxiguo turen [Indigenous People in Brazil],” Shizhao Yuebao [Shizhao Monthly] 29.3 (1934).
85 Ai Qing, Lvxing riji, 490–93.
86 Zhou Erfu, Zhou Erfu Sanwen Ji [Collected Essays of Zhou Erfu], vol. 3. (Beijing, China: Hua Xia Publishng House, 1999), 177–355.
87 For more critique of the construction of the northeast as a revolutionary space, see Durval Muniz Albuquerque Jr., The Invention of the Brazilian Northeast (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2014), 131–219.
88 Maria de Lourdes Teixeira, “O Livro Traduzido: Sol Sôbre O Rio Sangkan,” Para Todos, March 10–23, 1956.
89 Rosario Hubert, “The Diplomacy of Exoticism: Brazilian Accounts of the Global South,” in Territories and Trajectories: Cultures in Circulation, ed. Diana Sorensen (Durham: Duke University Press, 2018), 35–46. By analyzing the Brazilian travel writing of Asia, Hubert presents how exoticism should be read as a negotiation of Brazilian identity in relation to the global south.
90 Johnson, Communist China & Latin America, 1959–1967, 197–99.
91 Green, James N., “Forward,” in The Invention of the Brazilian Northeast, trans. Jerry Dennis Metz (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2014), ix–x Google Scholar . Besides, the New York Times had published a series of broadcasts with regard to the peasant revolt in the northeast. Tad Szulc, “Northeast Brazil Poverty Breeds Threat of a Revolt,” New York Times, October 31, 1960; Tad Szulc, “Marxists Are Organizing Peasants in Brazil,” New York Times, November 1, 1961; Cesar Vieira Da Costa, “Brazil’s Land Reform,” New York Times, May 4, 1959; Henry Gemmill, “Brazil at the Brink: Land Is Ripe for Revolt but Jockeying by Rival Groups Postpones One,” Wall Street Journal, October 25, 1963.
92 “Oukelidesi Dakuniya shishi wushi zhounian jinian [The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Death of Euclides Da Cunha],” Guang Ming Daily, October 28, 1959.
93 “Meiguo chuipeng Yamaduo gaixie guizheng [The United States Praises Jorge Amado for giving up Evil and Return to Good],” Shijie Wenxue Qingkuang Huibao [World Literature Report] 8 (1964): 28–29. In 1964, Shijie wenxue qingkuang baodao [World Literature News Report] published an article that cites American newspapers’ appraise of Jorge Amado’s abandonment of socialist ideology.
94 Zélia Gatai, “Três Viagens à China III,” O Popular, October 18. 1987.
95 Lin Yi’an, “Amado: Wo yongyuan shi ge putong zuojia [I Am Always an Ordinary Writer],” Wen Yi Bao, October 17, 1987. “However, I think, ‘Latin American literature’ is not a proper comment, because its meaning is very ambiguous, and even had certain colonial remnants. The literature of more than twenty countries of our Latin American continent have their own distinct character, they are not necessarily the same, and even fundamentally different. Who can say Brazilian literature has similarity with Argentinian literature? No. No [similarity] at all! Therefore, we can say Argentinian literature, Peruvian literature, Colombian literature, Mexican literature, Haitian literature, Brazilian literature; but cannot generalize them in one category. Some people call me a Latin American writer, which I cannot agree. I want to say that I am a Brazilian writer, not a Latin American writer, just like you cannot call your writers as Asian writers but Chinese writers.” My translation.
96 Feng Zhi, “Ai Qing wang hechu qu [Where Is Ai Qing Going],” in Fengzhi quanji [Collected Works of Feng Zhi], eds. Fengzhi and Hang Yaocheng, vol. 6 (Shijiazhuang, China: Hebei Education Press, 1999), 292.