BRITISH playwright Harold Pinter's life changed dramatically with the award of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature on Oct. 13. The world responded with nonstop congratulatory calls, reporters camped outside his house, and some tabloid papers' revelation of his extramarital affair with BBC anchor Joan Bakewell.

Chinese media also devoted major coverage to the British Nobel laureate, but regret over Chinese absence among the award winners remains. As a country with a rich cultural legacy, the nation's expectation for a Nobel Prize in Literature has been growing through the 1990s.

But experts say that perhaps Chinese writers should stop blaming themselves for missing the prize again and again. The problem may lie somewhere else, perhaps in translation.

Goran Malmqvist, a Swedish expert on Chinese literature and a member of the Swedish Academy selecting the Nobel laureates, recently told the Chinese press that the country needs excellent translators to push Chinese works onto the global stage.

Malmqvist is the only one able to read Chinese among the 18 academicians of the Swedish Academy. Since he joined the academy in the 1980s, he has been pushing for a Chinese candidate for the Nobel Prize.

"During the past hundred years, there have been a good many outstanding novelists and poets in China," he said. "Most of them have the qualification to snatch the prize, but due to translation problems, many of their works failed to convey their original meaning to foreign readers."

Malmqvist said, "In the English version of Ba Jin's trilogy, 'Family,' 'Spring' and 'Autumn,' the dialogue was translated adequately. However, many narrative parts were simply deleted because the translators felt they were too elaborate."

He said a marvelous translator was needed to do justice to Chinese literature. In China, there are lots of translators who can beautifully put foreign novels, poems, dramas and prose into Chinese, while few can translate Chinese works into foreign languages, which restricts the development of Chinese literature in the world. In the history of literary translation from Chinese, only a few foreign translators were able to retain the original style of the Chinese literature, he explained.

Malmqvist praised the work of contemporary Chinese writers Li Rui, Su Tong, Feng Jicai, Yu Hua and Wang Anyi.

BRITISH playwright Harold Pinter's life changed dramatically with the award of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature on Oct. 13. The world responded with nonstop congratulatory calls, reporters camped outside his house, and some tabloid papers' revelation of his extramarital affair with BBC anchor Joan Bakewell.

Chinese media also devoted major coverage to the British Nobel laureate, but regret over Chinese absence among the award winners remains. As a country with a rich cultural legacy, the nation's expectation for a Nobel Prize in Literature has been growing through the 1990s.

But experts say that perhaps Chinese writers should stop blaming themselves for missing the prize again and again. The problem may lie somewhere else, perhaps in translation.

Goran Malmqvist, a Swedish expert on Chinese literature and a member of the Swedish Academy selecting the Nobel laureates, recently told the Chinese press that the country needs excellent translators to push Chinese works onto the global stage.

Malmqvist is the only one able to read Chinese among the 18 academicians of the Swedish Academy. Since he joined the academy in the 1980s, he has been pushing for a Chinese candidate for the Nobel Prize.

"During the past hundred years, there have been a good many outstanding novelists and poets in China," he said. "Most of them have the qualification to snatch the prize, but due to translation problems, many of their works failed to convey their original meaning to foreign readers."

Malmqvist said, "In the English version of Ba Jin's trilogy, 'Family,' 'Spring' and 'Autumn,' the dialogue was translated adequately. However, many narrative parts were simply deleted because the translators felt they were too elaborate."

He said a marvelous translator was needed to do justice to Chinese literature. In China, there are lots of translators who can beautifully put foreign novels, poems, dramas and prose into Chinese, while few can translate Chinese works into foreign languages, which restricts the development of Chinese literature in the world. In the history of literary translation from Chinese, only a few foreign translators were able to retain the original style of the Chinese literature, he explained.

Malmqvist praised the work of contemporary Chinese writers Li Rui, Su Tong, Feng Jicai, Yu Hua and Wang Anyi.

Editor: Wing