The first International EU-China Literary Festival (Beijing, 21-24 /11/2017, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 25-27/11/2017) was a great success, as reflected in the numbers it reached on Chinese social media (52,000 live streamings, 25,000 weibo viewers, 6,100 Wechat articles).

The Festival is part of the Experience Europe initiative, which aims to present the culture, institutions and peoples of the EU to the Chinese public, and strengthen EU-China ties in the field of culture.

Greece was represented at the Festival by writer Dimitris Stefanakis, who participated in a series of debates on issues related to literary creation, the importance of diversity in literature, the social and political role of literature, the workings functioning of literary translation.

In an interview with A-talk reporter Yao Shun, of the popular Chinese news platform NETEASE.COM, the author relayed his impressions of the visit to Beijing, referred to the Chinese way of thinking, which he described as a combination of philosophy and poetry, spoke about his literary work, expressing his thoughts on literature as a personal creative expression. Referring to the challenges associated with literary translation, he pointed out that the translation process is a form of “peace process” between two languages.

In addition, Stefanakis gave a speech at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and discussed with students from the Department of Greek Language issues related to literature and translation. In both his lecture and the interview he gave to the Greek Language Department students, the author compared and contrasted historical to literary narration and referred to the way in which literature, with the help of memory, reconstructs and narrates the past.