Chinese literary world reflects on how ‘Kundera fever’ chimed with country’s 1980s intellectual ferment
- Translators and former students of Milan Kundera pay tribute to the Franco-Czech writer who died last week at the age of 94
- His works were first translated into Chinese during the 1980s, a time when his writings chimed with the post-Cultural Revolution mood
Chinese writers and intellectuals have been reflecting on what they described as a wave of “Kundera fever” that gripped them when the late Franco-Czech writer’s works first arrived in the country.
According to Jing Kaixuan, one of his earliest Chinese translators, many readers found echoes of his works in those of contemporary Chinese writers.
“It was a time of liberation of ideas,” Jing told domestic media platform Yicai, referring to the emergence of new writers and styles of literature, many influenced by avant-garde techniques or referring directly to the events of the Cultural Revolution.
He added that Kundera had impressed Chinese readers for adopting an ironic and playful style instead of a head-on depiction of the sharp reality, while his depiction of personal relationships and deconstruction of grand narratives “depicted the alienation of human existence under the system in the context of eastern Europe”.