Sinologist sees 'key to happiness' in literature
Having been translating some of the most precious ancient Chinese literary works into Spanish for decades, Alicia Relinque has found the key to happiness in her life.
“It is the Chinese literature,” said Relinque, director of the Confucius Institute of Granada University.
Relinque’s translation works include “The Peony Pavilion” by Tang Xianzu in the 16th century — a romantic play about a tragicomic love story, and “The Orphan of Zhao” — a drama written in the 13th century similar to Hamlet.
Born in Madrid in 1960, Relinque began studying Chinese in 1976 and enjoyed it greatly. After she got to know Chinese literature, she wanted to share the beauty of this language with more Spaniards because at the time hardly anyone in Spain read Chinese literature.
She studied Chinese in Paris for some time and then was awarded a scholarship in 1985 to study in Peking University for four years.
“I arrived in Beijing on August 15th,” said Relinque. She initially found life difficult, but nevertheless felt “totally happy.”
“I felt culturally at home. It may seem odd, but the Spanish are not as different from the Chinese as we think. We like to eat and to talk, and we also have very similar concepts of family relations,” she said.
After getting her doctorate, she learnt that the University of Granada was opening a department in Asian studies, so she moved to the city in southern Spain in 1994 and has stayed there ever since.
She attributes her love of Chinese literature to the depth of the personalities, the intensity of the emotions and the natural beauty highlighted in hundreds of Chinese stories she has read.
“In Tang Xianzu’s work I found that China in the 16th century was quite similar to Spain at that time. It was the beginning of the development of commodity economy and it was the time of the awakening of personalities of young people who were seeking free love. It was the greatness of Tang’s work,” said Relinque.
Given her extraordinary work in translating Chinese classic literature, Relinque was granted a special award by the Chinese government in 2017.
The authors are Xinhua writers.