For the first time, Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi\’s own story of his life is to be available in China.
The Story of My Experiments With Truth, which has sold more than 200,000 copies in India alone and has been translated in to some 35 languages, will now be translated in Mandarin to cater to what Chinese scholars say is the \”growing interest\” in the leader in their country.
Five volumes of Gandhi\’s selected works containing his writings on satyagraha [people\’s movement], religion, politics and speeches, will also be translated into Mandarin.
\”Gandhi\’s works have largely not been available in Russia and China so far. We are really excited with the growing interest about his writings in China,\” said Vivek Desai of the Ahmadabad-based Navajivan Trust, the 84-year-old publishing house founded by Gandhi which has published more than 300 volumes of the leader\’s works.
Surge of interest
Dr Huang Yinghong of Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-Sen University said he and a team of academics would translate and publish Gandhi\’s works in China. Over 80 of the leader\’s speeches will also be translated.
\”A lot of people, especially the young, in China are interested about Gandhi\’s work but unable to find anything in the local language,\” he said, adding that he planned to launch the five volumes of translated works by the end of the year.
What is driving the surge of interest in the works of the independence hero in China?
\”Gandhi\’s non-co-operation movement [against British rule] in 1920 and his ability to mobilise people had caught the attention of Chinese rulers,\” says Prof Shang Quanyu, who teaches at the foreign studies department of South China Normal University in Guangzhou and has been researching Gandhi.
\”Until 1950, 27 books and hundreds of articles on Gandhi and his ideas where published here. He was described as the Rousseau and Tolstoy of India.\”
via BBC News – Why Mahatma Gandhi is becoming popular in China.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 