China & Israel: Literary Comparative

April 22, 2007 - 7:30 AM by Stephanie

Dr. Zhiqing Zhong is a Beijing native, she speaks fluent Hebrew, has read works by popular Israeli authors Amos Oz and Etgar Keret and has translated 60 Israeli novels to Chinese. She completed her doctorate in comparative literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Dr. Zhong is interested in Israel because her study focus is Israel’s literary response to the Holocaust versus China’s response in literature to the Japanese occupation during WWII. Haaretz online’s Shiri Lev-Ari has written about her here. An excerpt:

According to Zhiqing, both literary traditions were part of an attempt to build a new, national identity following the horrors of war. For decades, both traditions were influenced by social and ideological needs, both were part of a process of rehabilitation and construction of nations, and – at least during the early period – both were used as educational tools.

One of the more painful deviations Zhiquing has noted in the war aftermath of the two cultures has been:

“In the 1950s, the Germans began to recognize the injustice they perpetrated against the Jewish people,” Zhiqing says. “But the Japanese still do not accept responsibility for their actions, not even the massacre and rape of Nanking. That’s what really hurts.”

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