Volume 3,Issue 5
Rural Literature of Shaanxi and Its International Projection: Translation, Circulation, and Reception
Within the broader internationalization of Chinese culture, the rural literature of Shaanxi constitutes a distinctive corpus characterized by ethnographic density, the centrality of agrarian landscapes, and a stylistic profile shaped by local dialect and communal structures. Despite its literary and cultural value, its presence in global publishing circuits remains uneven: translation catalogues show incomplete language coverage, fragmented trajectories, and a dissemination pattern that combines state-led initiatives, academic endeavors, and—more recently—commercial platforms such as Amazon Crossing. This article offers a synoptic account along three axes—translation, circulation, and reception—across Anglophone, Francophone, and Japanophone contexts. Drawing on publication data and reader reviews from platforms such as Goodreads, Babelio, and Bookmeter, the analysis identifies a shift of regime from an initial “institutional outbound” model to a more recent “platformization” that increases visibility but does not, by itself, resolve language-coverage gaps or deficits in cultural mediation. It argues that consolidating the international projection of Shaanxi’s rural literature requires strengthening co-translation teams, diversifying media formats, and designing reader-oriented contextualization strategies so that these works can function as robust intercultural bridges.
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