The exhibition, which is part of the Hungarian Cultural Season in China, aims to expose the younger generation of Chinese to Hungarian writing.
After 25 years, the Chinese and Hungarian people can again meet each other on the bridge of literature, Hungarian Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller said at the opening of the exhibition.
Minster of Education and Culture István Hiller shows deputy-director of China's National Libary Zhang Yafang a Chinese translation of Sándor Petőfi's John the Valiant at the opening of an exhibition of Hungarian books in Chinese translation in Beijing. Photo: Lajos Soós (MTI)
Among the works of Hungarian literature on display in the hall of the library are Mór Jókai's Black Diamonds and The Heartless Man's Sons, Ferenc Móra's The Golden Casket, Zsigmond Móricz's Be Faithful Unto Death, Ferenc Molnár's The Paul Street Boys and works by István Örkény and Attila József. In a special place in the exhibition are the works of Sándor Petőfi, the best known Hungarian writer in China. Another highlight is a five-volume set of the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész, including Fatelessness, a Holocaust memoir which has been read around the world. Next to the books are plaques on which visitors can read about the writer and the writer's works in Chinese, Hungarian and English.
Imre Hamar, the director of the Confucius Institute at Budapest's Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), said the exhibition would remain open until November 24, after which it will travel to Hungary.
National Library deputy-director Zhang Yafang said the 90-year-old library houses more than 26 million volumes from all around the world. Each year, it acquires 600,000-700,000 new books, many sent by foreign institutions.
The Hungarian Cultural Season in China - dubbed "Freedom, love", a line borrowed from a poem by the Hungarian poet Sándor Petőfi - will present Hungary's economy, culture and tourism industry to the Chinese at a series of events lasting until the spring of next year.
The Hungarian Cultural Season will focus on four cities in China: Beijing and Shanghai in 2007, and Hong Kong and Shenzen in 2008.
