The Chinese translation of selected short stories by Petar Kočić, in the form of a comic called "Comic Book By the Motifs of Petar Kočić", was promoted on 12 February 2024 in the "Banski dvor" Cultural Centre in Banja Luka.
Head of the Sinology Study Programme at the Faculty of Philology Asst. Prof. Ljiljana Stević, PhD, pointed out that the Confucius Institute Chinese language professors gladly accepted the task of translating the "Comic Book", as comics as a medium are very popular in China. She pointed to the connection with Petar Kočić's literary language through the work of the Chinese writer Luo Xin, the founder of contemporary Chinese literature in the spoken, vernacular language, and explained that the professors worked on the translation of the "Comic Book" through his style in order to get as authentic a translation as possible and bring the archaic language of Kočić's work closer to the Chinese audience.
"By publishing the 'Comic Book' in Chinese, we are promoting our writers and literature to the readers in China, and I believe that this is just as important as promoting and introducing our citizens to Chinese culture," Stević said at the promotion organized by the Confucius Institute in cooperation with the Faculty of Philology of the University in Banja Luka in honour of the Chinese New Year.
Prof. Sanja Macura, PhD, emphasized that in the midst of a reading crisis, the idea of individual literary works, in this case Kočić's, being translated into the form of comics opened the door to a new way of presenting them.
"In the past few years, the 'Comic Book' brought Kočić's work closer to new generations. Their translation into the Chinese language is a way to open the Serbian cultural scene towards the Chinese in an innovative, receptive way that translates one art into another, combining words and images", Macura said.
She emphasized that, although they are geographically distant, the Chinese and Serbian people share the qualities of righteousness, refusal to be submissive, resistance to invaders, strength and perseverance in surviving on their native soil, faithfulness to their word and honesty. These qualities, she explained, are imprinted in Kočić’s translated works, weaving a universal bond that speaks loudly from the oeuvre of this writer, capable of bridging both temporal and spatial distance and reaching out to each of his readers.
President of "The Ninth Dimension" Association Zoran Pejić pointed out the importance of translating the "Comic Book" into Chinese and presenting Kočić's works, as well as the works of our other writers through comics, to a completely new audience. This edition is the seventh translation, and in cooperation with the National and University Library of the Republic of Srpska, the "Comic Book" has been translated into Russian, Italian, French, English, German and Greek.
"The Ninth Dimension" Banja Luka Association of Comic Authors and Comic Fans of the Republic of Srpska and Grafid Ltd Banja Luka are publishers of the comic, which includes five of Kočić's works, while the adaptation and drawings were prepared by Milan Mladić and Predrag Ikonić, members of the aforementioned association. The Chinese translation was done by Luo Xiaoru, Fang Ying and Li Ying.
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