Chinese writer brings rural China to Russian readers

Chinese writer Ji Hongjian joined publishers, writers and scholars at the Moscow International Book Fair on Sept 3 for a discussion of the Russian edition of his book A New Look of Villages in China.

Held in the Guest-of-Honor Pavilion and themed "Understanding China Through Its Villages", the session covered rural development, poverty alleviation, literary nonfiction and China and Russia literary exchanges, offering Russian readers a closer look at contemporary China through stories of village life.

Attendees included Feng Litao, minister-counselor at the Chinese embassy in Russia and director of the China Cultural Center in Moscow; Wu Qun, a second-level inspector in the general office of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee; and Shu Bin, vice-chairman, editor-in-chief and general manager of Hunan Publishing Investment Holding Group and vice-chairman of China South Publishing and Media Group.

Other participants were Vyacheslav Fyodorov, editor-in-chief and general manager of Russia's Irkutsk Book Publishing Company; Ji, the author and vice-president of both the China Reportage Association and the Hunan Writers' Association; and Konstantin Baraboshkin, head of the Department of Chinese Philology at Moscow State University's Institute of Asian and African Studies. Zhang Qinfan, president of Hunan People's Publishing House, moderated the event.

A New Look of Villages in China, known in Chinese as Xiangcun Guoshi, is a work of literary nonfiction about China's efforts to reduce poverty and revitalize its countryside. Based on extensive fieldwork, it records the lives and experiences of people in rural communities and traces the transformation of a country with a long agricultural history as it modernizes. Its accounts of poverty alleviation also offer a perspective on China's approach to a global challenge.

The book has been reprinted more than 10 times in China and translated into Arabic, English and Spanish, as well as Russian. The Russian edition, published by Irkutsk Book Publishing Company in December 2025, is available on several Russian platforms, including Ozon and LitRes.