Manuel Vilas: "Countries that translate their literature are condemned to understand each other."

Spanish writer Manuel Vilas asserted that literature can act as a "bridge of understanding" between different worlds, such as the East and the West: "Those countries that translate their literature are condemned to understand each other."

The author spoke to the media at the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai, China, before participating in a discussion with local writer Chen Danyan. Hours later, he would meet with his Chinese translator, Chang Yahui, at the cultural center.

" We have a connection problem between East and West . I think that in Spain, little Chinese literature is translated. (...) Those countries that translate their literature, in this case Spanish literature into Chinese and Chinese literature into Spanish, are condemned to understand each other," he explained.

This understanding occurs because "literature is a bridge to understanding others."

"If I start reading Chinese literature, I'll end up understanding China; if a Chinese citizen starts reading Spanish literature, they'll understand Spain," he argued.

Vilas believes that, until now, Spaniards, and Europeans in general, have carried out this exercise in a "very endogamous manner."

"We Spaniards have read a lot of French literature, and of course, we understand France, etc.," he added.

The Huesca writer, winner of the Nadal Prize in 2023 in Spain for his novel Nosotros , was translated into Chinese for the first time in 2022.

Her book, Ordesa , was a huge success— several fans, including some from other parts of China, flocked to ask for her autographs —and soon the Mandarin version of Alegría will be available in the country's bookstores, with the translation of Nosotros también underway.

"It's a joy because it means there's interest in my work in China . There's also a certain perplexity, in the sense that it's a culture I'd like to learn more about," noted Vilas, who confesses to being "very much in love with Beijing" on his first visit to mainland China.

" I'm fascinated and eager to delve deeper into my knowledge of China," he commented.

Using Ordesa as an example, the Aragonese believes that the Chinese connect with his work because it is a story of "a family trying to get ahead," a "universal" theme, and also because it deals with the construction of the middle class, a global phenomenon after World War II.

In any case, Vilas prefers not to speak only about the international projection of Spanish literature but about "literature in Spanish" : "I would like to think that we can now talk about literature in Spanish. (...) It seems to me a beautiful utopia to go beyond national identities."

The author of novels, essays, and poetry, Vilas has been described as a narrator of the intimate, capable of transforming a family story or a personal memory into a universal meditation on the passage of time, fatherhood, loss, and the desire for beauty.

His work is a constant exploration of the human , where the autobiographical is not a point of arrival, but of departure.