Literary Eastern Europe from the Viewpoint of Sino-foreign Literary Relations

As an internationally recognized region, “Eastern Europe” has a specific cultural implication, as it is an unique geopolitical concept formed during the Cold War. Although it seems to be a geographical region, “Eastern Europe” is actually a concept with its geographical connotation clearly revised as it excludes the eastern part of the Soviet Union and includes the Southern Balkan countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia and Albania, which reflects its specific political, historical, social and cultural implication. This method in unifying multiple countries under a shared name endured in the historical narrative for almost the entire twentieth century, particularly for a long time after the Second World War, owing to specific historical situations, which reinforced the political and cultural implication of this concept. In the sense of Sino-foreign cultural and literary relations (especially since the early modern period), this concept has brought to the fore more visible and complex sense of geopolitical and cultural meanings. Sino-Eastern European literary relations thus became a constant constituent of Sino-foreign literary relations and is therefore of special significance.