The Research and Translation of Eastern European Literature in the First 60 Years of the PRC

After the founding of the PRC, the research and translation of foreign literature received much attention and played an important part in the cultural construction of the new country. The newly founded PRC was caught up in the same situation as the Eastern European countries in that they were from a similar ideological background and were equally facing specific situations and the task of modernization, having secured their sovereign independence. They were also on the same side in the Cold War (Bulgarian and Romania were the earliest in recognizing and establishing diplomatic relations with the PRC). The cultural and literary communications between China and Eastern European countries, therefore, received huge support from the newly established government. It was at this time that Zhou Yang and Mao Dun, national leaders of literature and the arts, put forward their proposition to import foreign literary resources, strengthening the introduction and study of the literature of the Soviet Union and “New Democracies”.