Chinese Tales, or Qie Zhong Wen Zi in Chinese, a Spanish-Chinese book comprising 10 award-winning works from China's First National College Student Spanish Short Story Contest, was launched Wednesday through a virtual conference.

The contest was co-organized in 2019 by the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU), China's most prestigious university in foreign language teaching and foreign studies, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the best arts and humanities university in the Spanish-speaking world.

It's a platform created for Spanish majors in China "where they can express their creative talents in writing and translating their own short stories that can be read by the Spanish and Chinese-speaking public," according to its organizer UNAM, explaining the idea behind the contest.

Short stories in Spanish by 162 students from the country's 42 universities were submitted to the contest committee and the 10 winning pieces were translated into Chinese by their authors.

So far, China has more than 100 higher education institutions offering a degree in Hispanic literary or classical scholarship, with many featuring postgraduate programs.

BFSU Spanish professors Liu Jian and Xu Lei, and Mexican writers Rosa Beltrán, Hernán Lara and Adrián Curiel, comprised the contest jury.

Edited and published by National Autonomous University of Mexico Literature, one of the most important publishing houses in Spanish-speaking academia, Chinese Tales is also the first-ever Spanish-Chinese book published by the renowned publisher, introduced Guillermo Pulido, director of the UNAM office in China.

Pulido and José Luis Bernal, Mexican ambassador to China co-chaired the book's online launch event, which was also attended by the jury members of the contest.

Bernal commended the contestants on their mastery of the Spanish language and highlighted that this is thanks to the excellent work of professors of Spanish language at different universities across China.

"The publication of the book constitutes one more bridge to bring closer our two great civilizations and cultures," remarked the ambassador, adding that the book is sure to "allow readers in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries to get to know more about the idiosyncrasies, aspirations and dreams of China's youth."

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)