Participants of the meeting pose for a group photo.

An international youth reading exchange meeting was held at the Renmin University of China in Beijing on June 15, the first day of the 29th Beijing International Book Fair.

University students from RUC and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University shared their impressions on the novel Hope and Life.

A student from L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University said that the author laments the price women has paid for their helpless and ignorant giving and feels indignant at the humiliation they suffer from the cruel reality, but praises their kindness, toughness, and patience.

Hope and Life.

Another Kazakhstan student noted that he can feel the deep affection of the Chinese novel for rural life and the Kazakh version, with its vivid language, is quite intriguing and helps foreign readers learn more about Chinese culture.

Writer Hu Xuewen spent eight years writing the novel, which was published in 2021. Centering on an elderly woman who delivered more than 12,000 babies, the book builds a magnificent and vast literary world that involves the rituals, morals, bloodlines and localities of rural society in China.

The novel is expected to be published in 14 languages, including English, German, and French. The English and Kazakh versions are available now, while other language versions will be published soon.