Twelve Sinologists from Spain, Serbia, Iran, and other countries recently visited Qingxi village in Hunan province to explore how local literature can resonate on a global scale.

The three-day event, titled Discovering Qingxi on the World Literature Map, connected the scholars with Hunan writers to discuss the interplay between literary locality and globality.

Qingxi village is the birthplace of Chinese novelist and translator Zhou Libo (1908-79) and the setting of his classic Great Changes in a Mountain Village. Today, it has become a cultural destination, featuring Zhou's renovated former residence, a museum of signed works by contemporary Chinese writers, and 22 book houses run by the local villagers.

During their visit, the Sinologists donated signed translations of Chinese literature, including a 1951 Hungarian edition of Zhou's Baofeng Zhouyu (Mighty Storm) brought by Hungarian scholar Zombory Klara.

Her teacher was among the first Hungarian exchange students to China in the 1950s and pioneered Chinese-to-Hungarian literary translation to foster communication between the two countries.

A recipient of the Special Book Award of China, she has been working on Chinese literature for over two decades and has translated many works, including Mo Yan's Frog and Yu Hua's To Live.

At a roundtable discussion, participants reflected on how literature rooted in specific places can transcend borders.

"The more local a story is, the more universal it becomes," said Egyptian Sinologist Ahmed Sayed, who holds a PhD in ethnology from China's Ningxia University.

Serbian scholar Jovanovic Ana described Qingxi village as resembling the rural scenes she once imagined as a teen reading Chinese novels. "Reading those novels transported me to a beautiful world, exactly like this village," she said.

Wang Yuewen, former president of the Hunan Writers Association, noted that vivid stories about China's rural transformation capture a shared human experience.

"From poverty to prosperity, from backwardness to progress — this is a path common to all humanity," he said.