A Sino-Israeli literary axis

[bemildred]

BEIJING - It is somewhat surprising to meet a Chinese woman who speaks fluent Hebrew and has encyclopedic knowledge of Holocaust literature in the Israeli Embassy in Beijing. She has read everything from Ka-Tzetnik to Etgar Keret. Her name is Dr. Zhiqing Zhong and she completed her doctorate in comparative literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Zhiqing first came to Israel in 1995 to teach Classical Chinese at Tel Aviv University. For two years she lived in the dorms in Ramat Aviv, taught Confucianism and the philosophy of Lao-Tze, and Chinese poets like Li Bai, Du Fu and Li Yu. Afterward, she continued to study for her doctorate.

Her Ph.D. focused on Israeli and Chinese literature in the wake of the horrors of World War II. She examined how Israeli literature responded to the Holocaust and how Chinese literature responded to the Japanese occupation of China. Zhiqing's research dealt with Israeli Holocaust literature, published after the creation of the state in 1948; and anti-Japanese, Chinese literature, published immediately after the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. According to Zhiqing, both literary traditions were part of an attempt to build a new, national identity following the horrors of war. For decades, both traditions were influenced by social and ideological needs, both were part of a process of rehabilitation and construction of nations, and - at least during the early period - both were used as educational tools.

In her work, Zhiqing divides the Holocaust and anti-Japanese literary traditions into three generations of writers: the early writers, who wrote in the 1940s and 1950s; the generation that wrote from 1960 to 1980; and young writers, including the descendants of survivors of both peoples, who entered the arena in the 1980s.

Haaretz