Spanish Sinologist spreads joy in literature
GRANADA, Spain — Alicia Relinque who has been translating ancient Chinese literary works into Spanish for decades says she has found the key to happiness.
“It is the Chinese literature,” says Relinque, a Sinologist and professor at the University of Granada where she teaches Chinese literary theory and criticism, Chinese theater and cinema, and general theory of Chinese language and literature. She’s also director of the university’s Confucius Institute.
A modest lady in her 50s, the professor becomes eloquent when talking about Chinese culture and classic literature. Her translations include by Tang Xianzu, a romantic play about a tragicomic love story written in the 16th century, and
a drama written in the 13th century, which is similar to When translating
a well-known Chinese novel from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), she slept only six hours every day in six years because she spent lots of time reading piles of documents about Chinese politics, history and society during that period.
Thanks to her efforts, those classical Chinese literary works were translated into Spanish for the first time.
“It was a pleasure to spend hours studying. Sometimes you suffer because of the work that translating involves, but I also enjoy it and hope I can help others enjoy it as well,” says Relinque.
The Madrid-born Sinologist’s bond with China started with Bruce Lee’s martial arts movies, which fascinated her. She began studying Chinese in her teenage years and enjoyed it greatly. Later, when she got to know Chinese literature, she wanted to share the beauty of the language because then few people in Spain read Chinese literature.
She got a law degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid but spent a lot of her spare time studying Chinese. She studied Chinese in Paris for a while and was awarded a scholarship in 1985 to study in Peking University for four years.
She initially found life difficult, but nevertheless felt “totally happy”. As she adapted to life in China, she began a “marvelous” period of learning.
“I felt culturally at home. It may seem odd, but the Spanish are not as different from the Chinese as we think. We like to eat and to talk, and we also have similar concepts of family relations,” she says.
At the time, Relinque was wandering in Beijing’s alleys and discovering ancient Chinese culture in historical documents.
She later returned to Madrid to work as a teacher. After getting her doctorate, she learned that the University of Granada was opening a department in Asian studies, so she moved to the city in southern Spain in 1994 and has stayed there ever since.
It was then she began her study of Chinese classical literature and made the University of Granada a major center of Sinology in the country. She currently teaches Chinese literary theory and criticism besides many other China-related courses.
She attributes her love of Chinese literature to the depth of the personalities, the intensity of the emotions and the natural beauty highlighted in hundreds of Chinese stories she has read.
“In Tang Xianzu’s work I found that China in the 16th century was quite similar to Spain at that time. It was the beginning of the development of the commodity economy and it was the time of the awakening of personalities of young people who were seeking free love,” says she.
Given her extraordinary work in translating Chinese classic literature, Relinque was given a special award by the Chinese government in 2017.
“I try to let my students see the complexity which dominates nearly all of the literature which comes from China, and I hope I can help them feel the same happiness that it gives me,” says Relinque.
“I want to show them that, despite the distance between our countries, the Chinese are not distant, but incredibly welcoming.”
Now Relinque travels several times a year.
Speaking about the future, she says: “Spain should pay more attention to China. On the other hand, I ask my students to study Chinese history, because the country’s today and tomorrow lie in history.” to China