To most Chinese, New Zealand is a remote and unfamiliar country. Yet, one New Zealand-born author at least believes the gap can possibly be bridged by literature.

With this in mind, Stevan Eldred-Grigg, a social historian and fiction writer, with the collaboration of Annie Shih, a Chinese translator from Taiwan, has recently brought his first and best-selling novel Oracles and Miracles to Chinese readers.

This is the first novel by a living New Zealand writer to be translated into Chinese and published in the Chinese mainland, according to the 50-year-old Eldred-Grigg, who met Chinese media and academic representatives during a reception at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing on August 22 to launch the book.

Oracles and Miracles is a story about twin sisters living in a world of dreams while growing up in poverty. Grounded in history, the book vividly portrays the past of the city of Christchurch and reflects the vicissitudes faced by many in Zealand during the period from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Since it was first published in 1987, the novel has sold more copies than almost any other works of fiction published in New Zealand. The story of the twin sisters has been incorporated into the syllabus for secondary schools and universities. It has also been adapted for stage and radio in the country as well as in Australia.

Though it is a best-selling novel in New Zealand, can it be readily accepted by Chinese readers, considering the disparities in history and cultural and social background between two countries?

Dr. Eldred-Grigg expressed his confidence in this during an interview with www.china.org.cn, although he admitted he knew almost nothing about modern Chinese readers.

"On the one hand, my book deals with a world different from that experienced by Chinese readers. But, I think these differences will actually interest them and arouse their curiosity about another society and another culture. And, really, the experiences of the twin girls and their mother, as described in my book, are the experiences of most Chinese women, and the experiences of women anywhere, though the details of their lives are different," he argued.

"When I began the book, I wanted to write about the lives of almost all women in history. So I used a lot of Western folk tales, trying to make the novel like a simple folk tale that almost all people would be able to identify with," said Dr. Eldred-Grigg, in explaining why his novel has been so popular for 15 years in New Zealand as well as some other English-speaking countries.

Maybe this can also be a factor helping the book find favor with Chinese readers. Actually, the present society of China bears a certain similarity to the historical and social background of the characters in this book in a transitional period from traditional cultures and values to modernity and universality. Young people are taught to believe that a world of opportunities is open to them and that, if they are intelligent and healthy, they will rise up the pile.

A graduate in history from the University of Canterbury and the Australian National University, Eldred-Grigg has worked as a writer since completing his doctorate. He has so far published a total of 13 novels and non-fictional works.

Will he continue to introduce more of his books to Chinese readers? "Certainly I will if the marketing of Oracles and Miracles in China turns out to be successful," he said, noting an awareness that not enough people writers and publishers in the West think about China. "Most Westerners still think of Europe and North America as their important markets for literature. And yet, there are certainly intelligent readers in China waiting to know the world," he pointed out.

(china.org.cn by staff reporter Chen Qiuping, August 28, 2002)