Opinion

A Shared Experience

After the death of his father, He Shuai read Morreste-me (You died me), by Portuguese author José Luís Peixoto, live on CCTV3’s The Reader program, reaching an audience of about 250 million viewers
 
He Shuai’s father, He Ming, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2016 and at that time gave himself a challenge: to run 100 marathons. In June 2020, He Ming died after having completed 61 marathons.  Subsequently, his son set himself the goal of continuing his father’s challenge and decided to run the remaining marathons. He Shuai then went on the TV program called The Reader, broadcast on CCTV3, to read Morreste-me (You Died Me), a book by Portuguese author José Luís Peixoto. The broadcast was watched by about 250 million people. “Numbers like these are absolutely overwhelming, hard to imagine,” Peixoto remarks.
 
Morreste-me was a book I wrote about my father’s death and talks about that mourning experience, so it was very impactful for me to watch a translation of that book read by He Shuai and realize how all that emotion was present in his reading and had managed to reach a reality that, in the beginning, was so remote,” the author adds.
 
The program is among the most popular on Chinese television and features readings by very famous people in China or, as in the case of He Shuai, people with remarkable stories. On the program, He Shuai read the Mandarin translation of Morreste-me compiled by the University of Macau, through the coordination of Yao Feng, director of the Portuguese language department. It was published in full in the Chinese World Literature Magazine.
 
Peixoto was contacted in November by one of the translators of his book, who advised him that He Shuai had read it on Chinese television, and was later contacted by the producers of The Reader and asked to send a video in response to He Shuai, with the reading of an excerpt of the book in Portuguese. José Luís Peixoto’s participation in the program was included in a special edition that featured the best moments of the year.
 
The writer says that the broadcast has resulted in the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press wanting to move forward with the publication of the book on an individual basis. 
 
“I am very pleased with this opportunity, since the translation of my novel Galveias is being completed and should be published by that same publisher in 2021,” he notes.
 
José Luís Peixoto believes that “the circulation of Portuguese literature in China is far behind what it could be and far behind the availability of other European literature. However, the writer says there is reason for optimism, and praises the director of the Portuguese language department at the University of Macau.
 
“On the one hand, there are far more universities in China today teaching the Portuguese language than there were a few years ago. On the other hand, there’s the tireless work of individuals like Yao Feng, a key figure in literary relations between these two cultures. In addition, the Macau Literary Festival is a good example of this desire to bring the two cultures closer together and also plays a very important role,” adds Peixoto.
 
Morreste-me, the account of mourning after his father’s death, was published in 2000 and was the text that first brought José Luís Peixoto to recognition in the world of Portuguese literature. 
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