We Three, a memoir written by Yang Jiang, an eminent Chinese writer, translator and researcher of foreign literature, about the intimacy of her family of three, has been selling well.
Sources from Joint Publishing Company (JPC), the publisher, said that 60,000 copies had been sold out in the 12 days since release.
Yang Jiang, widow of Qian Zhongshu, who was also a great Chinese scholar and writer, made her name translating Don Quixote. Her other outstanding works include a number of dramas, translations of English prose, French literature and literature criticism.
Yang, aged 92, was conferred with the Medal of King Alfonso X, el Sabio (The Wise), by the Spain's King Juan Carlos in 1986.
In the memoir, Yang, who is currently living in the capital city of Beijing, related many family anecdotes regarding her late husband, who passed away in 1998, and Qian Yuan, their daughter, a former noted professor with prestigious Beijing Normal University who died of cancer in 1997.
Each book contains 90,000 Chinese characters with 52 pictures and photos, all in black and white.
"Reading the book, one easily develops a feeling of nostalgia," said one reader.
"In this family, everyone is an independent scholar and has achieved great attainment in their academic fields, but in day-to-day real life, they are ordinary and down-to-earth."
"I am deeply impressed by the genuine intimacy of the family," said another reader.
Hardcover versions of the memoir have hit the Hong Kong market and will soon reach Taiwan, said a JPC spokesman.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)
