The extraordinary life of Xu Sanguan, a famous Chinese fictional character who sells his blood over the years to support his family, will soon be adapted in South Korea.

South Korea’s popular actor Ha Jung-woo recently started directing and starring in a film adaptation of a renowned Chinese author Yu Hua’s 1995 novel “Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji” or “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant”.

The original story of the novel depicted Xu Sanguan’s struggle with life in China in the 1950s. Now the background was transferred to the Korea peninsula with only South Korean actors and actress involved. Ha Jung-woo himself plays the role of Xu Sanguan, the poor blood merchant, while another notable Korean actress Ha Ji-won, plays the role of his wife.

“The reason why Ha Jung-woo chose to adapt the novel is its popularity among Korean readers. Besides, the director also favors the work’s combination of comedy and tragedy and interested in the similarity between China and South Korea culture,” Jeon Hyung- Jun, professor of Chinese language and literature department in Seoul National University, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

The Korean edition of the novel “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant” was among 100 must-read books listed by South Korea’s Joongang Daily. The story was also adapted as a Korean opera early in 2003.

The books of Yu Hua, Mo Yan, Su Tong and other famous Chinese contemporary writers now frequently appear on Korean publishers’ list and sold in most bookstores here.

Minumsa has published Chinese writer Han Shaogong’s novel ” Dictionary of Ma Qiao”, collected stories by Chinese Writers’ Association; Mo Yan’s “Frog” and other Chinese contemporary literary works in the past years, all of which have received positive response from the Korean readers, young and old.

Not surprisingly, the sales of “Frog” rose dramatically after Mo won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, reaching around 12, 000 copies by now.

Chinese literature gained more Korean fans after Mo won the prestigious Nobel Prize. Korean readers’tastes on Chinese literature have also been more diversified from then on, Jeon Hyung-Jun added. “We are looking for more novels written by Mo Yan and Han Shaogong. We are also looking for good writers who write philosophical topics, history and humanities. We think there are many Chinese writers who can write these topics for the young generation,” said Nam.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn