Why do Western readers have such an appetite for stories from China?

And why are Chinese readers hungry for stories from Europe and the Americas?

Are they both looking for the weird and wonderful? Or reading out of fear of ‘the enemy’, or admiration for a unique other?

Andrea Berrini, a widely read and translated writer and a publisher of contemporary Asian novels in Italian, and Eric Abrahamsen, prolific translator of Chinese to English and founder of Paper Republic, will discuss what is driving this mutual curiosity and thirst for stories in translation.