Dreaming of China's classic red chamber in Turkish

ISTANBUL — In a significant step for cross-cultural literary exchange, Dream of the Red Chamber, a famous 18th-century Chinese novel, has been translated into Turkish for the first time.

Released in January, the translation is the culmination of a five-year effort by Giray Fidan, a Sinologist at the Ankara Haci Bayram Veli University, who hopes to introduce the complex narrative of love, power, and impermanence to Turkish readers.

Written by Cao Xueqin during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Dream of the Red Chamber chronicles the opulent rise and tragic decline of the house of Jia, a fictionalized representation of Cao's own aristocratic family.