Chinese Author at Chennai Book Fair

Zhao Jiang is an author from China who has written a book entitled "China’s Travel Attractions"…in Tamil!

The writer, who prefers to go by her Tamil name Kalaimakal, began learning the South Indian language 15 years ago, and is now fluent. So fluent, in fact, that she is the director of the Tamil radio station that is part of China Radio International (CRI)! The government-run station has over 25,000 regular listeners from Tamil Nadu alone, with a significant number of listeners in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and even Europe. Pretty impressive stuff!

Zhao Jiang’s book debuted at the Chennai Book Fair, which runs until January 23rd at the Chennai YMCA college grounds. Speaking to The Hindu, the writer explained that she wanted to "introduce the special features of China for a Tamil audience", after receiving requests from numerous CRI listeners to tell them more about her country.

Having completed her undergraduate degree in Tamil at the Communications University of China, Zhao Jiang has since travelled to Tamil Nadu a number of times, and is now considering spending a year there to study further. She has also said that she may write a second book about South India, aimed at Chinese travellers who usually visit places in the North such as New Delhi.

Have a listen to Zhao Jiang speaking Tamil in the video below, courtesy of The Hindu: