Dear Chinese readers
It is a great pleasure for me to send you all my best greetings from H.C. Andersen’s hometown, Odense, Denmark.
In 1805, Andersen was born in the heart of Odense city. In a small yellow house in a very poor part of the city, the later famous poet saw the world for the first time. Odense had only 6,000 citizens at that time. Today we would call it a village, but in fact the city then was the second largest in Denmark! When Andersen grew up in his childhood home not far from the birthplace, he got familiar with the whole city and the fields, forests, and villages around. The houses, gardens, streets, farms, fields, and the river was the environment of his childhood. This universe gave him all the inspiration used in the stories, he wrote when he grew up. In the garden of his childhood home he was sitting and singing, in the small rooms of the house he played with a dolls theater, made by his father, he went to the school for poor children, and he played at the river, where his mother was working as a laundry woman.
People in Odense told him, that the earth was round and if he could dig a hole deep enough, he would come to China. Once he had a dream that a Chinese Prince dug all the way through and found the young boy sitting at the river. The Prince told the boy that he should follow him back to China. There Andersen would become famous and rich. The end of Andersen’s dream was, that he returned to Odense to build a beautiful castle to his poor father and mother.
It was also in Odense that the boy in the age of fourteen before leaving the city was told by a clever old woman that in a future he would return to Odense as a famous person and the city would be illuminated in his honor. In fact, that happened in 1867!
As you know, H.C. Andersen became a famous poet, loved by children and adults all over the world. His fairy tales are being read again and again and translated to more than 150 languages. The stories, even they are written back in the 19th century, still give people of all ages new dimensions of life and understanding of people, nature, art, religion, and philosophy. His universe is unique, and his stories have gone from generation to generation and will continue even the world around changes.
With these words I give all my best wishes for this new publication of a selected number of Andersen’s fairy tales by Mr.Dong Ruixiang. The wishes come from the Director of the H.C. Andersen’s House in Odense. I have travelled many times in China and met many Chinese. I love the extreme kindness of the people I have met, and have enjoyed the culture, landscape, cities, and good food of China. I hope that you some day will have a chance to visit the city of Odense in Denmark. We have preserved the Birthplace and the Childhood Home of Andersen, laid out a walking route through the city so you can walk in the footsteps of Andersen. We have built a fantastic beautiful H.C. Andersen’s House – a museum where you walk into Andersen’s life, universe, and stories.
Enjoy your reading the eternal stories told by a man, who loved his hometown and country, but at the same time loved to see the world. A famous Andersen quote is To Travel is to Live.
