'A mind broader than the sky': Xi and French culture

FROM STENDHAL TO HUGO

During his teenage years in the late 1960s, Xi was sent to Liangjiahe, a poor village located on China's Loess Plateau, as an "educated youth" to "learn from the peasants."

Amidst hardships of the country life, reading became Xi's spiritual solace. He read every literary classic he could find in the hamlet, and among them was The Red and The Black.

"Stendhal's The Red and The Black is very influential," Xi fondly reminisced years later. "But when it comes to portraying the intricacies of the world, works by Balzac and Maupassant are the best, for example, Balzac's The Human Comedy."

Classic books by French luminaries have left so profound an impression on the extensive reader that he often quotes them, particularly Victor Hugo, in his speeches. Addressing the landmark 2015 Paris climate change conference to call for a deal, Xi cited a perceptive line from Les Miserables: "Supreme resources spring from extreme resolutions."

Xi also has an affection for French artworks. He enjoys French composers Bizet and Debussy. He has visited several cultural sites, from the majestic Arc de Triomphe to the opulent halls of the Palace de Versailles. Deep in his heart, the timeless collections in the Louvre Museum and the revered sanctuary of the Notre Dame Cathedral are enduring treasures of human civilization.

In fact, Xi is not the first Chinese leader fond of French culture. During what is known as the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement around the 1920s, late Chinese leaders Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping both traveled to France for educational sojourns in search of a way out for China, a country then torn by war, poverty and invasions.

Back at that time, many patriotic Chinese youths were inspired by writings on the French Revolution, which is also the backdrop of Hugo's Les Miserables, one of Xi's most quoted French masterpieces. As Xi once recalled, one of the episodes that deeply touched him is when Bishop Myriel helps Jean Valjean and encourages him to be a better man.

"Great works possess great power to move readers," he said.