Award Presented to the Chinese Poet Lei Pingyang

On 28 October 2024, at the Student Cultural Centre of the University of Banja Luka, the Chinese poet Lei Pingyang was presented with the "Open Book" international literary award for 2024.

It is an award that is the most important literary award of the Association of Writers of the Republic of Srpska, and the award ceremony is part of the "Ninth International Literary Encounters". As a sign of gratitude for the support and help in organizing the "Open Book" literary award ceremony, the Association of Writers of the Republic of Srpska also awarded a special certificate of appreciation to the Confucius Institute of the University of Banja Luka.

In addition to the performance of the string quartet of the Academy of Arts of the University of Banja Luka, the large audience, especially the students of the Sinology Study Programme of the Faculty of Philology, enjoyed the poetry reading of Lei Pingyang, as well as of other poets from the China Writers Association who came to Banja Luka with him.

Lei Pingyang, a Chinese poet and essayist, was born in Yunnan province in 1966. He is the deputy president of the Writers’ Association of Yunnan and a professor at Yunnan University.

Since 1980, he has published more than 20 literary works, among others, "Notes from Yunnan", "Jinuo Mountain", "Salute to the Flowing Water", "Songs of the Soil". He has received many literary awards, such as the Lu Xun Literary Prize and the Chinese Literature Media Award. He was also named Poet of the Year with the National Literature Award, and Poet of the Year with
the Periodical Magazine Award. He is one of the most popular Chinese poets and is a frequent guest at international poetry festivals. His works have been translated into several languages.