China has recently published a group of books in the collection of world literature masterpieces after nine years of translation and compilation work.

The complete collection, named World's Literature Treasury, now includes 250 volumes of world-renowned literary works with clear publishing property rights, Thursday's Literature Daily reports.

The People's Literature Publishing House, the publisher of the collection, put the first series of books on the Chinese market in 1993, arousing great interest from the media, experts and the market.

Of all the selected masterpieces, about 40 volumes, or nearly 20 percent, are works of Chinese writers, according to Tong Baomin, director of the publishing house in charge of foreign literature editing.

It is distinctive for taking in so many works from Chinese writers, as most articles of "world"-titled literary collections published before were produced by foreigners, the newspaper reported.

The publication of the literature series is a big step forward in China's publishing industry in terms of its scale, quality and selection of specific literary works, experts say.

It is expected that the World's Literature Treasury will accelerate the literary advancement in China and improve exchanges among world literature circles.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2002)