British classic Jane Eyre enters China's ninth-grade textbook
(ECNS) -- The classic British novel Jane Eyre has been included in the whole-book reading section of the Chinese language textbook for ninth-grade students starting from the 2026 fall semester.
The story of Jane Eyre has been popular among Chinese readers. Thornfield Hall, Mr. Rochester, and Jane herself — small, plain-looking yet determined never to bow to fate — have long been part of the shared literary memory of generations in China.
The enduring resonance of Jane Eyre among Chinese readers is a vivid example of cultural exchange between China and the West.
The novel first reached Chinese audiences on a large scale decades ago. In 1979, the film adaptation Jane Eyre was released in China. A year later, Shanghai Translation Publishing House published the first Chinese edition of Jane Eyre translated by Zhu Qingying, with an initial print run of about 270,000 copies.
More than a century after Charlotte Brontë wrote the novel, Jane Eyre continues to find new readers in China — less a surprise than a reminder that literature, when it speaks to universal human experiences such as dignity, love, independence and resilience, can travel far beyond its place of origin.
(By Gong Weiwei)