Literary icon launches the Chinese edition of her latest work

British author Jeanette Winterson concluded her third book tour in China earlier this month, during which she shared insights about creative writing in the time of artificial intelligence.

During her stay from Aug 10 to 19, the 67-year-old writer participated in the Shanghai Book Fair and launched the Chinese edition of her latest publication, Love, in Shanghai and Beijing.

Winterson is known internationally for her unconventional, quirky and darkly comic storytelling. Her first novel, Oranges Are not the Only Fruit, was published in 1985 and examines the relationship between a young gay woman and her devoutly religious mother. The book has since been translated into multiple languages and sold in more than 30 countries.

The Chinese edition, translated by Yu Shi, came out in 2010, and has sold more than 1 million copies.

The book has been loved by generations of readers and has inspired countless young people who feel out of place in the world to bravely pursue their own paths, according to the literary center of Thinkingdom Media Group, Winterson's Chinese publisher, when discussing the enduring popularity of the novel in China.

"Oranges Are not the Only Fruit has become an iconic work representing love, growth and the pioneering spirit, but its significance goes far beyond that — it is about the collapse and rebuilding of faith, bravely exposing the lie of the 'one and only truth' and about how everyone finds their own language to tell their own story," says You Yanqing, a representative of the literary center of Thinkingdom Media.

The book has helped Winterson build a solid fan base in China, among whom are some of China's renowned writers and web influencers, such as Zhang Yueran and Zhan Qingyun.

Thinkingdom Media has so far published eight books by Winterson in Chinese. The latest one, Love, is not a novel but a selection from her previous books "about that impossible, essential force, stories and truths that search for the mythical creature we call love", according to its English publisher, Penguin Books.

At the book launch event at Sinan Literary Home in Shanghai on Aug 12, enthusiastic readers began to line up at the gate hours ahead of the event. A security staff member asked in amazement, "Is this a star singer giving a concert tonight?"

Winterson's last visit was in 2017. Before that, she came in 2011 for the inaugural Shanghai International Literary Week, which has since become a regular part of the annual Shanghai Book Fair.

"Every time I come to China, I have to work so hard that I don't see anything," she says.

But meeting with readers is the most precious. "It's the energy that comes between us... That's the thing that makes writing and reading worthwhile, because we meet on the steps of a story."

She recounts her journey to becoming a writer. Like the heroine in Oranges, she was raised by adoptive parents who were devoted evangelical Christians, and wanted her to be a missionary.

Growing up, she found a passion for creative writing. She talks about the superpower of imagination.

"When you're doing something using your imagination, you're not thinking about money and power.

"You say I'll make it anyway, because I love this," she says. "Then this is an act of resistance to the dominant values of the world."

Today, AI has infiltrated cultural and leisure experiences worldwide. Winterson has worked with the AI company Anthropic, which used her books in its corpus.

She was happy about the payment from this, but then, "we see books as beautiful, wonderful things, and the tech world sees books as training data".

All the tech world wants is the product, she says, "but we love the process".

She compares it to cooking dinner: "You want to get all the ingredients, and do it beautifully. You want to be creative, and change things around a little bit. We want to have the process. We like it, and they are taking that away."

She also notices that "China is grappling with artificial intelligence because it's affecting young people tremendously in your country".

She suggests, "Maybe you can solve this problem, because you want a future. Europe and America are not solving this problem, so maybe it's going to be you guys."