By Lu Xinyan

On Aug 28 evening, the 2026 Lu Xun Literature Prize took place at the AIA Grand Theatre on Shanghai's North Bund, the first time held outside Beijing.

Zhang Yun, German professor at Ningbo University's School of Foreign Languages, won the Literary Translation Award for her Chinese version of Austrian writer Karl Kraus's The Last Days of Mankind. Spanning six years, the translation earned her the honor as the first recipient from a Zhejiang university.

"This award is a tremendous honor for me, and I feel it also belongs to Lu Xun's contemporary, Karl Kraus," Zhang said. "Both died in 1936. This award is also a tribute to the Austrian playwright."

Influenced by Lu Xun from an early age, Zhang was drawn to Kraus by the shared spirit of courage between the two writers.

Karl Kraus, leading 20th‑century German‑language critic and forerunner of the Frankfurt School, warned against mass hysteria and hollow rhetoric. The Last Days of Mankind is his most important work.

Nearly 1,000‑page Chinese edition features 220 scenes and over 500 characters. It looks at WWI civilian life, assembling real‑world news fragments to show how public opinion was shaped to glorify war.

Though translated into over 30 languages, the complex work was long considered "untranslatable". Zhang completed its first full Chinese translation, filling a domestic academic gap.

Apart from its huge volume, the biggest difficulty lay in reproducing hundreds of characters' diverse tones and Kraus's biting satire.

"People often say translation should be faithful, expressive and elegant. But lower‑class quarrels are rough; polished elegant wording would distort the original," Zhang noted. She added detailed footnotes for historical context.

"I'm deeply grateful to Ningbo University for providing an open and supportive academic environment," she said.

Zhang plans to translate more of Kraus's works to bring his sharp thinking to Chinese readers.