During a trip to the southern city of Guangzhou, Prime Minister Harper and Laureen Harper visited the Huamei Bond International School, which teaches a Canadian curriculum. While there, Mrs. Harper spoke to the students about a new Mandarin translation of Anne of Green Gables and expressed her hope that the Chinese people will love Anne as much as she did.

Here is a short video of Mrs. Harper speaking to the students:

In Mrs. Harper’s foreword to the Mandarin edition of Anne of Green Gables, she states that the main character Anne Shirley is someone everyone can recognize and love “for her independent spirit, her kind and generous heart, and her boundless imagination.”

“Montgomery’s powerful story of an orphaned child growing up in a small farming village on Prince Edward Island often moves readers to tears, both of sadness and joy,” Harper writes. “I hope you enjoy Anne of Green Gables as much as I and my family have.”

Copies of the book were handed out at a tourism event in Beijing last Wednesday.

Here is the full text of Mrs. Harper’s foreword:

A message to our readers from Canada:

The story you are about to read is as Canadian as the maple leaf on our national flag, yet it has been enjoyed by tens of millions of readers all over the world. I think the reason Anne of Green Gables has won the hearts of readers from so many countries is because the story and the characters transcend linguistic and cultural differences. In the character of Anne Shirley, author Lucy Maud Montgomery created someone we can all recognize – and love – for her independent spirit, her kind and generous heart, and her boundless imagination.

Montgomery’s powerful story of an orphaned child growing up in a small farming village on Prince Edward Island often moves readers to tears, both of sadness and joy. At the same time, Anne inspires us with her honourable universal values, including love of nature, respect for community, and finding satisfaction in hard work and accomplishment. Like good people everywhere, Anne makes her small world a better place.

I hope you enjoy Anne of Green Gables as much as I and my family have. Like countless thousands of Canadians and other readers from around the globe, I hope you find yourself wanting to explore more of Anne’s world and I invite you to come to Canada and visit beautiful Prince Edward Island, the setting and inspiration for Lucy Maud Montgomery and her unforgettable story.

Laureen Harper