Lin Wenshuang, an associate professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.(People's Daily Online/Yao Xinyu)

She is a mother, an associate professor, a writer, and a scholar who has made great contribution to Bulgarian studies – her name is Lin Wenshuang.

Lin Wenshuang had an official presentation of her book Bulgarian Nation: imagining and reimagining on Oct. 17, 2014 at the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Beijing.

After six years endeavor in researching and studying over 200 primary literal documents in four languages (Chinese, Russian, English, and Bulgarian), Lin finally accomplished this book, which is considered as one of the most influential literatures in the study of Bulgarian culture from a foreign scholar.

This book of 100,000 words mainly focuses on the changes of the identity of Bulgarian nation during the construction of the Bulgarian state. To clarify the role of nationalism of Bulgaria and how it was influenced by Russia, Lin put great efforts in researching newspapers and literatures of the late 19th century to have an insight of the changes of vocabulary, the images of personage, and to picture the panorama of the evolution of Bulgarian national identity.

As this is the year of the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Bulgaria, Lin's book, according to the Bulgarian Ambassador Plamen Shukyurliev, is a gift for this anniversary. He also mentions that nationalism is a global issue which is worth great attention. Lin's work has explored a historical period of Bulgaria that very few people know about, and the ambassador hopes she can keep on investigating and extending on this topic.

Zhao Gang, the dean of the School of European Languages and Cultures at Beijing Foreign Studies University, says that Lin's book marks a new chapter of Bulgarian studies in China, and has a profound significance academically. This is the first book focusing on Bulgarian national identity published in China, and a significant one among the very few books in this field around the world.

The book "Bulgarian Nation: imagining and reimagining" (People's Daily Online/Gao Yinan)

According to Lin, her original idea on the book was from the development of relationship between Bulgaria and Russia. Though Bulgaria was helped by Russia during its national liberation, its attitude towards Russia, however, has been repulsive ever since.

By exploring the role of Russia in the change of identity of Bulgarian nation, Lin started to focus more on its national identity evolution as Bulgaria tries to extricate from foreign domination in a larger context. "I want to be the closest to the truth, and tell the truth instead of just telling the good words," said Lin.

Speaking of the national identity, Lin indicates that the example of Bulgaria, or cases of other European countries are all independent events. China, however, as a multi-ethnic country is another total different situation. From thousands of years ago, all these ethnic groups have harmoniously coexisted with each other as a great presentation of Confucianism, there is no comparability between the example of Bulgarian national identity and the ethnic issues in China.