The theme of community has perhaps never been of a more vital significance than in our present day and age. The process we refer to as modernity has been synonymous with the gradual fragmentation and disintegration of traditional communities on various levels of our societies. Today, we might be facing the culmination of this process. The spectres of nationalism are undermining various national and international communities. Inequality is on the rise. If people unite it is too often in the mistrust and sometimes hatred of other people. Hans Christian Andersen lived at a time when this process was at its early stages, and he was acutely aware of its potential perils. Alongside the transformations of traditional communities, other communities seem to appear. A recurring element in these culturally specific communities is literature, and Hans Christian Andersen is a key figure here, as his literary and cultural legacy has a magnetic effect on people around the globe. A vivid example of this effect was the conference Hans Christian Andersen and Community. The conference was held at the University of Southern Denmark in 2017 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersens status as honourary citizen in Odense. This book presents a selection of 19 contributions to the conference. In various ways, each chapter activates the concept of community in relation to Andersen as an author and as a citizen of the world he lived in as well as the cultural icon which he has become.

Hans Christian Andersen is known and loved throughout modern China. With his fairy tales and other stories, the Danish author builds a bridge of imagination, sympathy, and human warmth between people and readers, between Chinese and Danes. This collection of studies is the result of an exceptional working relationship between researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai and the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, initiated during a gathering in Shanghai in 2011 to launch a research project on "The Global Significance of Hans Christian Andersen." The book deals with Andersen's significance, unmatched for a transnational author, in China, and with the first translations of his tales by which, a century ago, he was introduced to Chinese readers. It provides insights from a variety of literary, cultural, and political perspectives. Above all, the book bears witness to a common engagement with the task of achieving insight and understanding. (Series: Studies in Scandinavian Languages and Literatures - Vol. 120)

At the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense the writer's trunk is on display. It is worn and dusty, for Andersen loved to travel and was often off on some journey. Everywhere he came, he stud-ied people and collected impressions that he later transformed into characters and places in his immor-tal fairy-tales. And, unlike the trunk, his fairy-tales never wear out, but remain as relevant and gripping today as they were 150 years ago. In this book we have collected 15 of Andersen's short tales, some of which are extremely well-known, others less so. What the tales all share is that apart from telling a particular story they also describe people's thoughts, actions and dreams. Each of the fairy-tales is provided with a commentary from a researcher at the Hans Christian Andersen Centre, University of Southern Denmark, as well as a brand-new illustration.