Abstract: Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio is already a familiar name for the academia, reading public, and numerous foreign literature lovers and readers in China today. By focusing on the translation and reception of his representative works in China, such as Désert, Le procès-verba, Étoile errante, and Ourania, as a guiding thread, this article attempts to trace Le Clézio's “journey to China” over the past thirty-five years and reveal that the reception and circulation of his novels in China have roughly gone through a trio of spiritual communication, reciprocal understanding, and intellectual interaction between the “giver” and his “receiver”. Also, the author wishes to point out that such a geographical and spiritual journey can be regarded as an amazing encounter of minds between a French writer and Chinese recipients in the second half of the 20^th century and, therefore, is worth documenting in the annals of Sino-French literary exchange.

Key words: Le Clézio, translation and reception, journey to China, Sino-French literary exchange