Our News, Your News
By Helen Wang, March 11, '12
The judges this year are Boyd Tonkin (The Independent), Hephzibah Anderson (writer and critic), Nick Barley (Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival), Professor Jon Cook (Director of Creative and Performing arts, University of East Anglia) and Xiaolu Guo (who was shortlisted for this prize for her novel Village of Stone). There are fifteen on the long list. The winner will be announced at the London Bookfair on Monday 16 March [sorry, this should be Monday 16 April]. See the article in The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-independent-foreign-fiction-prize-longlist-spans-a-planet-of-stories-7545606.html).
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By Helen Wang, March 11, '12
“The Bookworm International Literary Festival is a unique celebration of literature and ideas in China, programming 100 events across three cities, connecting over 70 Chinese and international writers and thinkers.”
Here is the programme...
By Helen Wang, March 10, '12
The British Council has just announced its programme of events featuring Chinese authors. See here for details.
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By Helen Wang, March 9, '12
The recent podcasts of Han Dong’s A Loud Noise (poem) and Deer Park (short story) prompted me to look for more. I found a few things – see below. It would be great to know if there are any good websites out there with podcasts of stories read in Chinese?
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By Helen Wang, March 8, '12
M-on-the-Bund 米氏西餐厅
Speakers include:
- Geremie R. Barmé: West Lake: A World Made by Literature and Politics
- Ouyang Yu: Speaking English, Thinking Chinese and Living Australian. Living and writing between different worlds and languages
- Shan Sa: The Art of Literature. With the artist, poet and novelist (The Girl Who Played Go)
- Xu Xi: Creative “I”: A Writing Workshop in Narrative Prose (creative non-fiction & fiction)
- Amy Tan: On Shanghai, Life & Writing
- Xu Xi, Ovidia Yu: The New Asian Character. Addressing the Asian transnational experience. Moderated by Nury Vittach
- Li Er: The Magician of 1919. One of China’s most influential contemporary fiction writers on dreams, imagination and history
- Ovidia Yu: Chinese Mouth, English Words. The author of Chinese New Year Murders on why it feels strange yet natural to write in English about being Chinese
The full programme…
By Helen Wang, March 7, '12
The Hong Kong Festival has commissioned Gao Xingjian and theatre director Li Zhaohua [LIN Zhaohua, thanks btr] to create a new production of Gao’s "Of Mountains and Seas: A Tragicomedy of Gods" based on the Shanhaijing (山海经). It is the first time they have worked together in 30 years. In the 1980s Lin produced three of Gao’s plays: Absolute Signal, Bus Stop and Wild Man. For more info...
By Canaan Morse, March 5, '12
The latest edition of Paper Republic's industry newsletter is done and making its way into subscribers' inboxes right now. Included in this edition are notes on the Cambridge China library, an update on the Writer's Alliance lawsuit, a toothy scad of new book descriptions and a very comprehensive overview of the state of online literature in the Pee Are See.
If you sign up in the next few hours here, you can still get in on the action.
By Eric Abrahamsen, March 4, '12
Chutzpah Magazine continues to publish ferociously, each issue with an English insert (titled Peregrine) featuring English translations of selected bits of the Chinese content. Issue six of Chutzpah just came out, and we're making all six Peregrines available for download:
- Issue one
- Issue two
- Issue three
- Issue four
- Issue five
- Issue six
By Nicky Harman, March 3, '12
We've got a fantastic selection of authors, artists and activities. Come - and bring your friends! Programme and booking details are here:
Foreigners who can speak good Putonghua are now far from a novelty in China, but there are few native English speakers who have both the linguistic skills and creative writing talent to translate Chinese literature. Insiders in China's literary circles suggest there are only 30 or so non-Chinese who can do the job well.
In a culture not especially heralded for its innovation nor respect of intellectual property rights, mofang (copycatting) has become China’s ultimate cliché. But what does it say about the state of literature when writers are so desperate for readers that they resort to copycatting even the most superficial aspects of another author’s book: the title and cover art?
By Nicky Harman, February 20, '12
If you're interested in joining this one-off reading group (and getting free books [in English] by Chinese writers!) please contact Harpreet direct:
Harpreet says: "As part of PEN’s China Inside Out day, we’re recruiting readers to read books by authors that are taking part in the day’s programme. We have sets of books by Kerry Young, Diane Wei Lang and Ma Jian (possibly also Zhang Ling) to give away to reading groups as well as free tickets to the author event, held at the Free Word centre on March 29. If you would like to take part in this reading group offer and join us for a brilliant day of events please email me (Harpreet.purewal@readingagency.org.uk) for more information."
