A Little China and Asia at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2024

Posted: June 26th, 2024 | No Comments »

Every August book writers and readers gather in Edinburgh for several weekends of author talks, workshops, panel discussions and other events. It’s a busy time of year – the start coincides with the Edinburgh Fringe and the end with the Film and TV Festival. But it’s a great time to head to the Scottish capital… and, for those with a particular China/Asia interest, here’s some events that may be of especial interest….

12/8/24 – 11:00-12:00 – Yan Ge writes in English, Mandarin and Sichuanese. She’ll be in discussion with Andrzej Tichý, a Swedish-Czech-Polish writer, about the art of the short story. Her 2023 short story collection Elsewhere: Stories was praised in The Guardian: ‘Yan Ge’s English debut is preoccupied with language, its failures, and its relationship to human emotions and the raw reality – the ‘food’ – of life. … These stories map out the distance between the head and the gut – the way language can fail to convey the deepest, most visceral facts of life.’

12/8/24 – 12:30-13:30 – FT journalist and Beijing Bureau Chief Yuang Yang’s revelatory book Private Revolutions has been getting a lot of positive press this summer. The story of four ordinary women in China’s new social order caught between capitalist ambition and authoritarian reality. Yuan Yang will present her book at the Courtyard Theatre.

13/8/24 – 19:45-20:45 – Those with a thing for translation and language will want to see RF Kuang, in conversation with editor and translator Daniel Hahn, talking about the complexities of translation, the Korean language and her speculative novel Babel.

13/8/24 – 18:45-19:45 – Yuan Yang is back, this time in conversation with Robin Niblett of Chatham House, talking about the geopolitical rivalry between China and the US and her new book Private Revolutions.

14/8/24 – 20:30-21:30 – RF Kuang is back talking about fantasy writing and its future with fellow fantasy writer Samantha Shannon.

15/8/24 – 19:30-20:30 – And one more go round with RF Kuang, this time talking about her bestselling book (serialised in BBC Radio 4 too) Yellowface about cultural appropriation, race and the misdeeds of the publishing industry.

18/8/24 – 19:15-20:15 – UK based Chinese writer Xiaolu Guo has a new book, My Battle of Hastings, out this summer talking about what happens when a Chinese writer looking to escape the pressures of writing in London pitches up on England’s south coast and contemplates Englus history.

19/8/2024 – 10:00-11:00 – Former Beijing correspondent Ed Wong talks about how to maintain quality journalism and avoid fake news over morning coffee and croissants in the famed Edinburgh Spiegeltent.

19/8/2024 – 19:30-20:30 – Democracy on the Brink with Ed Wong, Olesya Khromeychuk from Ukraine and the BBC’s Nick Bryant – Ukraine, America’s internal dissent and China with 3 veteran journalists

21/8/24 – Ed Wong, NYT journalist and former Beijing correspondent has a new book about his own heritage, China and the last century of change in the country, The Edge of Empire. In this talk – China Under the Lens – he’ll dissect China’s authoritarian turn of late.

24/8/2024 – 18:45-19:45 – William Dalrymple’s new book, The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World reveals the nation’s position as the preeminent Eurasia intellectual and philosophical superpower for a millennium and a half until 1200 AD. India, but you can expect some questions on India-China relations and India influence on China’s religions and belief systems as the moderator is Focus’s own Paul French.

Of course there’s lots, lots more on at EBIF this year…. See the above events, ticketing, and everything else at www.edbookfest.co.uk

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