Lit Fest Time Down Chengdu Way – 8-24 March 2013 – A Few Recommendations

The China Lit Fest season is getting underway again – Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou…and of course the Chengdu Bookworm. Lots going on – click here for full details.

I’d note a few especially interesting things for readers of this blog

8th March – Sichuan women writers Wang Erbei, Zhou Yuxia, Liao Hui, Yan Ge and Liu Guoxin get together on International Women’s Day to discuss women writers in contemporary Chinese society, and how their experience differs across the generations.

9th March – Derek Sandhaus (he of Tales of Old Peking and the reissued Backhouse classic Decadence Mandchoue) will be talking about his new book project on baijiu – warning – some of the “liquid razor blades” may be imbibed at this session

10th March – Jen Lin-Liu, Tom Miller and Derek Sandhaus, three China-based writers whose work and experience covers everything from blogging, journalism and memoir to history and social change, discuss the highs and lows of their writing life and what the future holds for writing on China.

11th March – Tom Miller, author of China’s Urban Billion, speaks on the challenges and potential solutions to China’s rapid urbanisation.

18th March – The Devouring Dragon looks at how an ascending China has rapidly surpassed the U.S. and Europe as the planet’s worst-polluting superpower. Craig Simons argues that China’s most important 21st-century legacy will be determined by how quickly its growth degrades the global environment and whether it can stem the damage.

19th March – Burma time – The Lady and the Peacock is journalist Peter Popham’s biography of “The Lady”, a revealing and illuminating look into celebrated Burmese politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s vision and courage as she sought to change her country.

24th March – In The View from the Plateau one of Sichuan’s most prominent writers, A Lai, will discuss his novels, their Tibetan setting, his rise to literary fame and his take on editing the largest-circulation sci-fi magazine in the world.