Celebrated Voices of Contemporary Chinese Literature

The China Institute hosts a celebration of Chinese literature with a talk with poet Ouyang Jianghe and writers Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge.

Ouyang Jianghe: Sichuan’s Master Poet
Saturday, May 7, 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM
2:15 PM – 3:00 PM: Reception
Speaker(s) Name: Ouyang Jianghe: Sichuan’s Master Poet
Moderator: Mai Mang (Yibing Huang)
Author: Ouyang Jianghe
Members: FREE; Non-Members: $5

CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH.

REGISTER FOR SICHUAN'S MASTER POET

Writers Roundtable: Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge
Saturday, May 7, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Speaker(s) Name: Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge
Moderator: Dr. Yan Yue
Author: Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge
Members: FREE; Non-Members: $5

CONDUCTED IN MANDARIN.

REGISTER FOR WRITERS ROUNDTABLE

This May, China Institute has partnered with the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation to bring some of China’s best-selling and most beloved writers to New York. Please join us on Saturday, May 7, 2016, for two back-to-back events: Ouyang Jianghe: Sichuan’s Master Poet and Writers Roundtable: Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge.

1:00 PM – 2:15 PM: Ouyang Jianghe: Sichuan’s Master Poet
Ouyang Jianghe belongs to the “third generation” of twentieth-century Chinese literature and is one of the so-called “five masters from Sichuan.” This event will feature a reading of his works in both English and Chinese, followed by a moderated discussion with poet & scholar Mai Mang (Yibing Huang). This event will be conducted in English.

2:15 PM – 3:00 PM: Reception

3:00 PM – 4:15 PM: Writers Roundtable: Liang Hong, Li Juan, and Yan Ge

Following the reception, China Institute’s Renwen Society will host a roundtable discussion with three of Contemporary China’s rising literary stars, moderated by Dr. Yan Yue of the United Nations’ Chinese Language Program. Liang Hong, Li Jian, and Yan Ge all grew up in a rapidly changing China, and their stories have all garnered wide national attention. This discussion will be conducted in Mandarin Chinese.

Ouyang Jianghe belongs to the “third generation” of twentieth-century Chinese literature and is one of the the so-called “five masters from Sichuan.” Critics consider Ouyang Jianghe’s poetry some of the most challenging avant-garde verse written in China over the past few decades; his poems, which have the intricate, sculpted quality of fugues, are concerned with dissecting the layers of meaning which underlie everyday objects and notions like “doubled shadows.” He is a prominent art critic and chief editor of the literary magazine Jintian; he lives in Beijing.

Yan Ge was born in 1984 in Sichuan in the People’s Republic of China, and currently lives in Dublin, Ireland. She recently completed a PhD in comparative literature at Sichuan University and is the chairperson of the China Young Writer Association. People’s Literature magazine recently chose her – in a list reminiscent of the New Yorker’s ‘20 under 40’ – as one of China’s twenty future literary masters, and in 2012 she was chosen as Best New Writer by the prestigious Chinese Literature Media Prize(华语文学传媒大奖 最佳新人奖). Her new novel 我们家 (The Chili Bean Paste Clan )was published in Chinese in May 2013 by Zhejiang Literature Press, and will appear in German, French and several other languages in 2016 and 2017.

Liang Hong was born in 1973 near Zhengzhou, Henan, in Liang Village. In 2003 she graduated from Beijing Normal University (北京师范大学) with a PhD in Chinese literature having completed research in contemporary Chinese literature. She currently teaches Chinese literature as part of the creative writing department of Renmin University, with Yan Lianke and Zhang Yueran. Liang Hong has published two books of non-fiction about her hometown:  China in Liang Village  (中国在梁庄, 2010) and Leaving Liang Village (出梁庄记, 2013). 

Li Juan was born in the summer of 1979 at the Kuitun Construction Corps in Xinjiang province. She spent many years living in Fuying County in Xinjiang’s Altay region. She began to publish her writing in 1999. The majority of her works centre on her own personal experiences and describe the landscape of the Kazakh nomads of the Altay region in Xinjiang. In 2003 she published a collection of essays entitled   Nine Snows   and in 2010 she published two collections of essays entitled  My Altay  and Corners of Altay. In 2011 she published an essay collection, Travelling Through the Ni ght: Please Sing Out Loud. She now lives in Kanas, Xinjiang. 

For questions contact: Aaron Nicholson anicholson@chinainstitute.org or call 212-744-8181, ext. 138