Seeing is Not Believing - from Aftershock to Gold Mountain Blues

Zhang Ling will discuss two of her novels, Aftershock and Gold Mountain Blues, at Duke University.

Chinese-Canadian writer Zhang Ling is author of the 2009 novel, Aftershock. Aftershock was adapted into a movie directed by Feng Xiaogang, which the NY Times has called "quite possibly the movie event of all time, commercially speaking, [in China]."   Written in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Zhang Ling's novel takes as its starting point the devastating Tangshan earthquake of 1976. The earthquake killed nearly 250,000 people, but Zhang Ling's work focuses on the disaster's impact on a single family, when a mother is forced to choose between saving her son or her daughter. Her choice haunts her and her family for the next three decades.  Zhang Ling's 4th novel, Gold Mountain Blues became the biggest award contender of the year in China. It has won and been short-listed for 8 major awards. A TV series, based on the novel, is underway.

Talk is organized by the Trans-Asian Media Cultures working group and is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Asian Pacific Studies Institute, and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies.