13
Sep
Family life in fiction – Yan Ge in conversation
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Free
18:30 to 19:30
13-09-18

Spend an evening with one of China’s leading young writers as we welcome Yan Ge to China Exchange for part of the 2018 Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival. Having already published 11 books and been touted as one of the future literature masters of China, Yan Ge has recently started to write in English as well as her native Chinese.

Winner of an English Pen translates award, Yan Ge’s latest novel Chilli Bean Paste Clan is tale of a delightfully dysfunctional family and owners of a lucrative chilli bean paste factory. It was published in English for the first time this year.  Joining Yan Ge in conversation, we welcome back Nicky Harman, one of the leading translators of Chinese fiction into English.

Come to hear about Yan Ge’s special recipe of creating family dynamics in fiction, developing humour and characterisation in writing and the translation process. There will also be some delicious, complimentary chilli bean paste dishes for you to taste during the talk!

The conversation will be in English from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Venue doors open at 6pm. Books will be available to buy for the author to sign after the talk till 8pm.

More about the book:

Set in a fictional town in West China, this is the story of the Duan-Xue family, owners of the lucrative chilli bean paste factory, and their formidable matriarch. As Gran’s eightieth birthday approaches, her middle-aged children get together to make preparations. Family secrets are revealed and long-time sibling rivalries flare up with renewed vigour. As Shengqiang struggles unsuccessfully to juggle the demands of his mistress and his wife, the biggest surprises of all come from Gran herself……

About Yan Ge:

Yan Ge was born in Sichuan, China in 1984. She is a writer as well as a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature. Publishing since 1994, she is the author of eleven books. Her work has been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Hungarian. She was a visiting scholar at Duke University from 2011 to 2012 and a residency writer at the Cross Border Festival in Netherlands in November 2012. Being named by People’s Literature magazine as one of twenty future literature masters in China, she is now the chairperson of China Young Writers’ Association and a contract writer of Sichuan Writers’ Association. She recently started writing in English. Her English writing can be seen in The Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Times and Stand magazine. She lives in Norwich with her husband and son.

About Nicky Harman:

Nicky Harman is based in the UK, and translates fiction, and occasionally non-fiction and poetry from Chinese. She actively promotes Chinese fiction to the general English-language reader, running literary events, writing blogs, and giving talks. She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, and judges translation competitions.  She tweets as the China Fiction Bookclub @cfbcuk. She is active on the Chinese literary translation website, Paper-Republic.org, and the short story project, READ PAPER REPUBLIC.

This event is free. Please register to let us know you are coming. The food samplers will be vegetarian but guaranteed to be yummy.