In this discussion, two renowned translators will unveil two different faces of China: urban and rural.

Whist city residents witnessed drastic urban developments and gentrification movements, with both excitement and confusion, migrant workers from rural areas carried each brick on their backs and moved forward with struggles and reflections.

How has life changed in China’s cities and countryside throughout the decades? How did China’s urban and rural stories confront, interlink and integrate? Join us to find out!

About the speakers:

• Nicky Harman

Nicky is a prolific Chinese to English translator and co-chair of the Translators Association (Society of Authors). Her most recent work, the translation of Jia Pingwa’s novel Happy Dreams, depicts life in industrializing contemporary China as seen through the eyes of Happy Liu, a charming and clever rural labourer who leaves his home for the gritty harsh streets of Xi’an in search of better life.

• Michelle Deeter

Michelle has been a Chinese to English translator and interpreter since 2007. Together with Nicky Harman, she translated Paper Tiger, which paints a portrait of the world’s second-largest economy via a thoughtful and wide-ranging series of mini essays on contemporary Chinese society. Her other works include Feng Tang’s Beijing, Beijing and Chen Zijin’s The Untouched Crime, which reveals the life in modern China through a variety of perspectives.

China in Context is organised by China Exchange and Cypress Books.