Modern Chinese Literature Online Book Club - Session 6

Please join us for the 6th session of our Modern Chinese literature online book club on Friday 17^th November, 1-2pm (UK time). All are welcome to attend and you do not need to have attended any of our prior book club sessions. The session is informal, friendly and held in English.

In this session, we'll be discussing the story Winter is Coming (凛冬将至) written by WU Ang (巫昂) and translated by Kelly Zhang.

You can read a full translation in English on the Paper Republic website here.

The chinese version of the story is available to read here and you can also watch a reading by Kelly Zhang in English and by Wu Ang in Chinese here.

About the facilitators:

WU Ang (巫昂)- We are delighted that the author WU Ang is able to join us for the session. WU Ang is a contemporary poet and novelist based in Beijing. Born in 1974, she completed her Bachelor's in Chinese language studies from Fudan University and went on to obtain an MFA in Contemporary Chinese Literature from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Wu previously worked as a journalist before becoming a freelance writer. In addition, she is a life/love advice columnist, screenwriter, indie film producer, folk artist and avid traveller.

Nicky Harman - Nicky Harman lives in the UK and translates full-time from Chinese into English, focussing on fiction, literary non-fiction, and occasionally poetry. Several of her translations have been recipients of an English PEN Translates award. She won a Mao Tai Cup People's Literature Chinese-English translation prize in 2015 and Special Book Award of China in 2020. She got the first prize in the 2013 China International Translation Contest, Chinese-to-English section, with Jia Pingwa’s Backflow River (倒流河).

Emily Jones - Emily Jones is a founding Trustee of Paper Republic,  a charity which promotes Chinese literature in English translation. She is a graduate of Chinese Studies from the University of Cambridge (1998 - 2002). She also studied Chinese at the Chinese universities of Ningbo and Qingdao and was the recipient of a British Centre for Literary Translation mentorship in translation in 2011. Her publications include novels such as Black Holes (性之罪 ) by He Jiahong (何家弘) and The Sky Dwellers (天行者) by Liu Xinglong (刘醒龙); short stories such as Fiction and Other Stories (李喬短篇小說精選集) by Lee Chiao (李喬), as well as poetry, and non-fiction for various publishers.

Questions to consider for the discussion:

Q1. Information about the protagonist's past unhappiness (bereavements, divorce) is dropped into the story at various points. Also, there are a number of hints about how alone/lonely she is. But does lonely always have to mean vulnerable? Is she particularly vulnerable? Or just unlucky, in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Q2. What role does the sea play in the story?

Q3. At what point in the story do you, the reader, feel her fear?

Q4. What do you think is going to happen after the inconclusive ending?

Please register on Eventbrite to attend the session. The Zoom link will be emailed to you prior to the event. The talk will also be recorded and made available afterwards on this page. 

You can read the Chinese version of this on our WeChat page here. 

We look forward to seeing you there! 

Update 23/11/23 - the recording from the talk is now available to watch below and the transcript is available here. 

Session 6 WU, Ang: Winter is coming from OU LAL on Vimeo.