A Man’s Decision to Become a Tree
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- Main Building, SOAS
- Room
- G3
About this event
Acclaimed poet Yang Lian and artist and fiction writer YoYo will talk about their latest publications, reading from their collections and discussing with their translators issues of creativity, politics, life.
As unique and compelling voices in contemporary Chinese literature, who continue to speak out from their standpoints that bridge cultures, they will entertain a conversation on themes of migration, friendship, the power of art, history, music and language, as well as the limitless source of inspiration drawn from Chinese culture.
About the speakers
Yang Lian was born in Switzerland in 1955 and grew up in Beijing. He began writing when he returned to Beijing he became one of the founders of the Misty school of contemporary Chinese poetry. After the Tiananmen massacre Yang Lian became a poet in exile. Yang Lian is known for his poem sequences and long poems which display a profound understanding of, and creative links with, classical Chinese poetry. He currently lives between London and Berlin.
YoYo was born in Western China. She is a painter and fiction writer who taught at Shantou University, Guangdong, Eaton College, SOAS, the University of Sydney and the University of Aucklandand worked as an art editor for the Chinese Theater Publishing House. She left China in 1988. Witnessing the history of contemporary Chinese literature since the 1980s.
Brian Holton is an award-winning translator, poet, and musician. He is the only living poet who translates from Chinese into Scots. He taught in the UK and Hong Kong and has appeared at many festivals around the world.
Callisto Searle is a SOAS alumnus who won the Chinese Bridge competition in 2002. She translates mainly fiction while pursuing her research interests in Chinese paleography, metaphorology, and classical Chinese intellectual history in China as well as in the UK.
Chair
Cosima Bruno, Reader in Chinese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, SOAS.
Registration
This event is open to the public and free to attend, however registration is required.
Please note that this seminar is taking place on campus and will not be recorded or live-streamed.
Contact
- Email: sci@soas.ac.uk
