Our Picks for the Best of the 2018 Beijing Bookworm Litfest

The schedule for The 11th Bookworm International Literary Festival (Mar 8-25) is out – and it is lit. It seems like an age since the last fest (it's been two years) but, looking at the stellar lineup, it seems like it was worth the wait.

The just-over-two-week program brings together a host of authors and creatives from China and abroad and includes dozens of talks, panels, performances, shows, quizzes and more. Speakers include fiction and nonfiction authors; foreign correspondents; poets; Nobel Peace Prize photographers and comics, while topics range from LGBT issues and Chinese millennials to "committing" journalism in China.

So, whether you're into North Korean knick-knacks, graphic novels, podcasts or whodunits, there's something for you at the Beijing Bookworm Litfest. Read on for our top picks from the full schedule.

Top Picks

WOMEN OF THE WORLD

Zhang Yajun, Dan Bao, Lenora Chu, moderated by Joanna Chiu

This event marks International Women's Day and the opening of the litfest. Over the past year, issues of pay inequality, fair gender representation and – thanks to the #metoo movement – sexual harassment and abuse, have dominated the news. Joanna Chiu (Correspondent for Agence France-Presse) leads a discussion between Zhang Yajun (presenter for Radii’s Wǒ Men podcasts), Dan Bao (a writer who focusses on gender issues) and Lenora Chu (author of Little Soldiers: An American Boy, A Chinese School, and a Global Race to Achieve), as they ask: What does it mean to be a woman in 2018? What lessons can we take from the past year and how can we move forward gender debates in China and across the world? This event will be consecutively translated in English and Chinese.

Thu Mar 8, 7.30pm; RMB80

“FALLOUT” WITH NOBEL PEACE PRIZE PHOTOGRAPHER SIM CHI YIN

Photo by Joyce Fang, 2012

Nobel Peace Prize photographer Sim Chi Yin travelled 6,000 kilometers along the China-North Korea border and through six states in United States to make an exhibition on the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). The result is a reflection of humans’ experience with nuclear weapons, past and present. In this event, the photographer discusses the Fallout/Nobel project and some other aspects of her award-winning creative work.

Fri Mar 16, 6pm; RMB60

BIG BROTHER, BIG DATA AND TECH PRIVACY IN CHINA

Han Ying, Zhu Wei, moderated by Josh Chin

From online shopping to public security, Big Brother is watching you (and taking all of your data). But what are the consequences of such a data-driven future – in particular, on the country's 730 million internet users? In this panel, Ying Han from the United States Information Technology Office and Zhu Wei, a legal scholar who advises the Chinese government on internet policy, join moderator Josh Chin (Wall Street Journal) to discuss how China’s approach to personal data compares with the U.S. and elsewhere, and its implications for Chinese citizens, tech companies and the future of internet culture here.

Tues Mar 20, 1pm; RMB60

CITY OF DEVILS: A SHANGHAI NOIR

Paul French, moderated by Alec Ash

photo by Sue Anne Tay

The bestselling author of Midnight in Peking – the nonfiction tale of the 1937 murder of Englishwoman Pamela Werner – is back with a new book on 20th-century China's seedy underbelly, City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir. The tale chronicles the lives of two men whose crime and twisted friendship erupt in 1940’s Shanghai. The thrill-seeking, pleasure-seeking, hedonism of the time is on full display and reveled in by French's characters as gangs, drugs, gambling and more collide. French delves into this "long-overlooked side of the city’s history" with Alec Ash, author of Wish Lanterns.

Thu Mar 22, 8pm; RMB60

Tickets

Tickets can only be purchased at The Bookworm or online via Yoopay. (Please note that a limited number of tickets are made available online; please email [e-mail] or call 6503 2050 for inquiries.) Unless otherwise stated, The Bookworm cannot take phone or email reservations.

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