Family life in fiction: Yan Ge in Conversation
Family life in fiction: Yan Ge in Conversation
14 September 2018
In partnership with China Exchange, one of China’s leading young writers, Yan Ge, joined her translator Nicky Harman to discuss her latest novel Chilli Bean Paste Clan on 13 September. The two speakers covered Yan Ge’s recipe for creating family dynamics in fiction, developing humour and characterisation in writing and the novel’s translation process. Attendees were also treated to some specially prepared chilli bean paste dishes after the talk.
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.
This event was held as part of the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival 2018.
