Shanghai Literary Festival kicks off tomorrow

7/F, No. 5 The Bund (corner Guangdong Road)
Reservations: (86-21) 6350-9988
reservations@m-onthebund.com

SATURDAY, MARCH 4

China Stories

2.30 pm
WANG LILI
Between Two Places: Stories of Migrants in the Big City
Young Henan novelist Wan Lili gives voice to the silent young country girls, like herself, who are at once building China's cities and reinventing themselves.

4.00 pm
MISHI SARAN
Chasing a Monk from China to India
Mishi Saran traces the route of seventh century Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang: she explains, "An Indian woman with a China craze, a Chinese monk with an Indian obsession; we had the same schizophrenia, the monk and I.”

SUNDAY, MARCH 5

Australian Authors: Looking Outward, Looking Inward

1.00 pm
MIRABEL FITZGERALD
Book Launch: The Tower of Five Glories
Mirabel Fitzgerald relaunches The Tower of Five Glories, a study of the Bai Minority People by her father, the Australian Sinologist C.P. Fitzgerald, first published in 1941.

2.30 pm
DORIS PILKINGTON
The Dispossessed
The Australian aboriginal author of Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence and other personal histories explores themes of loss and identity among Australia's aborigines.

SATURDAY, MARCH 11th

11.00 am
EDWARD DENISON AND REN GUANGYU
Book Launch: Shanghai's Architecture: Let a Hundred Styles Bloom
The authors of Building Shanghai: The Story of China's Gateway examine the evolution of the city's architecture and urban form in its social and historical contexts.

Journeys of Discovery: The Traveller's Tale

12.00 pm
LITERARY LUNCH: PICO IYER
On Travel Writing
Join one of our generation's greatest travel writers in a wide-ranging discussion on travel, identity and being a citizen of nowhere – and everywhere.

2.30 pm
MA JIAN
China Wandering
Chinese writer Ma Jian on discovering China, and himself, on travels to China's farthest reaches. In Mandarin

4.00 pm, BRIAN CASTRO
China Fiction
The Australian author of Shanghai Dancing, which was based on his Eurasian family's history, talks about discovering his family and China in his fiction.

SUNDAY, MARCH 12th

Children's Morning

10.00 am
IAN WHYBROW AND PETER OSBORNE
Stories for our children
A delightful morning of readings from Ian Whybrow's Little Wolf and Harry and the Dinosaur series and from Australian Peter Osborne's Golden Dragon.

Fiction & Fact

1.00 pm
ROBERT ELEGANT
Master of Political Suspense
Renowned novelist, journalist and old Asia hand Robert Elegant talks about his moving personal novel, Cry Peace, about the last days of the Korean War, and talks about his upcoming book on Shanghai, a biography of the metropolis as an intellectual, commercial and political hub. In conversation with Paul French

2.30 pm
KUNAL BASU
Racists: The Forbidden Experiment
Racists explores the scientific obsession with racial superiority as two scientists conduct 'the forbidden experiment' on an African island. Basu will also talk about and read from his two previous novels, The Opium Clerk – partly set in China – and Miniaturists.

4.00 pm
SIMON NAPIER-BELL
Wham! Comes to China
One of the legendary figures of the British music industry talks about bringing the first western pop group to China – it's a wild tale of boys, booze and selling Wham! to China.

THURSDAY, MARCH 16th

The Man Booker Prize Lecture

5.00 pm
JOHN BANVILLE
The Sea
The winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize talks about his unique contribution to modern literature.

SATURDAY, MARCH 18th

Places as Muse

11.00 am
ERIC STONE
The Living Room of the Dead: From Russia Without Love
The author of the Ray Sharp series of thrillers shares the inspiration for his books: stories he heard in his 11 years as a Hong Kong-based journalist. He'll read from and discuss The Living Room of the Dead, a tale of Russian prostitutes in Macau.

1.00 pm
DORIS MOUSDALE AND PAULA MORRIS
Literary New Zealand
Book reviewer Doris Mousdale puts New Zealand literature in context, while Paula Morris discusses her latest work, Hibiscus Coast, a literary thriller about art forgery set in two thriving cities - Auckland and Shanghai.

The Globalization of Literary Fiction and Ideas

2.30 pm
PANKAJ MISHRA
Why do American and British novelists appear so parochial? Thoughts on the Globalization of Literary Fiction
The Indian author of An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World and literary reviewer explores the globalization of literary fiction

4.30 pm
BARNABY ROGERSON
Boredom or Fear: Writing History Against 1,400 Years of Prejudice. The Battle to Make the West Love the Other
The author of the critically acclaimed biography of the Prophet Muhammed reads from and discusses his new book, Heirs of the Prophet.

SUNDAY, MARCH 19th

Shanghai, China and the World

11.00 am
Panel: PAUL FRENCH, TESS JOHNSTON AND LYNN PAN
The Life and Loves of Emily Hahn
A trio of Shanghai’s best-loved authors on historic Shanghai speak on different aspects of one of old Shanghai’s most colorful characters, Emily Hahn.

12.00 pm
LITERARY LUNCHEON: AMERICAN WOMEN'S CLUB AUTHORS
Shanghai Lu: Expatriate Stories of Modern Shanghai
Join the authors of the American Women's Club short story collection as they discuss and read from their work.

3.00 pm
BEVERLEY JACKSON
Beauty and the Cultural Revolution: China Travels
Author of Shanghai Girl Gets All Dressed Up relates her tales of traveling in China during the Cultural Revolution.

4.00 pm
NAMU ERCHE YANG
Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World
Celebrity singer ("the Tibetan Madonna") and author Namu describes growing up in the unique Mosuo matrilineal society -- where daughters are favoured children, where there is no word for father, and marriage is considered a backward practice – and her journey to urban China.