Results tagged “authors”

Didn't manage to make it to all the Shanghai Lit Fest authors you wanted to see? CityWeekend, already having done us a great service by liveblogging the event, was nice enough to record a bunch of podcasts for everyone who couldn't be there. Currently, they've got Week 1 and Week 2's writers up, and Week 3 is supposedly going to be added soon. Head over there to listen to the people you couldn't catch live... or just the people you want to hear again. We know we'll be re-listening to the James Fallows podcast. Maybe on repeat.

Let's make this as short and sweet as possible. You've had three weeks to pony your lazy arse to Lit Fest, so if you miss it, don't blame us for not keeping you blissfully well-informed. And if you miss out, you really ARE missing out--if not just for the fabulous view out the window of Glamour Bar in broad daylight.

When we first arrived in Shanghai a long, long time ago, all there was to do on weekends was vogue at Bar Rouge---balancing champagne glasses and tottering around on stilettos while trying to not catch our hair on fire. Well, things have changed. Champagne is no longer as popular and now there is a Barbie shop to vogue around at, plus this weekend our Pearl of the East has oystered out an arts scene involving more than the usual bomb shelters, beer and beavers.

The live music selection may be amazing this weekend, but it's not the only thing going on! Today also marks the beginning of two super special events and if you're a fan of sexy things or literary things (or sexy literary things), you've got great reason to be psyched.

Go here to listen to Terry Gross' interview with Beijing-based (and formerly Shanghai-based) writer James Fallows, The Atlantic's "man in China." Fallows discusses a variety of topics, including China's extensive investment in the United States (see his Atlantic story on the topic here), his new book of China essays (excerpt on Danwei), internet censorship and his recently deceased father. Around the 24-minute mark, Fallows makes some interesting statements about how he thinks Chinese people would have voted in the recent U.S. election — we're curious how his observations compare to what Shanghaiist readers saw and heard leading up to November 4.

Xu Xi, author of Evanescent Isles talks to Zhang Lijia, journalist and author of the book Socialism is Great. In her book, Zhang tells her fascinating story of how she worked as a teenager in a Nanjing factory which produced missiles designed to reach North America, participated in the Tiananmen Square protests and eventually became a journalist.

In this latest episode of Sexy Beijing, Sufei meets up with Shanghai-born Qiu Xiaolong (裘小龙), author of the award-winning Inspector Chen series of mystery novels, Death of a Red Heroine (2000), A Loyal Character Dancer (2002), When Red Is Black (2004), A Case of Two Cities (2006), and Red Mandarin Dress. Qiu currently lives in St Louis, Missouri and writes all his books (and poetry) in English, and only recently have his works been translated in Mandarin. His Wikipedia entry includes the following tidbit:

He originally visited the United States in 1988 to write a book about T. S. Eliot, but following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 a newspaper reported on his previous fundraising efforts for Chinese students, and he was forced to remain in America to avoid persecution by the Communist Party of China.

One of our favorite Chinese sites seems to have run afoul of the net nanny: vip.bokee.com has been on again off again, but perfectly viewable with a proxy. Using the proxy we saw an article about a list published in a Chengdu newspaper of the top-grossing authors in China, at least based on royalties from the sales of their books. At the top of the list was a Guo Jingming, a young author (born in...