Lijia Zhang's Blog, page 11
June 2, 2024
Hay Festival
I happily spent the past few days at Hay-on-Wye for the festival. Starting in 1988, ‘the Festival of Literature and Arts’ has grown to be one of the largest in the world and a prominent part of British culture. Bill Clinton called it “the Woodstock of the mind”.
I turned up here upon the invitation of a dear friend. On the train from London, we had the fortune to bump into A. C. Grayling, a philosopher who has written over 30 books on all sorts of philosophical and social issues. My friend had met before. So we chatted with him. Without being promoted, he offered to drive us to the festival as he planned to rent a car. How so kind of him. Otherwise, we would have to take the infrequent bus. It turned out that he taught at Peking University before and is quite knowledgeable about China.
What an auspicious start!
I loved just about every session I attended. I particularly loved Caitlin Moran, the journalist, feminist and author of How to be a Woman. She talked about her latest book What About Men? So funny and witty, she made the audience laugh their teeth off from the beginning to the end. Later, we happened to dine at the same restaurant. So I had a photo taken with her, pretending to impress my daughters, who loved her books.
We also had coffee with Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4’s international editor, whom I had met in China where she served as a foreign correspondent. This autumn, she’ll have a new book out, including her reports from various conflict zones around the world, plus a poem from each of the regions. I shall look forward to it.
May 19, 2024
lit fes
European Writers’ Festival at the British Library
I love literature festivals where you are always enlightened or inspired by brilliant writers and you get to meet like-minded people.
This Saturday, I attended the second European Writers’ Festival and thoroughly enjoyed it. Among the writers, the most famous one was probably the renowned Ukraine writer Andrey Kurkov. I bought his non-fiction book Diary of An Invasion as I was keen to know what life was life like for people who went through the war.
My crush of this festival was another Ukrainian writer – poet Iryna Shuvalova. Her poem about the pain and longing for her lover during the Covid moved me to tears. At that time, her lover was in Ukraine while she lived in Nanjing moved. Nanjing, my hometown! Afterwards, I went up to her and chatted with her. It turned out that she worked at an international school in Nanjing. And she experienced a strong affinity for China.
A few hours later, she emailed me, saying ‘are you the ‘Zhang Lijia’?” She had heard about me and downloaded my novel Lotus already. So we met again and had a great chat. What joy!
Long live literature festival.
May 8, 2024
Face recognition
Face recognition technology is wide-spread in China. I am glad the authorities are pushing back over its commercial use.
https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3261578/not-good-look-china-should-turn-away-too-much-facial-recognition
May 6, 2024
my birthday fundraising
In a few days, I am reaching a landmark – turning 60. This year, I’d like to raise fund for a London-based peace-building organization called Conciliation Resources. https://www.c-r.org/
Why did I choose this organization? Because Conciliation Resources is a great organization which ‘has made peace’ possible. In the past 25 years, it has solved conflicts in many regions, such as Caucasus, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Fiji, and in East and Central Africa. I also had the pleasure of getting to know Jonathan Cohen, its Executive Director. I know he has worked tirelessly and almost inhumanly to bring peace to the world.
Another reason is that Conciliation Resources could do with some help. As the war is raging in the Middle East, Ukraine; Africa and in other parts of the world, the funding for peace building organizations, paradoxically, is shrinking as the Western governments have increased military spending.
How peace is achieved? What is the process of peacebuilding? For those who are interested in war and peace, here’s an illuminating interview with Cohen. https://www.warstoriespeacestories.org/podcast
A veteran peacemaker, he is also the Chairman of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office. In this show, he shares stories from their work in Ethiopia, the Philippines, and in the Caucasus. I found the story from Nagorno-Karabakh fascinating: journalists from Armenia and Azerbaijan, the two warring parties, made films about each other.
To donate, please go to Conciliation Resources’ website and click the ‘donate’ button. https://www.c-r.org/
One of the great ways to make yourself happier is to help others. Just think that you have the power to make a difference in people’s lives. My hearty-thanks in advance.
Peace be with you.
April 21, 2024
Village poet Yu xiuhua
An Evening with Chinese Poet Yu Xiuhua
I’ve long heard of Yu Xihua, an extraordinary poet in every sense. So I was thrilled to attend her event at the British Library the other day with my great friend Helen, an accomplished poet. Yu is a farmer, not highly educated, living in a village in Hubei, in central China. She has cerebral palsy, which causes speech and mobility difficulties. Yet she loves to read. Printed words lent her wings of imagination. In 2014, she burst into the literary scene with her poem “I travel across half of China to bed you”.
The event was divided into three parts. The first part was her reading of a few of her poems. One of them was “I’ll Sing Every Sring”
Every spring I’ll spring, watch clouds arrive from the south Once wind softens, spring gets real
A man sits on a ridge where dandelions carry small flames running in spring; All the way out of the village
He can’t hear my voice.
I want to call him, I have things unsaid
Too brief a flowering, too short a time for spring to rest
He shouts, I can’t hear you properly, can’t hear you
He can’t hear a cerebral palsy patient’s muffled confession
Many pass by spring, many flowers in bloom
He can’t guess what I am saying
But I’ll sing every spring
Voice sways in the wind, sad and sweet
The translation isn’t the best, but you get some idea.
The second part was her dance performance with other professional dancers, accompanied by music. The title of the piece is “Eight Tons of Moonlight”.
The third part was a conversation between her and Yuan Yang, who was FT’s China correspondent until recently and who writes poems herself. Here the poet Yu Xiuhua had the chance to show off her charm and her great sense of humour. When Yuan asked her a few questions about love, she joked, why are you so interested in love? Okay, I see, you are still young, have not reached menopause yet. To be fair, love and longing are two themes in her poetry.
The atmosphere became lively when the floor was opened. The large theatre was filled with young Chinese people, mostly women, who are charmed by Yu’s poems. They queued up to tell Yu how much they loved her love poems – her poems just speak to them.
Now I have a better understanding why Yu and her poems are so popular: they are refreshing, authentic and her charming personality adds the appeal of her poems. She also speaks the truth. In response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Yu published a poem titled “Prayer”, where she criticised the invasion. She was attacked by some online trolls.
It was an evening to be cherished.
April 4, 2024
China’s private sector
China’s Struggling Private Sector
Private companies in China now account for more than 90% of business entities. But the private sector is still the poor cousin of State-owned enterprises, which are favoured by the state. To add snow to the frost, the private sector is subject to the government crackdown and nationalistic trolls’ attack. Time to stop all these. My latest column for SCMP explains why. (if you can’t access the article, please message me.)
March 21, 2024
Global Feminism
I have always been interested in gender issue. When I was invited to take part in a panel discussion about Global Feminism, organized by Georgetown University in the U. S., I said yes!
The ongoing struggle for women’s equality around the world has a deep history. For millennia social, cultural and religious forces have held women back, relegating them to second class status in the family and the wider culture and society. What are some key milestones in the history of women’s liberation around the world? What lessons do global histories of feminism hold for today’s ongoing struggle for women’s equality? Leading international intellectuals Nesrine Malik and Lijia Zhang will reflect on these questions in an online conversation moderated by Pankaj Mishra, renowned author, essayist, and literary critic.
March 18, 2024
Be interviewed for a Mao documentary
I came to Paris mainly for this major TV documentary on contemporary China. The interview took place today inside the Pagoda in Paris, such a hidden gem. Delighted that the interview went really well.
March 6, 2024
My piece in the pink pages
How wonderful to have published in the bloody FT! Well not bloody, to be precise, but in the “pink pages”!
In today’s opinion piece, I talk about China’s low political participation – there are too few women in senior government positions.
https://www.ft.com/content/a4cee0a7-d4d6-46ba-b61e-129dfd766b6a
If you’d like to read it but don’t have a subscription, feel free to message me.
March 1, 2024
my column on China’s ‘common prosperity’
As someone who hails from a lower rung of society, I am very interested in wealth inequality and social mobility. Here’s my take on China’s ‘common prosperity’ goal.
