Merry merry and happy happy from all of us at M...as a special holiday treat, we’re sharing a teaser of what to expect come spring at the Shanghai International Literary Festival 2019 (Remember! Dates areMarch 14-27, 2019). The full programme will be released on February 15th and, as always, tickets will be sold exclusively on our website. You know we’re not going to divulge *everything*, but IF you were going to do some holiday reading, here are a few of our suggestions...wink, wink. Celebrated science-fiction writer and winner of the Hugo Award, Hao Jingfang’s (郝景芳) Folding Beijing is an absolute must-read. Award-winning British-Pakistani writer, Nadeem Aslam, considered “one…
A Call to Writers for the 2019-20 M Literary Residency Applications for the Residency open on January 1, 2019 and will close on March 31, 2019 midnight GMT. The winner will be announced on May 31st, 2019. SUBMISSIONS: https://mliteraryresidency.submittable.com/submit The M Residency allows writers with an interest in China to deepen their understanding of this vital and fascinating place. Established in 2009 and fully funded by the M Restaurant Group, the residency has its roots in M's Shanghai and Beijing Literary Festivals, and aims to foster artistic, cultural and intellectual links between individuals and communities. From 2009 to 2016 the residency included one resident in Shanghai and one…
Considered one of Britain's greatest contemporary writers, Geoff Dyer is the award-winning author of books such as But Beautiful and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. In discussing his latest book, White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World, he dealt with the power of memory, his experiences ranging from the Lightning Field in New Mexico to a hunt for Gauguin's ghost in Tahiti and the question of why we travel.
The collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 appeared to usher in a remarkable new era of peace and co-operation between Moscow and the West. This, we were told, was the end of history: after decades of struggle, the entire world would embrace enlightenment values and liberal democracy. Reality has proved very different, with each US president leaving relations with Russia in a worse state than he found them. Donald Trump, a self-confessed fan of Vladimir Putin, seemed determined to find a way of breaking out of this dead end. Yet, perversely, his arrival in the White…
The decline of the US and the rise of China is the story of our times. But what does it mean for east and south-east Asia? Richard McGregor discussed the challenges for Pax Sinica taking the place of the Pax Americana that has dominated the region since 1945.
A hilarious and heartbreaking story of a young man wrestling with his father’s legacy and what it means to be a ‘good Muslim’, join award winning writer, actor and comedian Osamah Sami in his discussion on his life's journey. By the age of 13, Osamah had survived the Iran–Iraq war, peddled fireworks and chewing gum on the Iranian black market, proposed ‘temporary marriage’ not once but three times, and received countless floggings from the Piety Police for trying to hold hands with girls in dark cinemas. Even in Australia, life has been eventful. He faked a perfect Year 12 score…
Writer Aaliyah Bilal recounts stories of African-American artists who travelled to Shanghai in the early 20th century. Join us to learn about their experiences navigating the pitfalls and opportunities of this vibrant city, leading up to the onset of the Japanese Occupation.
Alexander Weinstein's short story collection, Children of the New World, explores a near-future world of social-media implants, memory manufacturers, dangerously immersive virtual-reality games, and frighteningly intuitive robots. Through the lens of speculative fiction, Weinstein's stories grapple with our ever-growing dependence on new technologies. The author will read from his collection and discuss the joys and challenges which our modern-day fascination with AI, robots, and cybernetics poses to our present-day relationships, as well as how fiction might help us build a better future.
When repression intrudes into a society by degrees, it is felt first by the powerless of that society: its poor, its minorities, its women. The rights of the defenseless are the first to be compromised – but the process rarely stops there. Tonight’s authors have both envisioned, in allegorical or imagined form, the dangers of repression: what might have been; what has already happened; what might yet be. Charlotte Wood’s most recent novel, The Natural Way of Things, winner of the 2016 Stella Prize, imagines a near future where subtle misogyny has festered to the bursting point. Sheng Keyi’s Death…