Xiaolu Guo gives talk at London Book Fair
- By Rory Howard
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 16, 2015
Book writer, essayist, and film director Xiaolu Guo spoke on April 14, 2015 at London Book Fair's PEN Literary Salon.
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Book writer, essayist, and film director Xiaolu Guo [Photo/China.org.cn] |
Guo previously lived in China and published her first books in her native Chinese but since moving to Western Europe and then settling in London, Guo now writes in English. Her books include "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary For Lovers", "Lovers in the Age of Indifference" and her most recent, "I am China". It was the change from writing in Chinese to writing English and her artistic and cultural inspirations that made up her talk.
Guo began the talk by reading a short piece from her latest book, "I am China". The reading was of a "cover" of one of Allen Ginsberg's poems but with a reimagining as if the poem were written with China in mind. Guo named her stylistic inspiration as coming not from the classic writings of her new home, London, but from Americans such as Ginsberg, Leonard Cohen, and writers and musicians of the Beat Generation.
Despite being inspired by such Western artists, writers, and musicians, Guo's protagonists are often Chinese people like herself going through the trials of everyday life, politics, and being in a different culture. She says that one inspiration for the main character in "I am China" came from her own experiences. Jian, the main character of "I am China" tries to get permission to stay in the UK by writing to the queen, an exercise of frustration and distant hope which proves too distant to work. Fortunately, Guo's own experience of writing to imminent characters when trying to stay in the UK were not fruitless; writing to and being endorsed by Salman Rushdie helped settle Guo in to what is now her home.
The final main topic of the talk was one that was touched upon by other people at the London Book Fair: the problem of getting works translated. Since coming to the UK, Guo has previously said that it has been hard to get her earlier Chinese works translated into English and that she had to write her books in English to get attention for her work.
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