Saturday, November 11, 1:00 – 4:00PM
Location: 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10006

Xiaolu Guo is one of the most acclaimed Chinese-born writers and filmmakers of her generation, an iconoclastic and completely contemporary voice exploring identity and alienation in the context of an increasingly globalized world. On November 11, we will welcome Xiaolu Guo to China Institute for a conversation with New Yorker writer Jiayang Fan about her recently published memoir, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China. The talk will be preceded by a screening of her recent film, UFO in Her Eyes.

UFO in Her Eyes is a surreal, Kafkaesque political metaphor about how a rural Chinese village is radically transformed due to an alleged UFO sighting, and this parable of change paints a restless future, not only for rural China, but also for the entire world.

Xiaolu Guo’s vivid, poignant memoir, Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China is the story of a curious mind coming of age in an inhospitable country, and her determination to seek a life beyond the limits of its borders. In the work, Ms. Guo presents a fascinating portrait of China in the eighties and nineties, how the Cultural Revolution shaped families, and how the country’s economic ambitions gave rise to great change. It is also a moving testament to the birth of a creative spirit, and of a new generation being raised to become citizens of the world. It confirms Xiaolu Guo as one of world literature’s most urgent voices.

Xiaolu Guo was born in south China. She studied film at the Beijing Film Academy and published six books in China before she moved to London in 2002. Her first novel written in English, A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and Twenty Fragments of a Ravenous Youth, published in 2008, was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. In 2013 she was named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists. Xiaolu has also directed several award-winning films including She, A Chinese and a documentary about London, Late at Night. Her films have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival and New Directions/New Films MOMA. She lives in London and Berlin.

Jiayang Fan is on the editorial staff the New Yorker. She frequently writes about China and Chinese-American issues for the magazine and the website, as well as other publications. She moved to the U.S. from Chongqing at the age of eight.