Quiet noise: In conversation with the Poet Han Dong
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
- Venue
- Paul Webley Wing (PWW), Senate House, SOAS
- Room
- S118
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
Join us for an engaging discussion with acclaimed Chinese author Han Dong, known for his bold, introspective poetry and prose.
Han will be in conversation with Nicky Harman, his principal English translator, and two SOAS academics, exploring themes in his work, the art of literary translation, and contemporary Chinese literature. The event will conclude with an open Q&A session, offering the audience a unique opportunity to engage directly with the author and panellists.
About the speakers
Han Dong 韩东 began writing in 1980, and has been a major player on the modern Chinese literary scene since the 1990s. He is well-known as one of China’s most important avant-garde poets, and is also an established essayist, short story writer and novelist.
Born 17 May, 1961 in Nanjing. Han Dong’s parents were banished to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution, taking him with them. When the Cultural Revolution ended, he studied philosophy at Shandong University, graduating in 1982. He subsequently taught in Xi’an and Nanjing, finally relinquishing teaching in 1993 and going free-lance as a writer.
In October 2017, his first film One Night on the Wharf, adapted from his novella of the same title and produced by Jia Zhangke, had its debut at the Busan International Film Festival.
Works available in English Translation:
- Banished! (University of Hawaii Press, 2009)
- A Phone Call from Dalian: Selected Poems of Han Dong (Zephyr Press, 2012)
- A Loud Noise (The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2012)
- A Tabby-cat’s Tale (Frisch & Co., 2014)
- Capriccio on the Way to Buy Salt (Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing, 2023)
Discussants
Cosima Bruno is Reader in Chinese Literature at SOAS University of London. She is the author of Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry through Translation (2012), and co-editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Modern Chinese Literature in Translation (2024). She has published literary translations and essays on contemporary Chinese, Sinophone, and bilingual poetry.
Her research focusses on the role of translation and other forms of cultural mediation in the evolution, contestation and renegotiation of literary authority and power.
Nicky Harman is a UK-based multi-award-winning literary translator, working from Chinese to English and focussing on contemporary fiction, literary non-fiction, and poetry, by a wide variety of authors.
She also mentors new translators, teaches summer schools, and judges translation competitions. She taught on the MSc in Translation at Imperial
Registration
This event is free to attend, but registration is required. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
This event is taking place on campus and will not be recorded or live-streamed.
Contact
- Email: sci@soas.ac.uk
