Literary M: Capital M to Serve Cui Jian, Bug Hunters and More

As the Bookworm prepares to rolls out the red carpet for authors from around the globe in March, Capital M is prepping for their own literary festival the same month. Their official program was released just before Chinese New Year. While the festival has been murmured about for a couple of months now, this program came with the notice that, ”These are the correct dates,” assuring us that this is the information we should follow. A PDF of the program is available to download here. Let’s look at the highlights of the festival below.

The festival is dated from March 1 to 17, with the first event scheduled on March 2. There are a total of 38 events taking place over the course of three weeks and according to the website, 30 authors confirmed so far.

These are some of the more high-profile speakers as highlighted on the festival website:

James Fallows has reported from around the world for The Atlantic magazine for more than 30 years, including most recently three years in China. March 3

Cui Jian, the godfather of Chinese rock 'n' roll, shot to stardom in 1986 with "Nothing to My Name." He is the subject of a 2012 documentary, Transcendance and he has directed a movie, Blue Bone - also the name of his 2012 tour - to be released in early 2013. March 5

Kyung Sook Shin is one of South Korea's most widely read and acclaimed novelists, and the recipient of numerous literary prizes in Korea, she has also won the Prix de l'Inapercu in France and the Man Asian Literary Prize, the latter for Please Look After Mom, a New York Times bestseller. March 17

And here are two of, what we think, are the more entertaining speakers to look forward to:

Mark Moffett is an international biologist and explorer. The "Indiana Jones" of entomology, Moffett has received numerous awards and among his many adventures, has climbed the world's tallest tree in search of ants and descended into sinkholes a quarter mile deep to find new frog species. March 10

Nick Malgieri, former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World, is the author of Bread and 10 other cookbooks, including James Beard award winner How to Bake and Chocolate, which won the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook award. March 3

All events are priced at RMB 75, but you can take take advantage of the various day-pass and meal bundles. The Supper + 2 Sessions is a nice offer. For RMB 328 you attend two events, enjoy a dinner and two drinks. See the program for more on these specials and the full events schedule. Tickets will go on sale February 20 and can be purchased at mypiao.com
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Here’s a video of Cui Jian performing “A Piece of Red Cloth” in 1992. He will be speaking at the festival March 5.

Photo: Live Gourmet