the Beijinger

It’s time for the rest of us late-rising birds (I guess that would be owls, then?) to get our shot at buying tickets for the upcoming Bookworm International Literary Festival. Here, we list the events most likely to sell out fast, as well as some of our own recommendations. Get ‘em while they’re … not sold out!

We’re still waiting for things to get back into full swing around here, but that means you have some time to: 1) take some photos to try and win a month or two’s rent money, 2) catch up on web news like the accusations of Han Han not being a real writer and China getting snubbed at the Oscars, and 3) sleep. If you don’t like those ideas, you can get your fill of more movie screenings, and aspiring thespians: don’t miss a workshop teaching you how to audition for the stage.

Forgive me, I’ve been less on top of artsy news this week because I’ve been too busy trolling the internet at odd hours to keep up with this Jeremy Lin business. Yes, I am the world’s most intermittent basketball fan. But that’s beside the point. There are actually quite a few exciting things going on this week, like Capital M Literary Festival tickets going on sale, great indie films, a blind movie-watching experience and your last chance at several art exhibits! Click through for more.

Tickets went on sale yesterday for Capital M’s Literary Festival. The restaurant’s fortnight of talks on writing, food and travel begins on February 25, which also serves as the unofficial kick-off date for Beijing’s book-based festival season. Here's a rundown of what to expect, where to purchase tickets, and the novelists, journalists, memoirists and adventurers who will be showcased at the Capital M Literary festival.

Check out these credentials: Best-selling paranormal and urban fantasy author, comic book writer, faithful comic con attendee. Super sweet and easy to talk to. She’s pretty hot, too, if you ask me. And she has a law degree! Read our interview, see her at the Capital M Lit Fest this weekend, and dream about having this one on your arm at the next Star Trek convention.

All, it’s that time of year again: The Bookworm International Literary Festival (BLF) is drawing near, bringing authors of great acclaim to our humble town. We hear some people mark their calendars for this event and, even though they’ve left Beijing years ago, plan two-week vacations to come back and attend the festival. (!!) It’s quite the shindig, and each year the authors and events just keep getting better.

Ah, Peter Hessler. The China writer we all know and love, and whom we're all just a little bit jealous of, because, hey, who hasn't thought, "Oh man, I just got ripped off, I should write a book!" Of course, Hessler's written not one but three books about his experiences in China, each of them setting pretty high standards for depth, insight, and humor. But that's ok, it just means the rest of us have to come up with niche angles. Like, "Oh man, I just got ripped off and had the royal rumbles at the same time!" There you go.

When author Peter Hessler left China in 2007, it was not simply a physical relocation. The move marked an intentional change in the direction of his writing career – a career forged on his intimate portraits of a Chinese society in flux and transitioning into the new millennium. Recently Christine Laskowski spoke to Hessler to ask him whether his new book, Country Driving – A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, really marks his farewell to the Middle Kingdom.

Leslie Chang's Factory Girls follows the lives of the young women who've left their farming villages in search of material gain and self-development in the factories of southern China. She grows especially close to two women, Min and Chunming, whose stories about black market driving licenses and unstable work situations shed light on migrant subculture in a way other China reporting has failed to do. Before Chang appears at the Bookworm Festival this week, we talked with her about her work in China, and the challenges of writing with twin babies on her arm: