Controversial Author Roseann Lake Among Big Names Slated for Bookworm Literary Festival, Mar 8-25

[CORRECTION, Feb 27] Hong Fincher has since contacted the Beijinger to point out that she did not accuse Lake of plagarism, but instead "erasing my work by not citing me." The article has been corrected accordingly.   

Among the numerous big names set to appear at this year's Bookworm Literary Festival (Mar 8-25), one above all others is sure to raise some eyebrows: Roseann Lake. Fellow author Leta Hong Fincher accused the Economist contributor of failing to cite her work in the recently published book Leftover In China: The Women Shaping the World’s Next Superpower. As a recent Medium article points out, Lake's book cites over 30 experts, none of whom "have written anything about 'leftover women.' Meanwhile, no mention is made of author and researcher Leta Hong Fincher, who published what many consider to be the seminal book on the subject back in 2014, Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China." Among Hong Fincher's heated Tweets on the issue: "*she* found my email and reached out to *me* wanting to 'exchange ideas' because she was 'over the moon' about my research."

When asked about Lake's invitation to the festival, and the fiery accusations from Hong Fincher on Twitter, Bookworm Beijing general manager Peter Goff said Lake "was invited to join the festival to present her new book some months ago before the recent controversy arose, and that invite still stands. I haven’t read her book yet as that is still on the way into China, so I personally can’t comment on how similar or different it might be to Leta Hong Fincher’s book, but I do feel the festival should not be judge and jury in these social media debates. That’s not our role. She wrote a book and the festival offers a platform for her to present it, and defend it."

Goff went on to add that Hong Fincher's allegations "are serious and there is no doubt this matter will be publicly debated at the festival, and we look forward to engaging with all that."

READ: Leta Hong Fincher: Author of Acclaimed 'Leftover Women' Discusses the Uprising of Feminism China

Lake's appearance is sure to be one of many notable happenings at this year's festival, the schedule for which will soon be made available to the public. Aside from the scandalous nature of Lake's talk, the annual fest's return was already hotly anticipated, seeing as financial issues lead to a high profile hiatus in 2017.

Coordinators recently gave the Beijinger a sneak peek of the schedule. Though Lake's inclusion stood out, we were also excited to see bestselling and award-winning authors like Geoff Dyer (a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for his book Out of Sheer Rage); Richard Flanagan (whom the Economist called "the finest Australian novelist of his generation"); award-winning Indigenous Australian author Alexis Wright; sci-fi wordsmith and forthcomming Black Mirror bookseries contributor Sylvain Neuvel; How I Became A North Korean author Krys Lee; graphic novelist, screenwriter, and video game and augmented-reality writer Dan Goldman; television presenter and Welsh-language poet Ifor ap Glyn; and British author and journalist Peter Conradi, who is also the foreign editor of The Sunday Times in London. Author of Midnight in Peking Paul French will also attend the festival to promote his new Shanghai-based crime thriller City of Devils.

Aside from securing those big name international wordsmiths, Bookworm Beijing general manager Peter Goff says he's also excited to "have a huge focus on China, with several events focussing on various aspects of Chinese society, and we are featuring a lot of Chinese fiction and non-fiction writers that are creating waves and will be great additions to the programme." Among the Chinese talent is award-winning screenwriter and short story author Wang Yan, along with Sheng Keyi (who has been praised for her coming-of-age novel Northern Girls), Hou Lei (who turned heads with her latest collection of short stories, Mand Under Ice, which vividly evokes working-class life in modern Beijing), and more.

The festival will branch out all the more with a handful of less literary centric events including a standup set by lauded comic Kyle Grooms (Chappelle’s Show, NBC’s Last Comic Standing), a live recording of the Sinica podcast for which a panel will discuss China's evolving jazz scene, and a performance by Irish contemporary folk group the The Upducky Band & Damhsa.

All that and more has left Goff very excited about the 17-day festival. "After 10 years [of putting on the annual festival] we had a fallow year to allow us to regroup," he says of the rough patch that prompted The Bookworm to forgo the fest in 2017. However, he's now happy to look back on how that lull led to "a lot of support from the Beijing community and the writing and publishing world, with a lot of people hoping it would return, so we are delighted to bring it back."

You can read the full Bookworm Literary Festival schedule here.

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
Instagram: mullin.kyle

Photos: Medium, The Global Times

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Leta Hong Fincher is behavior is ridiculous. She accuses Roseann Lake of plagiarism, ignites an online mob to destroy Lake, then when asked to provide evidence she claims that she doesnt have time to provide it/that requesting evidence from her is victim blaming like in a sexual assault/ and finally she claims she never made plagiarism accusations in the first place but is angry that her work wasn't included in Lake's book. As of today her amazon review of Lakes book still accuses her of plagiarism, she continues to retweet plagiarism accusations of Lake, and she has yet to apologize to Lake for the plagiarism accusations made. She can deny she made them but you can't erase the internet, people have screenshots. Perhaps she is afraid that Lake might take legal action against her for the slander she spewed out and now tries to cover her back instead of admitting she was wrong about the plagiarism.