British Book of the Year 1994 winner Jung Chang is among more than 60 guests joining The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival this year.
According to a statement by the festival organiser, Chang “heads” this year’s guest list.
The organiser held a press conference Monday about the details of this year’s event at the IACM Building Library.
The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival was founded in 2012 by local Portuguese newspaper Ponto Final.
The event’s director Ricardo Pinto, Ponto Finals director, underlined the presence of Chang, whose books have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold over 15 million copies, at 7th Script Road programme.
According to the press conference, Chang was born in Sichuan province in 1952 and during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) worked as a farmer, steelworker, and an electrician. She moved to the UK in 1978, where she obtained her PhD in Linguistics.
She is the author of “Wild Swans”，“Mao: The Unknown Story”，which she co-authored with her husband Jon Halliday, and “Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modem China”.
According to the Macau Post Daily the press conference mentioned that her books are banned on the mainland.
Pinto noted that other writers include North Korean defector and human-rights activist Lee Hyeon-seo, Korean-American “under-cover” author Suki Kim, American poet and great-grandson of the first president of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, Li-Young Lee, as well as Tokyo-based writer Marco Lobo.
The festival also includes a panel session about the ”History of the Macau Press: Cross Perspectives”.
The festival features book discussions, author interviews, concerts and movie screenings. The festival takes place from March 10 to 25 in the Old Courthouse.
According to the organiser, the festival has the support of the Macau government, several consulates such as Portugal, the US and the Philippines, as well as a number of private sponsors such as Macau’s six gaming operators, CTM, ICBC and Air Macau.
Further information about the festival is available on www.the-scriptroad.org.
