Hong Kong Redux: “Bird Talk” – A Discussion of Xu Xu’s Life and Works

Zoom Webinar

Professor Haun Saussy leads a discussion with Professor Frederik Green regarding Green’s new book, “Bird Talk and Other Stories by Xu Xu.” Xu Xu was a pivotal figure in Chinese literature of the 20th Century. As an exile who made Hong Kong his home in the 1950s, Xu Xu helped frame modern Hong Kong literary culture – strands of those works can be found in a variety of artistic mediums from that time and even today. Green gives insight into China’s turbulent and unique twentieth century through passages from his book that he reads and then dissects. Green goes on to discuss his experiences and the challenges he faced in translating Xu Xu’s stories. Finally, Green examines interpretations of Xu Xu’s stories through film and makes note of writers that have carried on the literary influences of Xu Xu’s work.

Join Professor Haun Saussy and Professor Frederik Green for a discussion of Xu Xu’s life and works in translation with reference to Professor Green’s new book “Bird Talk and Other Stories”.

Speakers

• Professor Haun Saussy
  University Professor, Comparative Literature,
  Committee on Social Thought, East Asian Languages and Civilizations
  University of Chicago
• Professor Frederik Green
  Associate Professor
  Foreign Languages & Literature, College of Liberal and Creative Arts
  San Francisco State University

About Hong Kong Redux

The UChicago Yuen Campus’ new Yuen Lecture Series ‘Hong Kong Redux’ seeks to explore the deep corners of Hong Kong’s cultural history and society.  UChicago and other subject matter experts representing decades of knowledge of Hong Kong will join together to celebrate the evolution of Hong Kong’s arts, literature, cinema and more.  Get in the Yuen Campus team’s virtual time machine to have a nostalgic look back at Hong Kong’s bygone Post War era and discover how Hong Kong became the mega-city it is today.  Read More