Elegant Prose

When the cool, foggy, humid days of March arrive, there’s really nothing better to do than stay in bed all day with a good book.  So it’s perhaps fitting that this month we can enjoy such an explosion of literary talent in the city with the arrival of The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival.  

 

This year is the fourth edition of the Festival and once again it will offer a tremendous range of talent and creativity from some of the finest authors in China and Portugese-speaking countries.  

 

The base for this year’s Festival will be the Old Court Building, but the programme will actively reach out to the community, with guest writers appearing at a range of venues throughout the city in an effort to educate, encourage and connect with lover’s of books and aspiring future writers.

 

Acknowledging the often-close relationship between literature and other art forms, the Festival will also feature great exhibitions, concerts and cinema. We start this month’s Closer Look with cinema, interviewing talented actress Tang Wei and profiling renowned director Ann Hui – collaborator’s in the acclaimed film The Golden Era.  Then we give you a detailed preview of all the other exciting angles that this year’s The Script Road will cover.  

 

 

 

 

 

Actress Tang Wei recently portrayed Chinese writer Xiao Hong, in the movie The Golden Era directed by Ann Hui.  The remarkable life of Xiao Hong, a strong and fascinating character who lived in the tumultuous world of early 20th century China, is beautifully told in this dramatic period piece, reflecting on the struggles of a young woman, with a determined and independent spirit.  Director Ann Hui will be a guest at this year’s The Script Road and the movie will be screened as part of the Festival programme.  

 

 

 

 

Renowned Hong Kong director Ann Hui will be a prominent guest at this year’s The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival, and will be present for the screening of her new film The Golden Era at Galaxy Macau’s UA Cinemas on March 21.  It was earlier screened out of competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, selected as the Hong Kong entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, and has been nominated for five awards at the upcoming 9th Asian Film Awards (AFA) 

in Hong Kong, including Ann Hui for Best Director and Tang Wei for Best Actress…

 

 

 

With her unique and dynamic writing style, prominent writer Wang Anyi is regarded as one of the best contemporary Chinese writers representing the post-Cultural Revolution era Zhiqing (educated youth) literature and the xungen (searching for roots) movement.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cecelia Jorge is a journalist and author and has been researching Macau themes since the late 70’s. Born in Macau, where her family has roots of almost four centuries, she did her education between Macau and Portugal. She graduated in German Philology, in Lisbon and then embarked on journalism in 1973. In partnership with Rogério Beltrão Coelho, she founded the publisher Livros do Oriente in 1990. As an author and researcher she has dedicated most of her career to the study and dissemination of Macanese cultural identity. In addition to books, Celícia Jorge has done work for newspapers and magazines, and has also participated in a number seminars, conferences, debates and documentaries on television and radio.

 

 

 

Chan Im Wa is a writer from Macau, also known by her pen names Shen Shang Qing, Zhou Tong and Shen Shi. She has been a translator for international news for more than 30 years and is now running a bookstore in order to promote and encourage reading. She is a columnist and works as a guest commentator on current issues for broadcasting stations. She has been writing since the 70’s and serialised more than 10 novels in the story column of Macau Daily during the 80’s and 90’s. In the 1980’s her work Wrong Love was adapted and filmed as a TV drama series by CCTV in China. She has published four novels and three essays collections.

 

 

 

Born in Lisbon in 1978, David Machado is the author of many awarded fairy tales for children including Noite dos Animais Inventados (Branquinho da Fonseca – Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian e Jornal Expresso Award), Um Homem Verde Num Buraco Muito Fundo, O Tubarão na Banheira (SPA/RTP 2010 Author’s Award for Best Children- Youth Book), A Mala Assombrada, Acho que Posso Ajudar e Parece Um Pássaro. He has also written novels like Índice Médio de Felicidade (2013), Deixem Falar as Pedras (2011), O Fabuloso Teatro do Gigante (2006) and the storytale Histórias Possíveis (2008). His work has been published in Italy, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Iceland, Serbia, France, Brasil and Marrocos. He has also translated a number of books including O Herói das Mulheres, from Adolfo Bioy Casares, Obrigada pelo Lume, fromMario Benedetti, and Os Diários da Motocicleta, from Che Guevara. 

 

 

 

Francisco José Viegas was born in 1962. He is a writer, journalist and editor, was also director of the magazines Ler (until now), Grande Reportagem and Casa Fernando Pessoa. He has collaborated with various newspapers and magazines, and has authored several programs for radio and television. Stand out works include poetry books like Metade da Vida, O Puro e o Impuro e Se Me Comovesse o Amor; and romances including Regresso por um Rio, Um Céu Demasiado Azul, Lourenço Marques, Longe de Manaus (Winner of the Grand Prize for novel and fiction from Portuguese Writers Association, 2005), O Mar em Casablanca and O Colecionador de Erva. He has also written travel books, theatre scripts and chronicles. He is currently an editor in Quetzal, and his new novel, set in Macau, will be published in 2015.

 

 

 

Hailing from Taiwan, Hung Hung is a poet, screenwriter and director. He won the WuSanLien Award, the 2008 Annual Poet of United Daily News Literature Award and Nanning Literature Award of Excellence. He has published six poetry books, two intimate essay books, one novel, and several theatre plays. He is the co-screenwriter of the film A Brighter Summer Day, winner of the Golden Horse Film Festival for Best Original Screenplay. He has directed more than 40 plays, operas, and four films, and has been awarded the FIPRESCI Prize at Chicago International Film Festival and Best Director at the Festival of the Three Continents. He is currently the Chief-Editor of the magazine Off the Roll Poetry+, the Artistic Director of Dark Eyes Performance Lab and has also served as curator for the Taipei Poetry Festival since 2004.

 

 

 

João Tordo graduated in Philosophy from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and he has lived in London and the US. In 2009, he won the José Saramago Literary Prize with his novel As três vidas. In 2010, Bom Inverno was a finalist for Best Narrative Fiction Prize Book Award SPA and Fernando Namora Prize. The French translation joined the finalists of the 6th edition of the European Literary Prize. Tordo has also published O Livro dos Homens sem Luz (2004), Hotel Memória (2007), and Anatomia dos Mártires (2011).  He was a finalist for the Fernando Namora Literary Prize in 2012, and O Ano Sabático (2013). His books have been published in several countries, including France, Italy, Germany and Brazil. Biografia involuntária dos amantes (2014) is his latest novel.  His next book will be published this year.

 

 

 

Joe Tang was born in Shanghai and grew up in different cities such as Shanghai, Nanchang, Guangzhou, Macau and London. He now lives in Macau with his family. His works include Macau Literature Award Winner, Fortune Switcher, and Assassin. His published novels include The Lost Sprit (Macao Novella Prize Winner), The Floating City and book of essays Words From Thoughts. His drama works include the Macau Folktale-series drama Stone Lion and Stone of Wishes, and the children’s drama Journey to the West, which was invited to perform at the Shanghai Expo 2011. 

 

 

Kelly Yang is the best-selling author of the Hong Kong children’s book Where’s Broccoli and a star columnist for the South China Morning Post. Kelly is also the founder and director of The Kelly Yang Project, a leading after-school writing and debate program for children. At KYP, Kelly teaches Creative Writing, Critical Reasoning, and Global Thinking. Having gone to college at the age of 13, Kelly is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School. Her op-eds on education, parenting, and China have also been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and many other publications around the world. She regularly gives talks on education and parenting on BBC, CNN, TVB, RTHK, CCTV, and Huffington Post Live. She is the mother of three children and lives in Hong Kong.

 

 

 

Maria do Rosario Pedreira graduated in Modern Languages and Literature, (French and English Studies) from the Universidade Clássica de Lisboa. She was a professor of Portuguese and French, and is currently editor of new Portuguese authors in LeYa group. Her collection of books for young people, using the format of police adventures, have been adapted for television. 

She has also written adult fiction and poetry with Poesia Reunida – Literary Prize Fundação Inês de Castro 2012, and the children’s book A minha primeira Amália. She has received several literary awards and has participated in numerous writers meetings in Portugal and abroad. Her poems have been translated into several languages and published in anthologies and literary magazines in various countries. 

 

 

 

Murong Xuecun, the pen name of Hao Qun, was born in Northeastern China in 1974.  A prominent social critic, he at one time had some 8.5 million followers on his Weibo microblog, but his account was subsequently discontinued without explanation. He graduated from the University of Political Science and Law in 1996 and began writing in 2002. His works include Leave Me Alone: A Novel of Chengdu and Dancing Through Red Dust. He also wrote China: In the Absence of a Remedy, an exposé on a pyramid scheme, which was awarded the People’s Literature Prize in 2010. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Portuguese and Vietnamese. Murong Xuecun became a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times in the fall of 2013.

 

 

 

Ondjaki was born in Luanda in 1977 and is one of the most promising young Portuguese-speaking writers in Africa. After studying sociology, he is currently working on several projects for cinema, including co-directing the film Oxalá cresçam pitangas – histórias da Luanda. He has received several awards, including the prestigious Jabuti Prize (2010) for his novel Avódezanove e o Segredo do Soviético, and the Saramago Prize 2013, for Os Transparentes. Ondjaki has written several novels such as Bom dia Camaradas, Sonhos Azuis Pelas Esquinas, Os da Minha Rua and also poetry, Materiais para Confecção de um Espanador de Tristezas. Ondjaki was voted among 39 African writers under the age of 40 for the anthology project Africa39.

 

 

 

Rogério Beltrão Coelho has been a professional journalist since 1968 and editor since May 1990, when created, with Cecilia Jorge, Livros do Oriente, the first private publisher in Macau. As a journalist in Lisbon, he was chief editor of the daily newspapers Diário de Notícias and A Tarde, as well as Telestar magazine. From 1979, he began to travel frequently to Macau, publishing reports on the territory in various newspapers and magazines. In 1981, he was invited to be an advisor spokesman of the governor of Macau governor’s. He worked in the Government Information Bureau as Director until January 1983. He has collaborated with a number of newspapers and magazines and is the author and co-author of diverse literature on Macau. He was the Editor and writer of MacaU magazine, published by Livros do Oriente from 1992 until 2004. From 2006 to 2008 he was a commissioner of the Portuguese Institute of the Orient, in Lisbon. From 2009 to 2012 was Director of the daily English-language newspaper Macau Daily Times.

 

 

 

Novelist and professor Wang Anyi is also Vice Chairperson of the Chinese Writers’ Association and Chairperson of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. She has been published since 1977, and her work has been widely translated into 14 languages. Her works have been recognised with numerous awards, among them the Best Novella Prize for Lapse of Time and Xiao Baozhuang, Hong Kong’s Dream of the Red Chamber Award for Scents of Heaven and the Shanghai Literary and Art Award and Mao Dun Literature Prize for The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which was also a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize. Wang was made a Knight in the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2013.

 

 

 

Wong Bik-wan was born in Hong Kong and is a qualified lawyer and works as a journalist. She has won a number of literary awards, including: the awards for the novel of the 3rd, 6th and 12th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature; the essay award of the 4th Hong Kong Biennial Awards for Chinese Literature; the 6th Hong Kong Book Prize; the 2012 and 2014 Yazhou Zhoukan 10 Best Novels Award; and the 5th Dream of the Red Chamber Award with her novel Children of Darkness. Her works have been selected and included in a number of literary book collections in Taiwan. Wong Bik-wan has also written about Macau in her book Doomsday Hotel, inspired on the former Bela Vista Hotel.

 

 

The Hotel owed its beginning to the wind and the view. After three generations, their loyalty and betrayal, the poetry and the music, all the guests that came to the Hotel, at this magic hour, were all people of the past.

 

Wong Bikwan’s novel The Doomsday Hotel, has been transcribed into recitation and music. With piano, violin, guitar, and soprano together with the language of the novel, paintings and photographs, Wong Bikwan recites the novel. Ng Kingpan wrote the music and plays the piano. The melodious and dramatic recitation and free vocalization by Kim Shadows, all conspire to formulate the black-box theatre of music and literature called The Doomsday Hotel. What is played, vocalized and narrated about is time, love and death, the riot and the demise of the colonial Macau. The decrepit Hotel was restored and reopened, after the party was over its ground was strewn with waste. It was an innocent cleaner who inherited all. He found a little silver clock over a century old: “The little silver clock, had since been sitting on desk of the Principal, Sister Immaculada, ticking on faithfully.”

 

Performance by Wong Bikwan

Original Soundtrack with Live Music 

8.30PM, March 25 | Old Court Building | MOP100 | Tickets for sale at the Portuguese Bookshop and Old Court Building

 

 

 

Chinese poet, essayist and translator Xi Chuan was born in 1963 in Jiangsu Province. Formerly visiting adjunct professor at New York University and Orion visiting artist at the University of Victoria, he is now professor of Chinese literature at the Central Academy of Fine Art. He has published collections of poetry, essays and criticism and has translated a number of plays by Pound and Borges, among others. He won the National Lu Xun Prize for Literature and was named Cultural China – Person of the Decade (2001-2011) by Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post. The English edition of his Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems (trans. Lucas Klein) was awarded ALTA’s 2013 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and was nominated for the American Best Translated Book Award (2013). 

 

 

 

Yan Ge hails from Sichuan Province. She is a writer as well as a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature. Publishing since 1994, she has authored eleven books. She was a visiting scholar at Duke University from 2011 to 2012 and a residency writer at the Cross Border Festival in Netherlands in November 2012. Named by People’s Literature magazine as one of 20 future literature masters in China, she is now the chairperson of the China Young Writers’ Association and a contract writer for the Sichuan Writers’ Association.

 

 

 

Yang Hongying is a famous Chinese children’s writer. She has published 87 books including fairy tales and children’s fiction, which have sold more than 80 million copies domestically. Many of them have been translated into English, French, German, Korean and Vietnamese. Her best known works, the Mo’s Mischief series, have been made into animated movies, animated TV series and live action TV series. The lead character Mo is widely recognized by Chinese children as he symbolizes the liberation of children from social expectations and presentation of childhood. Yang has embraced the idea of accepting and valuing each child as an individual throughout her work. She is known as ‘the Empress of Chinese Children’s Books’, and has been named ‘Chinese children’s favourite author’ on several occasions. She was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award in 2014.