[Webinar] The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination

Reading + Conversation
Thursday, 19 May 2022, 17:00–18:30 PDT
The Hong Kong and Taiwanese Diaspora in the Literary Imagination
Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin
Moderated by Allan Cho
via Zoom

A City Reassembled and explorASIAN Festival event
Registration required

The world of Hong Kong and Taiwanese literature is obviously not limited to literary works written in Chinese by writers living in Hong Kong or Taiwan. Not only is there a significant body of writings in English by authors based in Hong Kong or Taiwan (such as Xu Xi, Timothy Mo, Dorothy Tse, Tammy Ho, Nicholas Wong, Chih-Ying Lay, to name a few), the coming of age of a new generation of Hong Kong-born and Taiwan-born Canadian writers, whose literary works often draw on their transnational experiences, has also added much richness to the literature of Hong Kong and Taiwan—not to mention that of Canada. Join us for a conversation with authors Sam Cheuk and Julia Lin, along with moderator Allan Cho, on their works and journeys.

SAM CHEUK is the Hong Kong-born Canadian author of Love Figures (2011), Deus et Machina (2017), and Postscripts from a City Burning (2021). He holds an MFA in creative writing from New York University and a BA in English literature from the University of Toronto. Sam is currently working on Marginalia, which examines the function, execution, and generative potential behind censorship. He lives in Vancouver.

JULIA LIN was born in Taiwan and immigrated to Canada (after having also lived in Vietnam) with her family when she was nine. She holds a MSc in Immunology from the University of Toronto and a post-graduate degree in computing education from the University of British Columbia. In addition to Miah (2012), the first Taiwanese-Canadian story collection, Julia is also the author of Shadows of the Crimson Sun: One Man’s Life in Manchuria, Taiwan, and North America (2017).

ALLAN CHO is a librarian, editor, and community organizer. He writes about libraries, publishing, and Asian Canadian/American culture. He is the Executive Director of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop.

This reading+conversation is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative, the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, and the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society/explorASIAN Festival and is co-sponsored by: Department of Asian Studies, Department of History, Centre for Chinese Research, Centre for Migration Studies, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies, Public Humanities Hub, and the Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster.