The Book of Beijing at Leeds with Wen Zhen and Gu Shi

About the event

What is Beijing? To the characters in these stories it is a protean city, forever changing, evasive and difficult to read... It turns close friends into strangers, up-ends carefully thought-out life choices, and leaves next-door neighbours completely unaware of each other’s true identity. The stories collected in this anthology show people in all contexts – from wannabe protestors to future users of facial expression reading tech – desperate to stake their name on the city, as well as surprised by it at every turn.

Chaired by translator Jack Hargreaves, authors Wen Zhen and Gu Shi will discuss their contributions to The Book of Beijing, and their own understandings of the city and its stories.