Celebrated Chinese author Lu Min begins UK residency in Leeds

Multi-award-winning Chinese novelist Lu Min received a warm welcome at the University of Leeds on Friday 8 March to kick off her UK author residency.

She landed in the UK on World Book Day to begin a three-week visit hosted by the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University, which will culminate in an appearance at Oxford Literary Festival.

Fans of Chinese language, literature and culture gathered at Leeds University Union for the first event in this programme; a double bill hosted by the Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds and the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing.

Attendees saw China through Lu Min’s eyes in her presentation, learning about aspects of contemporary China through a selection of characters from her books. The talk gave insight into the author’s experiences and inspiration as she discussed her characters and the different trajectories that people’s lives could take.

This was followed by a hands-on translation workshop that saw everyone participating in enthusiastic discussions with their groups as they worked together to translate a passage of Lu Min’s writing.

Chinese and non-Chinese participants collaborate and learned from each other as they discussed the text, working either from English to Chinese or Chinese to English.

Valuable insight and commentary came from the author herself along with expert guests. Leading the workshop - and meeting together in-person with the author for the first time - were Helen Wang and Nicky Harman, translators of Lu Min’s Dinner for Six. Completing the stellar line-up brought together by the Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing was prolific translator Professor Zhu Zhenwu, director of the Foreign Literature Research Center at Shanghai Normal University and translator of Dan Brown’s novels into Chinese.

It was an honour to host such a celebrated author for this educational and inspiring event. Thank you to all our partners and attendees for their enthusiasm and collaboration.

Lu Min appears at Oxford Literary Festival on Thursday 21 March.