Title: The 128th Wenyan Lecture: Correct Imagination According to History Facts

Presenter: A’Lai (Chinese Writer)

Host: Zheng Shaoxiong (Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Visiting Scholar, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peking University)

Time: 19:00pm, Sunday, May 19, 2019

Venue: Room B101, Gymnasium No.2, Peking University

Language: Chinese

Abstract: “Imagined Community” is becoming a very popular topic in recent decades. It is an important tool for scholars to discuss nationality and nationalism. Based on his publications and experiences in Tibet, A’Lai will focus on some significant issues about imagined community. He will also share his writing experiences and the journey inwards with audience.

Speaker’s bio: A’ Lai (born in 1959 in a small village called Matang in Sichuan Province), is a well-known writer and poet in China. He holds several positions, the Chairperson of Sichuan Province Writers Association, the 9th Management Committee Member of China Writers Association and the Member of the National People’s Congress.  

His writings draw on his experience as a Tibetan who was born and grew up in the southwest frontier of China. He started to compose poems since 1982 and published a collection which was named after the river in his hometown, Suo Mo He (The Suo Mo River). Then, he focused on writing novels from 1980s and his novel Chen Ai Luo Ding (When All Said and Done) won the 5th Mao Dun Literature Awards in 2000. In 2017, his novella San Zhi Chong Cao (Three Pieces of Cordyceps) and prose Shi yu Shen de Zui Hou Zao Feng (The Final Meet between the Intellectual and the Gentry) won the 17th Baihua Literature Awards at same time. It made him become the first author who won two awards in a single time in Baihua Literature Awards’ history.