Facing the Absurd World, What Can A Writer Do? What Is the Function of Literature?

Overview

In fall 2013, HKUST Institute for Advanced Study launched the Chinese Creative Writing Program. Professor Liu Zaifu, the world-renowned literary critic and writer, has joined IAS as a Senior Visiting Fellow and director of this program. Each year IAS will invite 2-3 leading contemporary Chinese writers such as Gao Xingjian, Mo Yan, Yan Lianke, Yu Hua, Su Tong, Wang Anyi, Jia Pingwa, and others to join the Chinese Creative Writing Program, ushering HKUST students into the colorful world of contemporary Chinese literature. The program will explore the major issues and prospects of creative Chinese writing in a global age and seek to build HKUST as a major platform of such discourses in the higher education sector locally, nationally and internationally. It will also greatly enrich the academic and intellectual community of IAS by creating more exchange and interaction among top scientists in the world and top creative writers from China and beyond.

During the Fall semester of 2013, Professor Liu Zaifu, joined by eminent contemporary Chinese writers Yu Hua and Yan Lianke, will organize the conference “Facing the Absurd World, What Can A Writer Do? What Is the Function of Literature?” on 10 October 2013. This conference will invite many prominent writers and critics from Hong Kong, mainland China, and the United States, including Liu Zaifu, Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, Leo Ou-fan Lee, Huang Ziping, Xu Zidong, Chen Pingyuan, Wang Yao, Xie Youshun, Ji Jin, etc. It welcomes HKUST undergraduate and graduate students to partake in the discussion during the conference.