Hong Kong Literary Festival: Irvine Welsh, Ma Jian, Cheryl Strayed among must-sees at Tai Kwun event
Line-up for this year’s festival at Hong Kong’s new Tai Kwun arts and culture hub features a host of international authors and will cover key themes such as feminism and the #MeToo movement, LGBT issues, and travel
Now in its 18th edition, The Hong Kong International Literary Festival is making a return to its early golden era, drawing big names and the promise of even bigger audiences.
This year’s festival – which runs from November 2 to 11 – will be held in Hong Kong’s new arts and culture hub, Tai Kwun.
“We want to create more of a buzz and an impact in those 10 days and being under one roof will enable us to create more of a festival atmosphere,” says festival director Phillipa Milne. “It’ll be good for audiences to walk around Tai Kwun and see writers, and for writers to mingle with the audience.”
Last year’s event attracted 5,000 people, double the number that attended in 2015 when Milne started in her role. She says this year the aim is to double the numbers again and pull in 10,000 people. With names on the line-up including Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, travel writer Geoff Dyer and exiled Chinese writer Ma Jian, author of The Dark Road, it is a distinct possibility.
“We’ve been steadily increasing the number of participants and free events, and having the festival in Tai Kwun this year means a capacity for bigger audiences,” Milne says.
The 10-day event will be spread across three Tai Kwun venues: the Auditorium (capacity 200 people), F Hall (capacity 90 people) and a small room for writing workshops. A literary lunch with British author Susie Orbach will be held in the Tai Kwun restaurant, Old Bailey.
