China

Jung Chang Interviewed by Nick Higham

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of 20th-Century China CANCELLED
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Ting Zhang, Rose Luckin, Garrod Musto and Josie Cluer Chaired by Simon Walker

Ascent or decline? Educating the Western mind in an Age of China, Tech and AI
Weston Lecture Theatre 9:30am Mon 30 Monday, 30 March 2020 See this event
Xu Zechen Interviewed by Angus Phillips

China Lecture: Running through Beijing CANCELLED
St Cross College 6:00pm Mon 30 Monday, 30 March 2020 See this event
George Magnus and Jonathan Fenby Chaired by Stephen Law

Oxford Debate. A New Chinese Empire?
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
Michael Wood

The Story of China: A Portrait of a Civilisation and a People
Sheldonian Theatre 10:00am Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.