Writers Series welcomes Chan Koonchung

For the second Writers Series event of the year, award-winning novelist Chan Koonchung visited Morningside to talk with students about his three most recent books: The Fat Years, The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, and《建豐二年》. Mr Chan grew up in Hong Kong, graduated from The University of Hong Kong, and co-founded the prominent local arts and cultural magazine City Magazine. He says he now lives in Beijing because of his strong desire to write books about mainland China. He believes living in Beijing allows him to understand the complexity of contemporary Chinese society and create characters and stories that represent the reality of what he sees. He compared the author’s job in crafting a story to the act of a famous singer of the Tang Dynasty who could sing two different songs simultaneously. Mr Chan reiterated that it was not until he was in his 50s that he felt he had developed the skills to finally write his first novel. Students had numerous questions for the prominent public intellectual and many even brought books for him to sign.