The Pace of Change - China's Modern

Moderation: Tilman Spengler

We are right in the middle: Rapid social changes occurring in China are having a profound impact on the world order and they will change European policies in the future. The country is gaining power and influence in the world. But what do decision-makers and intellectuals think about the future of their own society? What issues are important to them? The discussion will focus on the Chinese internal perspective, as well as future international scenarios. In his conversation with Xiaolu Guo (author and filmmaker of the young generation), Hans Christoph Buch explores China’s political and social positioning.

Xiaolu Guo (*1973) studied at the Beijing Film Academy. She has been living in London since 2002 and achieved an international breakthrough with her work: "A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers“. In 2009, she received the Golden Leopard at the Locarno film festival. Fatih Akin will be producing her film "Ufo in her Eyes".

Hans Christoph Buch (*1944), narrative writer, essayist and reporter. Buch has published stories, essays and reports from war and crisis zones in the weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. A collection of his war reports from Rwanda, Liberia, Sudan, Cambodia, Chechnya, former Yugoslavia and East Timor appeared in a volume entitled "Blut im Schuh" (2001).

H. C. Buch’s life and work is connected with China in a variety of ways: In 1973, he translated, together with Wong May, essays by Lu Xun entitled “Der Einsturz der Lei-Feng Pagode”. In 1985, at the invitation of the writers’ association, he paid his first visit to the People’s Republic of China; in 1992, he taught German literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has translated poems by Du Fu, and published a long account on the writer Wang Xiwei, who lost his life in Yenan.

This event is part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks 2009. The Asia-Pacific Weeks are made possible by the Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin.