A Chinese Affair – Book launch

Isabelle Li in conversation with Eleanor Jackson, Editor of Peril Magazine, presented in partnership with the Monash Asia Institute

Entry: $35.00 includes a copy of the book or a $25.00 gift voucher and refreshments

Prepaid bookings are essential: 9439 8700

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A Chinese Affair brings a new, exciting voice to the Australian literary landscape and is one of the few works of literary fiction in English to explore the experience of Chinese migration.

“‘Be of service to the people.’ Chairman Mao’s command was once printed on posters, the front covers of journals, the flaps of school satchels, and I grew up believing that was to be my mission. But who are my people? Have I been of service to anyone? As if walking in a snowstorm, I look back to find that my footprints have been erased. I do not know where I am and can no longer find my way back.”

In sixteen exquisite stories, Isabelle Li explores recent Chinese migration to Australia and elsewhere. Some are explicitly connected, through common characters or incidents; in others, the threads are both allusive and elusive – intergenerational and interracial relationships, the weight of history and indebtedness, the search for meaning, and the muteness peculiar to cultural dislocation and the inexpressibility of self in a second language.

The stories explore what it means to leave behind one’s familiar environment and establish a new life, the struggle to survive and thrive, the triumph and compromise, love and heartache, failure and resilience.

Isabelle Li grew up in China, worked in Singapore and migrated to Australia in 1999. Her short stories have appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, including The Best Australian Stories and Southerly. Her story ‘Go Troppo’ was commended in the Ethel Webb Bundell Literary Awards 2014. Isabelle’s script MOONCAKE AND CRAB was made into a short film funded by Screen NSW and premiered at the 60^th Melbourne International Film Festival. She was a recipient of the 2014 Varuna Fellowship. She received her Master of Arts and Master of Creative Arts from University of Technology Sydney, and is currently studying her Doctor of Creative Arts at Western Sydney University and working on a novel.