Linda Jaivin Talked for the Reading and Writing Forum of the SYSU Center for English-language Creative Writing

Source: School of Foreign Languages
Written by: Feng Pengpeng
Photo by: Wei Donghua
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

The Sun Yat-sen University Center for English-language Creative Writing held its 9th Reading and Writing Forum on Sunday, November 23, 2014. The event, chaired by Professor Dai Fan, director of the Center, featured a talk by the internationally published author Linda Jaivin and a children's performance. It was attended by students and faculty of SYSU, members of the Center and community groups. 

The Reading and Writing Forum invites writers to discuss their own work. Linda Jaivin is a novelist, essayist, cultural commentator, playwright, and film translator. The author of seven novels and four works of non-fiction gave a bilingual talk on “Fact into Fiction: How A Most Immoral Woman was Born”. Jaivin traced the archival research she carried out in Australia, United States and China to create the historical novel A Most Immoral Woman. She elaborated on writing historical persons into fiction, the combination of historical insights with imagination, and the problematic “morality” that is more critical of women’s sexuality than men’s war mania and racism. She then did a dramatic reading of two select scenes in the novel, followed by a lively question-and-answer section around morality, women’s sexuality and historical writing.
 

Linda Jaivin gave a bilingual talk on “Fact into Fiction: How A Most Immoral Woman was Born”.

After the writer's presentation was a performance by a group of 5th-grade primary school children from Character Education, a local education institution of children's character education. The children staged “You Raise Me Up”, a short play promoting peer support and team work. 

Group photo with primary school children after the performance “You Raise Me Up”
 

The Sun Yat-sen University Center for English-language Creative Writing aims at not only promoting writing, but also education. As Professor Dai Fan remarked, English-language creative writing at Sun Yat-sen University is not only about learning English, about narrative techniques, but also about doing research, exploring issues of humanity, as well as about collaboration with institutions outside universities on English and creative education. 

The Center also holds a monthly Book Club where motivated students are led by teachers in the discussion on recommended literary work to cultivate their literary talents and critical thinking.