About this Event
Nightcaps & Narratives
Speakers: Emma Pei Yin, Paul French, Anthony Tao, Xu Xi and Hernán Díaz
Moderator: Jason Lee
Date: March 6, Fri
Time: 8:30pm - 10:30pm
Venue: China Club
Address: 13-14/F, Old Bank of China Building, Bank Street Central
Price: HKD 888 (includes drinks and canapes)
Language: English
Description:
Nightcaps and Narratives invites audiences into an intimate evening of reflection, memory, and storytelling about place; an event celebrating the festival’s 25 years of inspiring generations of readers, writers, and storytellers.
The evening opens with Pulitzer Prize – winning novelist Hernan Diaz, whose exploration of truth, time, and storytelling sets the perfect foundation for a night devoted to place, belonging, and the ways stories travel across time.
The conversation then turns to four writers who illuminate the emotional and cultural landscapes of Greater China. Paul French brings forgotten corners of Shanghai’s past into vivid relief. Emma Pei Yin offers a contemporary, incisive lens on identity, womanhood, and the shifting rhythms of modern Chinese life. Xu Xi, one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive literary voices, reflects on hybridity, displacement, and the evolving meaning of “home.” Anthony Tao adds a lyrical and clear-eyed view of the tensions and tenderness that shape the mainland today.
Through short readings and insights from their books, these writers explore the cities, languages, and memories that continue to anchor their work based on Mainland China and set in Hong Kong. Settle in with a nightcap for an evening designed to linger in a quiet, thoughtful, and resonant space, honoring a quarter-century of stories that connect us across generations.
*Dress code: No sports shoes, slippers, short trousers and t-shirts.
*Please be reminded that the venue has 3 flights of stairs.
About the Speakers:
Emma Pei Yin
Emma Pei Yin is an Australian-Chinese writer and editor. Her debut novel, When Sleeping Women Wake, has been published globally, translated into multiple languages and was longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize (2025). She is also the founder of yinfluence editorial, an agency that works with PoC, queer and neurodivergent writers, connecting them with editors and mentors who understand the stakes of telling stories from the margins. She has been featured in The South China Morning Post, The Australian, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The Canberra Times.
Paul French
Paul French had worked in Shanghai for many years. His award-winning book Midnight in Peking was a New York Times Bestseller and BBC Radio-4 Book of the Week. City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir received much praise with The Economist writing, '…in Mr French the city has its champion storyteller.' Both Midnight and City of Devils are currently in development for film. His most recent books is Her Lotus Year: China, The Roaring Twenties and The Making of Wallis Simpson, described by the New York Times as '…beautifully told through meticulous historical research and examination of contemporary literature and film—gives the reader a vivid picture of what China must have been like for an American expat in the 1920s.'
Anthony Tao
Anthony Tao is the author of the full-length poetry collection We Met in Beijing. He was born in Beijing, grew up in Kansas, and graduated with a journalism degree from Northwestern University. He returned to Beijing in 2008 to cover the Olympics for ESPN The Magazine, and then stayed. He has worked an assortment of editing and writing jobs, captained and coached Ultimate Frisbee teams, coordinated the Bookworm International Literary Festival, owned a hutong bar, and hosted events for the Spittoon Literary Arts Collective. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, NPR, Meridian, and more. He is a founding member, with Liane Halton, of Poetry x Music Band.
Xu Xi
Xu Xi is an Indonesian-Chinese-American from Hong Kong. She has published sixteen books— five novels, nine prose collections, one memoir, one co-authored textbook—and also edited four anthologies of English Hong Kong literature. She held the Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, was writer-in-residence at Arizona State University, City University of Hong Kong, University of Iowa, and directed two international MFA’s. Earlier, she held management positions at The Asian Wall Street Journal, Federal Express, Pinkerton’s. A diehard transnational, she now lives between New York and the rest of the world.
Hernán Díaz
Hernan Diaz is the Pulitzer Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Trust. Translated into more than thirty languages, Trust also received the Kirkus Prize, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Time, and The New Yorker, and it was one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year. Trust is currently being developed as a limited series for HBO. Diaz’s previous novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Don’t miss our special offer: Buy 3, Get 1 Complimentary!
Purchase 3 tickets to any events under HKILF 2026 and claim a complimentary seat at one of these exciting talks at Central Library:
• 3rd March (Tue): On Muscle: The Stuff that Moves Us and Why It Matters (7:00-8:30pm)
• 4th March (Wed): I Deliver Parcels in Beijing (7:00-8:30pm)
• 5th March (Thu): Amitav Ghosh: Ghost-Eye (7:00-8:30pm)
To redeem your complimentary seat, email us at [email protected] with:
• Your 3 ticket order numbers
• The event you’d like to attend
• Subject line: Buy 3, Get 1 Complimentary!
Hurry! Offer valid until ticket lasts
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ABOUT HKILF
The Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF) inspires the joy of reading by bringing the world’s writers and stories to Hong Kong’s diverse communities. A dynamic year-round programme and an annual festival offer dialogue, entertainment and perspective, while the Young Readers Festival (YRF) motivates students to engage with all aspects of the written word, improving communication skills, while nurturing the art of writing and storytelling.
The annual festival features established and emerging writers from around the world, alongside local literary talents, in a programme that includes panel discussions, book talks, readings, workshops, walks, school programmes, performances, and more.
We are a registered charity non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing the best in the literary arts to Hong Kong. To find more, please visit our official website: https://www.festival.org.hk.
Please note that:
*We are unable to process refunds, please consider your ticket purchase a donation to the festival.
*Photos and videos of participants may be taken during the activities,which may be used by the organiser and the major sponsor for educational and promotional purposes in any way deemed appropriate, including disseminationthrough printed and online channels. Participation in the programme will constitute the participants’ consent to the above arrangement.
*The views and opinions expressed by the speakers do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hong Kong International Literary Festival. HKILF disclaims any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information shared by the speakers.
*If the Black Rainstorm Warning or the Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 8 or above is in force 3 hours before the start time of an event, the event will be cancelled and participants will receive a refund. If the Red or Yellow Rainstorm Warning or the Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 3 is in effect, the event will be held as scheduled.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
China Club HK, #13-14/F Bank Street, Central, Hong Kong
HKD 888.00
