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Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Asia Culture Center

2020 Asian Literature Festival

100 Years of Asian Literature, Moon of Asia - Women and Myths

2020 Asian Literature Festival
  • Date2020.10.29 - 11.1
  • TimeSee full schedule
  • PlaceAsia Culture Center
  • TicketOnline, no booking required
  • Contact+82-1899-5566

Invitation
We at the Asia Culture Center are pleased to announce that the 2020 Asian Literature Festival will be held from October 29 to November 1, 2020, at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea. The Asia Culture Center (ACC) is one of Asia’s largest culture and art complexes where creative talents with innovative ideas for sustainable development of Asian cultures come together to create experimental content.

The center is located in Gwangju, a city with a rich cultural heritage and dedication to democracy, human rights, and peace. Since 2004, the Korean government has fostered Gwangju into a “Hub City of Asian Culture.” Now, the city is inhabited by growing communities celebrating cultural diversity. The Asian Literature Festival Organization Committee and the ACC launched the Asian Literature Festival in 2017. The festival has served as a forum for communication and exchange among renowned Asian writers and citizens, greatly contributing to the understanding, creation, and dissemination of Asian literature.

The 2020 Asian Literature Festival celebrates the third anniversary of the festival as well as the 40th anniversary of the May 18 Democratic Uprising. For this year’s festival, which celebrates the values that the Uprising represents – democracy, human rights, and peace – we chose the following title: “100 Years of Asian Literature, Moon of Asia: Women and Myths.” Under this title, the festival examines how literature remembers and records the history of Asia to overcome the darkness of the past and find new ways for life, solidarity, and peace.

The festival illuminates women’s lives in particular as reflected in Asian literature from women’s perspective, and it celebrates the narratives of women who fought for democracy and embraced life amid the torrent of violence during the May 18 Democratic Uprising. You are cordially invited to the 2020 Asian Literature Festival, an event dedicated to women’s lives, narratives, and mythic imaginations.
The festival features writers from all parts of Asia and offers a wide selection of online/offline programs, including the Gwangju Asian Literature Award Ceremony, the International Forum, concerts and recitals featuring various literary works, meetings with writers, tie-in exhibitions, and activities.

It would be an immense honor and privilege to have you with us for the festival. ‘Your literary spirit will be an inspiration for our efforts to shape new trends in Asian literature, and expand the foundation and opportunities for exchanges among Asian writers. Thank you.
Full schedule
작곡과 및 공연 내용 안내
Category October 29 (Thu) October 30 (Fri) October 31 (Sat) November 1 (Sun)
Standing Programs (Exhibition) 100 Years of Asian Literature
(Exhibition and Activities) Asian Print Type Activity & Exhibition
(Asian Writers Exhibition) Outdoor Plaza_Asian Writers Photo Zone
(Reader Engagement) Literary Lounge_Read the writers’ works and leave reviews
(Reader Engagement) Writers Lounge_ Readers Ask, Writers Answer / Introduction and Q&A
(Reader Engagement) ALF3 Daily Writing
Contest_A contest of one-line writing on topics announced daily/ Book curation event: book suggestions on specific topics
09:00~09:30 ALF3 Trailer open
(Instar) Daily Writing Contest topic announced
(Instar) Daily Writing Contest topic announced (Instar) Daily Writing Contest topic announced (Instar) Daily Writing Contest topic announced
09:30~10:00        
10:00~10:30 (Zoom Live) Talk with Writers - Talk About Gwangju]
Kim Kyungyoon x Park Gwanseo
Moderator: Cho Jintae
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Asian Literature Forum
Moderator: Lee Hwagyeong
Part 1: Post-COVID-19 and Literature
Uzma Aslam Khan
Ed Bok Lee
Lee Sangguk and Lim Chulwoo
 
Part 2: Myths and Women
Shaheen Akhtar and Chi Zijian
Gong Sunok and Yun Jeongmo
 ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Cross Recital - Transition and Avant Garde
Kim Hyeon x Son Bomi
Moderator: Choi Jiae
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Talk with Writers - Talk About Peace
Tak Inseok x Kim Yongguk
Moderator: Park Dugyu
ZOOM registration +
10:30~11:00
11:00~11:30
11:30~12:00      
12:00~12:30      
12:30~13:00      
13:00~13:30 (Zoom Live) Opening Ceremony
Keynote Speech and Opening:
Han Seungwon, Chairperson, Organizing Committee
Moderator: Kim Taewon and Lee Hwagyeong
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Talk with Writers - Talk About Women
Im Jihyoung x Sun Anyoung
Moderator: Lee Hwagyeong
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Special Interview - Han Kang
Moderator: Shin Hyungchul
ZOOM registration +
13:30~14:00
14:00~14:30 (pre-recorded video)
Opening Performance: Dance <Depth>
14:30~15:00    
15:00~15:30 (Zoom Live + pre-recorded video)
Meet Asian Writers
Ulug’bek Hamdamov x Chu T’ien-wen x Ulziitugs
Moderator: Gwak Hyohwan
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Cross Recital - Myths and Women
Baek Youngok x Jung Ihyun
Moderator: Lee Giho
ZOOM registration +
Press Conference
15:30~16:00
16:00~16:30 (pre-recorded video)
Little Concert 1 <The Story of a Moonlit Night>
Moderator: Choi Changgeun
 
16:30~17:00       (pre-recorded video)
Closing Performance Traditional Music <Chan>
17:00~17:30 (pre-recorded video)
Asian Writers Documentary
Moderator: Kim Namil
(Zoom Live) Cross Recital - COVID-19 and Literature
Oh Eun x Yi Won
Moderator: Shin Yongmok
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live + pre-recorded video)
Meet Asian Writers
Meena Kandasamy x Bejan Matur
Moderator: Lee Gyungja and Song Eunil
ZOOM registration +
(Zoom Live) Closing Ceremony
Moderator: Kim Taewon and Bang Hyeonseok
ALF3 Asian Literature Award Ceremony
(declaration read by Cho Jintae)
ZOOM registration +
17:30~18:00
18:00~18:30  
18:30~19:00   (pre-recorded video)
Little Concert 2 <Every Woman Knows Her Own Tree>
 
19:00~19:30   Cross Recital
(in collaboration with Literature Translation Institute of Korea_
Ko Jaejong, poet
Moderator: Choi Jiae
     
19:30~20:00   (pre-recorded video)
Original Performance
<Moon of Asia>
(pre-recorded video)
Original Performance <Moon of Asia>
 
20:00~20:30    
20:30~21:00      
Asian Writers
Asian Writers
미나
Meena Kandasamy (India)
  • Poet, Novelist and translator
  • Winner, 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction
Excerpts from the author’s work

I want to say hopeful things--yes we will meet again, yes separated lovers will

be reunited, yes we can all hug each other

-From the essay Lockdown Within A Lockdown

베잔
Bejan Matur (Kurd – Turkey)
  • Poet, journalist
  • Member of Diyarbakır Cultural Art Foundation
Excerpts from the author’s work

When I came to you

I was going to open my wings

over that deserted city

built of black stones,

and find a tree and perch on its branches

and shout with pain.

- From EVERY WOMAN KNOWS HER OWN TREE

Shaheen Akhtar (Bangladesh)
  • Novelist
  • Best Book of the Year Award for 2004 from Prothom Alo
  • Akhtaruzzaman Elias Kothashahitya Award 2015
  • Member of  human rights/legal aid organization Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)
Excerpts from the author’s work

I floated along on the moonlight and returned to my recent visit to the village of

Chatta in Baarhatta. Through the trees, the light shone down in patterns on the front

yard where the girls clapped their hands and danced as they sang,

- From The Story of a Moonlit Night

Ed Bok Lee (Korea - US)
  • Poet
  • Winner of numerous literary awards, including the American Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, the PEN/Open Book Award among others. 
Excerpts from the author’s work

You are someone’s father, someone’s mother. You are someone’s son, daughter, child.

You make art in your own way. In private and sometimes when others you genuinely

love are around, you sing. You like to laugh. You wish you could cry more sometimes.

-From the essay Pandemic Love

Uzma Aslam Khan (Pakistan)
  • Novelist
  • Recipient of a Commonwealth Prize nomination in 2003
  • Nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
  • Winner of the French Embassy Prize for Best Fiction at the Karachi Literature Festival 2014
Excerpts from the author’s work

From up here she could finally see where she lived. Where she had always lived. Zee

had told her that the Andaman Islands were the tip of a submerged mountain range.

Below the surface of the sea, there were many Mount Tops, far taller than the one on

which they now stood.

-From The Miraculous True History of Nomi Ali

Ulug’bek Hamdamov (Uzbekistan)
  • Novelist
  • Assistant Professor at Literature Institute of Uzbek Academy of Sciences
  • Member of the Uzbek Writers’ Union
Excerpts from the author’s work

Now I am thirsty again. But I dare not leave the queue and

go to the water fountain—I am afraid to miss my turn. This line is endless! I am crazed

with worry that I am going to have to wait here forever! I understand that not only I

but nobody would have the will to leave the queue. With jaw set in an effort to control

myself I continue waiting……

- From A bowl of Water

L.Ulziitugs (Mongolia)
  • Novelist
  • General editor of the New Generation Library 2000-2010
  • CEO in Goon Publishing LLC
Excerpts from the author’s work

If we remember the example of Calypso in Greece, it appears

that this belief that women are superior to men in connecting to the spiritual or divine

world is not only in nomadic culture but deeply rooted in many cultures.

- From the essay Myths and Women

Chu T'ien-wen (Taiwan)
  • Novelist, Screenwriter
  • Winner of the 2015 Newman Prize for Chinese Literature
Excerpts from the author’s work
Once he called Lansum and said, “It is amazing to have someone to think about.” It was such an amazing thing, to keep one’s fidelity for someone else, like a white camellia that unfolds its white petals one by one.
- From “Notes of a Desolate Man”
Chi Zijian (China)
  • Novelist
  • Winner of Lu Xun Literary Award three times
  • Winner of Mao Dun Literary Award

Excerpts from the author’s work
The horse remembered being flogged countless times by the master. The horse also remembered, after the old man’s son was dragged out in handcuffs, being flogged over and over even though they were on a flat road with no luggage. After they were dragged out in handcuffs for the second time, both of them were very nice to the horse. They never forgot to give the horse bean rice cake at night.
- From “One Horse, Two People”
Korean Writers
Korean Writers
공선옥
Gong Sunok
  • novelist
  • Winner, Shin Dongyup Creative Fund and Manhae Literature Prize
Excerpts from the author’s work
Jeongae entered the light, whispering and fluttering. Now she was in the light, and became a light herself. In the light, 30-year-old Jeongae came running. 50-year-old Jeongae sang. Carried by the wind, the sound of singing echoed like this. Aaaaaiiririririringiiiiooooiiiiriririri......

100-year-old Jeongae danced to the song. She danced like fluttering leaves, she danced like a wiggling worm, she danced like a gentle breeze. All the Jeongae’s rode the moonlight, singing and dancing. They crossed rivers and went over mountains. While passing through a village, they stopped and sat on an ailanthus behind a house. They clung to a single-sheet blanket hanging from a laundry rack as if it were a swing. They put a handful of sunlight, and a string of wind in a dog’s empty bowl. They went and went, taking detours here and there. They climbed and climbed, and then climbed more. The climbed, went down, and went. They went and came, and came and went.
- From “Where Did the Song Come From”
Kim Hyun
  • poet
  • Winner, Kim Joonsung Prize, Rainbow Bookmark Queer Literature Award, and Shin Dongyup Prize for Literature
Excerpts from the author’s work
In the beginning, there was a tiger on this field
- From “In the Beginning, There Was a Tiger on This Field”
김경윤
Kim Kyungyoon
  • poet
  • 1st President, Ttangkkeut Literature Club
  • Former President, Gwangju Jeonnam Writers Association
  • President, Kim Namju Commemoration Project Group
Excerpts from the author’s work
Sounds like someone’s prayer,
or a divine voice far away from space.
That night, I heard the sound of rain in Dunggovi
I lay awake, alone, like a camel who lost a child,
and heard the sound of the Morin khuur from the steppe.
- From “The Sound of Night Rain in Dundgovi”
김용국
Kim Yongguk
  • poet
  • President, Jeollanamdo Literary Association
  • Head, Boseong Local History Research Center
  • Winner, Nam Literature Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
Let’s greet each other with the smiles of the cosmos and the playing wind.
박관서
Park Gwanseo
  • poet
  • President, Jeollanamdo Literary Association
  • Head, Boseong Local History Research Center
  • Winner, Jeonnam Literature Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
So, we will become your people.
If you say work, we will work. If you say stop, we will stop.
If you say don’t talk, we won’t talk. If you say believe, we will believe
If you say die, we will die. We will be docile,
without the strength to lift even a stone or a Molotov cocktail.
We will protect the flickering candlelight with our white wrists
and wipe away the rolling tears.
From “I Saw Gwangju in Jindo”
박두규
Park Dugyu
  • poet
  • Dean, Life and Peace School
Excerpts from the author’s work
When a crisis deepens, something comes out of one’s silence
백영옥
Baek Youngok
  • novelist
  • Winner, Literary Neighborhood Young Writer Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
A journey is not about leaving. It is about coming back home time and again.
From “What Anne of Green Gables Said”
선안영
Sun Anyoung
  • sijo writer
  • Winner, New Writer Award at Joongang Sijo Award, Mudung Sijo Literature Award, and Discovery Award
  • Recipient, Seoul Cultural Foundation Creative Fund and Arts Council Korea Creative Grant for Up-and-Coming Writers
Excerpts from the author’s work
A star has one foot on the corner of the starlight, and you are here by my side.
손보미
Son Bomi
  • novelist
  • Winner, 21st Century Literary Award, Literary Neighborhood Young Writer Award, Hankook Ilbo Literary Award, and Kim Joonsung Prize
Excerpts from the author’s work
“However, she could never believe that the results of those little choices, those insignificant impulses could put a person into turmoil or into a place of never return or, that those decisions, which no one would ever care about, would completely change certain parts of life. She could not believe it then, and she could not believe it now.”
From “Dream of Love”
송은일
Song Eunil
  • novelist
  • Winner, 1st Gwangju Ilbo Literary Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
Banya began to speak and understand others, thanks to the phrase about the value of life that had been hammered into her ears since she was three or four years old. That the lives of all people under the sky are equally valuable and a munyeo should know it of all people.
“So, Banya, look into the world deep and wide. ”Her grandmother, Dongmae, used to whisper these words to her granddaughter sitting on her lap. “Your name, Banya, means wisdom, light, and life. It is enlightenment that lights up the dark world. You have to always think about the reason why you were born with inner eyes that are keener than others.”
Banya was born with inner eyes that are keener than others so that she could use those eyes to look after others. She was raised that way, and tried her best to live up to that destiny all her life.
From Banya, Volume 8
오은
Oh Eun
  • poet
  • Visiting Professor, Department of Korean-English
  • Cultural Content, Kangnam University
  • Winner, Park Inhwan Literary Award, Gu Sang Poetry Award, Contemporary Poetry Award, and Daesan Literary Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
Today I am a shadow
I followed me all day
From “Today I Am”
윤정모
Yun Jeongmo
  • novelist
  • Winner, Shin Dongyup Creative Fund, Danjae
Excerpts from the author’s work
The essence of relationships is the access code to others, and life is a series of encounters with countless people. That is why they say that we live in a web of relationships.
From “Monarch Butterfly”
이원
Yi Won
  • poet
  • Winner, Contemporary Poetics Award, Contemporary Poetry Award, Poetry Award, Siro Yeoneun Sesang Poetry Award, Hyeongpyeong Literary Award, and Poet Neighborhood Literary Award.
Excerpts from the author’s work
Would it be beauty if I loved what I would never truly understand.
From “Love, Be Born”
이상국
Lee Sangguk
  • poet
  • Chairperson, Writers Association of Korea
  • Winner, Baeksuk Literary Award, Jeong Jiyong Literature Prize, and Korean People’s Art Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
Flowers are not wary of other flowers.
임지형
Im Jihyoung
  • children’s literature writer
  • Winner, Mokpo Literary Award
  • Recipient, Gwangju Cultural Foundation Creative Fund and Korean Artists Welfare Fund Foundation Grant
  • Named one of ten Korean Original Children’s Story Writers by Kyobo Book Centre
Excerpts from the author’s work
Tap, tap. Hearing the sound of the knife on the cutting board, it felt like my hatred was being sliced and disappearing to somewhere.
임철우
Lim Chulwoo
  • novelist
  • Winner, Korean Literary Award, Yi Sang Literary Award, Danjae Award, Yosan Literary Award, and Daesan Literary Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
“Yes, do not despair. Do not fear, or hate. Even if the evil and violence of this ugly world tries to teach only despair and hatred, I will learn to hope from now on. I will learn the breathtaking hope and the song of longing toward humans and lives.....”
Myunggi straightened his back and took a deep breath. The sun was slowly rising above the mountain ridge on the island far ahead. It was late spring, and the morning sky was blindingly bright.
From “Spring Days”
정이현
Jung Ihyun
  • novelist
  • Winner, Lee Hyosuk Literary Award, Modern Literary Award, and Today’s Young Artist Award
Excerpts from the author’s work
She could feel it; that one night, she would definitely take it out and read it at the table in the dark.
From “About My Aunt”
탁인석
Tak Inseok
  • essayist
  • 1st President, Subi Literature Club
  • Chairperson, Saturday Poetry Recital
  • Chairperson, International Pen Literature Gwangju HQ Steering Committee
  • President, Gwangju Writers’ Association
Excerpts from the author’s work
How should writers embrace the lessons taught by the pandemic? A person who boldly embraces death would view and accept life as it is. A person who does not embrace death would not have a sure focus in life. It does not matter what good books you read, what phrases you write, and what regions you visit to grow as a writer. We all instinctively crave long life.
한강
Han Kang
  • novelist
  • Winner, Manhae Literary Award, Hwang Sun-won Literary Award, Dong-ni Literary Award, Yi Sang Literary Award, Today's Young Artist Award, Korean Fiction Award, and the Man Booker International Prize
Excerpts from the author’s work
Without a word, I was looking into the edge of the flame, fluttering like a half-transparent wing.
From “Human Acts”
The 3rd Asian Literature Award
Winners : Shaheen Akhtar
The Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea has awarded the 3rd Asia Literature Award, announced at the 2020 Asia Literature Festival, to Bangladeshi author Shaheen Akhtar, for her novel Talaash (translated into Korean by Seung Hee Jeon and Farhana Shashi and published by Asia Publishers). It is a masterpiece that depicts with compassion the lasting suffering of women who were victims and survivors of sexual violence during the independence war in Bangladesh in 1971.

This literary award is sponsored by the Asia Cultural Center, located in Gwangju, which is hallowed ground for South Korean democratization movements. The award was established to honor these movements.

The Asian Literature Award was established in 2017 in order to highlight the aesthetic values of Asian literature, which have often been judged and edited unilaterally by the Western literary world. However, this does not mean we are either rejecting Western literature or exclusively advocating for Asian literature. Rather, our hope is that Asian literature can give new inspiration to world literature, as built creatively by all humanity. The award comes with a prize of 20 million won (around $17,500) and an adaptation of the work as a performance piece to be presented at the next festival.

The 2017 first recipient of this award was Mongolian poet Daminsuren Uriankhai, whose serene and majestic spirit feels like the winds sweeping through Mongolian plains, and whose poetic language, as transparent as morning dew, is unparalleled. The 2018 winner was Vietnamese novelist Bao Ninh. His novel The Sorrow of War, while dealing with one of the many wars that have happened on Asian continent, is also a moving and painful reminder of and testimony to the truth that all wars mean the defeat of humanity.

During our preparations for the 3rd Asia Literature Festival, we modified some procedures of this award. Since the Asia Literature Festival is held every other year, we decided to give this award every other year. And in consideration of the realistic limitations of the current award committee, we selected recipients among writers whose works had already been translated into Korean. The five-member selection committee was composed of literary critic Kim Hyoung-jung, Professor Kim Tae-won, Professor Chung Kyung-woon, poet Kwak Hyo-hwan, and novelist Kim Nam-il, who chaired the committee. And, finally, for this 3rd award, we limited the scope to women writers to reflect the feminist theme of the 3rd Asian Literature Festival.

The finalists of this year’s award were Shaheen Akhtar’s novel Talaash, Chinese writer Chi Zijian’s two novels The Last Quarter of the Moon (translated by Kim Yoon-jin) and Mountain Summits (translated by Kang Young-hee), and Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen’s novel Notes of a Desolate Man (translated by Kim Tae-sung). After lively discussions, stemming from the exceptional literary talents of all three writers, the committee announced its winner, while being grateful for these three outstanding Asian authors, who are contributing to the expansion of the spiritual and intellectual horizons of our world.

“In terms of the winning novel’s literariness, its accomplishment is superb in its satirical representations and criticisms from the perspective of women, aimed at the madness of war and the false consciousness of a male-centered society,” said Mr. Kim Namil, speaking for the committee. He also noted that the issue of such “comfort women” is a critical one not only in Korea but also all over the world. “Imperialism and colonialism, war and violence, the deceptions of war criminals, mistreatment of independence fighters, and ongoing ill-treatment of rape victims are all interwoven in the narrative of the novel,” the Chair said, adding: “Talaash asks fundamental questions about this history, doing so in the name of and through the pain of these marginalized women, labeled ‘birangona.’ It addresses the disconnects between ‘brave women’ and ‘prostitutes,’ ‘official reverence’ and ‘informal contempt,’ ‘the sublime’ and ‘the scandal.’ A scene in which the protagonist, Maryam, who finds herself caught in the snare of these dualities, enters another world in which she and a companion enjoy the camaraderie of fellow birangonas, holds its own as one of the most sublime scenes in contemporary literature. In Maryam, who chooses to enter this lowest world of Daulatdia, readers meet a heroic individual, who chooses ro leave behind the glory of this world.”

We believe this novel deserves to be recognized as one of the greatest feminist and anti-war docu-novels of our time, written by an Asian author. It is a monument to suffering and courage in our time, on a par with Svetlana Alexievich’s The Unwomanly Face of the War, Ruth Klueger’s Still Alive, or Marta Hillers’ A Woman in Berlin, while introducing hitherto neglected Asian voices in their vividness.

We trust that the works of Shaheen Akhtar will continue to inspire us and all Asian writers with the courage and creativity we need in these difficult times, and that they can help all of us transition into a more peaceful and harmonious phase of human history.
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