Three Hacks On China
VIEW EVENT DETAILSEvening Discussion with Peter Hessler and Jonathan Watts, authors and journalists
Experienced China journalists, Peter Hessler and Jonathan Watts will discuss the pitfalls, shortfalls, joys, and frustrations of China correspondence. How hard is it to access, assess, and publish information in China today? What impact can a correspondent's work have on the Chinese government and people, and the way the country is seen by the rest of the world?
Peter Hessler was the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker and a contributor to National Geographic. He is also well known for his three books on China, including: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in China, which won the Kiriyama Prize. Jonathan Watts is the Asia Environment Correspondent for The Guardian and a former president of the Foreign Correspondent's Club of China. Since 1996, Watts has reported on East Asia for The Guardian, covering the North Korean nuclear crisis, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Sichuan earthquake, and the Beijing Olympics. Watts published When a Billion Chinese Jump in Summer 2010, an environmental travelogue from the Tibetan Plateau to Inner Mongolia.
The discussion will be moderated by Frank Ching, Hong Kong-based writer and commentator, whose latest book, China: The Truth About Its Human Righs Records, examines the human rights situation in China at a critical moment. Ching has a distinguished record of reporting and commenting on events in Asia, particularly China. His columns appear regularly in the South China Morning Post and other Asian newspapers.
Co-presented with Hong Kong International Literary Festival 2011