Kang Endowed Lecture: “Walking a Path not Tread Before: A Life’s Journey in Writing” by Yan Geling

• Event Date: Thursday, April 9, 2026
• Time: 4:30 pm–6:30 pm (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL

• Talk

In this lecture, the renowned Chinese writer Yan Geling will reflect on her extraordinary life journey, from her early experiences, as a dancer, soldier, and army journalist in the People’s Liberation Army, in China during the Cultural Revolution, to her life as an immigrant and then as an accompanying spouse of a U.S. diplomat, leading her to live in Africa, East Asia, and Europe. She will share insights into her writing routine and research methods, using examples from her novels such as Criminal Lu Yanshi, To My Teacher, with Love, A City Called Macau among others. She will also talk about how her work was adapted for film and how she got into scriptwriting. She will speak about censorship and self-censorship in China and how it affected her work, and how her work was banned in China after she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government for its initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She will describe the situation that finally led her and her husband to set up a company to publish her literary works and to produce her films independently.

Reception to follow.

Lecturer Bio

Geling Yan 嚴歌苓 is one of the most acclaimed novelists and screenwriters in the Chinese language and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People's Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

After more than a decade with the army, she published her first novel in 1986 and has been writing constantly ever since. Her themes include the immigrant experience, historical novels set in 20th Century China and works set in contemporary China. Her novels in English include Criminal Lu Yanshi, The Secret Talker, Little Aunt Crane, The Flowers of War, The Banquet Bug, The Lost Daughter of Happiness, and White Snake and Other Stories.

Many of Ms. Yan's works have been adapted for film and television, directed or produced by famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Ang Lee, Li Shaohong and Joan Chen. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and of the Writers’ Guild of America (west).

Ms. Yan holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She has published over 40 books and has won over 30 literary and film awards. Her works have been translated into twenty-one languages. She has been subject to an unwritten ban in China since March 2020, when she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She resides in Berlin, Germany, where she and her husband have co-founded a company, New Song Media GmbH, to publish her works and produce independent films free of Chinese government censorship.

Presented by Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

Co-Sponsored by the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies.