Asian Pacific Book Series

Monday, August 24th, 2020

Webinar 18:30; Q&A 19:10; Close 19:30

Q&A: www.slido.com (Event Code: 00824)

In this talk, SHIVAJI DAS will share some highlights from his recent book, The ‘Other’ Shangri-La: Journeys through the Sino-Tibetan frontier of Sichuan. He will discuss his experiences of staying with the nomads in a high altitude; visiting Litang—the world’s highest town that is also the birthplace of important Lamas; Larung—the world’s largest monastery and highest slum; Kangding—a small town that gave birth to China’s favourite love song, and his gate-crashing into a beauty contest in China’s lost Queendom.

The talk will also explore how the recent socio-economic and political trends have affected the lives and cultures of the people inhabiting these remote lands, many parts of which have since barred access to foreigners.

SHIVAJI DAS is the author of three travel memoirs—Sacred Love: Erotic Arts in the temples of Nepal (2018), Angels by the Murky River: Travels Off the Beaten Track (2017) and Journeys with the caterpillar: Travelling through the islands of Flores and Sumba, Indonesia (2013).

Assam-born, Shivaji’s articles have been published in TIME, Asian Geographic, Outlook Traveler, The Jakarta Post, Conscious Magazine and Freethinker. His interviews have been featured on the BBC, CNBC, The Economist, Travel Radio Australia, Around the World TV, among others.

Shivaji is the conceptualizer of the Global Migrant Festival and Migrant and Refugee Poetry Contests, and the Asia-Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan, Singapore.

JULIA KUEHN is Professor and Head of English at The University of Hong Kong. She has postgraduate degrees from the Universities of Oxford, Bonn and London, and also completed the Habilitation at the University of Bamberg. Her research interests lie in Victorian literature and culture, travel writing (related to China) and critical theory. Julia’s current projects include a study of representations of Hong Kong in Victorian travel writing and a study of how travel writing, in general, influenced the modern novel form.

Julia is also a Director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival; an annual event held over 10 days every autumn, featuring established and emerging writers from around the world. (Moderator)