Finding Joy Through Food: A Book Talk & Tasting

What happens when two extraordinary writers gather around the kitchen table?

Join us for an intimate and unforgettable evening with internationally acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Yan Geling and celebrated dancer, actress, and author Chiang Ching as they explore the deep connections between food, memory, resilience, and creativity.

In her new book Finding Joy Through Food, Chiang Ching reflects on weathering the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden. Through inventive cooking by reimagining Chinese dishes with local ingredients, she sustained connection with loved ones and rediscovered joy in everyday ritual.

In conversation with her longtime friend Yan Geling, one of the most internationally renowned writers in the Chinese language today, the two will share stories of their artistic journeys, their enduring love of food, and the ways cooking becomes an act of cultural memory and emotional survival.

Guests will have the rare opportunity to taste handmade hors d’oeuvres prepared by the authors themselves:

• Yan Geling’s Curried Zucchini Empanadas
• Chiang Ching’s Fried Fish and Ham Toast

Copies of Finding Joy Through Food 《食中作乐》and Yan Geling’s novel The Criminal Lu Yanshi 《陆犯焉识》will be available for purchase at the event. Both authors will be delighted to sign purchased copies following the program.

Speakers & Moderator

Yan Geling

Yan Geling 严歌苓 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 (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

Ms. Yan published her first novel in 1986 and has been writing constantly ever since. Many of her works have been adapted for film and television, working with famous Chinese directors 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.

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. Her literary and film work after March 2020 has been unofficially banned in China after she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government’s initial handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She resides in Berlin and is co-owner of New Song Media GmbH, which she and her husband Lawrence Walker founded to continue to publish her work and produce her films.

Chiang Ching

Chiang Ching 江青 is an acclaimed actor, dancer, choreographer, director, stage designer, and author whose multifaceted career spans film, dance, theater, and literature. From 1963 to 1970, she starred in 29 films in Hong Kong and Taiwan and won Taiwan’s Golden Horse Award for Best Actress in 1967.

After moving to the United States, she founded The Chiang Ching Dance Company in New York City in 1973, launching an internationally recognized choreographic career. In 1982, she became the first Artistic Director of the Hong Kong Dance Company. She has taught at UC Berkeley, Hunter College, the Dance Academy of Sweden, and the Beijing Dance Academy, and later settled in Sweden as an independent choreographer.

Her stage works have appeared at major venues worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, London’s Old Vic Theatre, the Royal Theatre of Sweden, Vienna Volksoper, Bern City Theatre, Berlin’s House of World Cultures, and Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts. In the past two decades, she has increasingly extended her interest in writing, including scripts for the stage and the screen. She has published 11 books. She currently makes her home in Sweden and New York.

Susan Yuqing Feng

Moderator
Director of Programs, China Institute of America

Susan Yuqing Feng joined China Institute as Director of Programs in October of 2023. Before joining CI, Susan was the Editor in Chief of Bitpush News, a leading block chain media based in New York and a columnist for the Financial Times Chinese Edition.

Throughout her journalism career, Susan conducted interviews with a multitude of world economic and political leaders, including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan, Paul Volker, President Clinton, Zbigniew Brzeziński, Michael Bloomberg, Thomas Friedman, and many more. Susan has also directed the documentary series “World Movers” which was released in March 2018. It illustrated the emerging new world order 70 years after WWII, shedding light on what has changed the U.S. and the world and the forces affecting everyone. It focused on the relationships between technology and globalization, the impact on immigration, and the future of U.S.-China relations.

Susan graduated from Columbia University and got her MA in International Affairs.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher China Institute