Ning Ken: Tibetan Sky – In Conversation with Angus Phillips

Join acclaimed Chinese novelist Ning Ken, translator Thomas Moran, and Angus Phillips, Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing at Oxford Brookes University, for a conversation about Tibetan Sky (《天·藏》), contemporary Chinese literature, translation and publishing.

Set against the dramatic landscape of Tibet, Tibetan Sky explores cultural identity, philosophy, spirituality and human relationships. The discussion will look at the inspiration behind the novel, Ning Ken’s literary approach, and the process of bringing the book to English-language readers.

As translator of Tibetan Sky, Thomas Moran will also reflect on the challenges and choices involved in translating the novel, including its distinctive language, cultural references and narrative style. Together, Ning Ken, Thomas Moran and Angus Phillips will explore the relationship between author, translator and publisher, and the wider journey of contemporary Chinese fiction across languages and cultures.

There will be an opportunity for audience questions following the conversation.

What Makes Tibetan Sky Distinctive

• Depicts a poignant doomed romance that centres on a sensitively written strong female character with a hybrid cultural identity
• Written in an innovative style that uses authorial footnotes as an important part of the narrative
• Offers a fascinating insight into Tibetan history from a nonconformist author well known for his writings on Tibet

Praise for Tibetan Sky

"Sardonic and erudite, it’s the only major literary treatment of Sino-Tibetan relations to appear in English in decades." - Andrew Rule, The Spectator

"At its heart …, this is a novel that contrasts alternative ways of being: the rigour of French philosophy duels with ancient Tibetan spirituality" - Rónán Hession, The Irish Times

"Ning Ken is a most compelling storyteller from contemporary China. In Tibetan Sky, he takes us to a land known for its stunning mountains and rivers, and unique cultures and callings, as he ponders the limits of the mundane and the horizons beyond. The novel captures the human condition with lyrical subtleties and modernist provocations, rendering Tibet in a nuanced and dramatic light." - Professor David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University

"Reading Tibetan Sky is an extraordinary experience. This is a book that works on you, remaking you as you read. Daring, surprising and quietly subversive, the story unfurls in a way that feels organic, yet is masterfully wrought. Ning Ken captures moments and holds them up to the light, turning them this way and that so that we appreciate every angle." - Ann Morgan, author of Reading the World and Crossing Over