Nonfiction Film in Translation

In the final days of March—amid lingering snow and rain—Omikhle Bookshop, in collaboration with EDIU, presents a documentary screening and translation-focused workshop centered on Kawa Karpo (Meili Snow Mountain) in Yunnan.

In 1991, a joint Chinese–Japanese expedition attempted to summit Kawa Karpo. The climb ended in tragedy—an avalanche claimed the lives of all 17 members of the expedition, marking one of the most devastating disasters in mountaineering history.

This program brings together documentary footage and textual materials by ethnographer and anthropologist Guo Jing, presented across English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Tibetan. Through these materials, the event revisits the disaster from multiple perspectives, including those of bereaved families and local Tibetan communities.

A central thread follows Naoyuki Kobayashi, whose peers and friends were among the Japanese climbers who died. Though he was not part of the expedition, he returned to Kawa Karpo over more than two decades to search for those who were lost. Through these journeys and his long-term encounters with local villagers, his understanding of the mountain gradually shifted.

For local communities, Kawa Karpo is not a summit to be conquered, but a sacred presence woven into everyday life and ritual.

As a translation-focused workshop, the event also explores how such an experience is communicated across languages, images, and cultural frameworks—what it means to translate not only words, but also visuality, experience, belief, and ways of relating to the mountain.

What to expect:

• Documentary screening (with multilingual materials)
• Contextual introduction to the Kawa Karpo disaster
• Discussion on translation across language and culture
• Q&A
  

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Host: Cordelia Shan, Master of Information at the Faculty of Information, iSchool, University of Toronto

Guest Speaker: Cheryl Li, Co-founder of Omikhle Bookshop

Date: Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Time: 12:00–2:00 PM

Location:

Learning Hub, BL 404

University of Toronto, iSchool

140 St. George St, Toronto, ON M5S 3G6

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