XIAOLU GUO: My Battle of Hastings [Book Launch]

Award winning author and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo will discuss her latest nonfiction My Battle of Hastings, the last one in her ‘Transparent Self’ Trilogy after Once Upon A Time in The East (Vintage 2015) and Radcal (Vintage 2022). My Battle of Hastings is a portrait of a dislocated artist seeking to connect with the local environment in the hope of finding a deeper connection to Britain. Xiaolu, as an author and as a character, chronicles a year living by the English Channel, sprayed by the grey waves and absorbed by the news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reflecting upon the connection between everyday life and a brutal past, centered around the year 1066.

Xiaolu Guo is a novelist, memoirist, cineaste, and film educator. Her novels include A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, and I Am China. Her memoir Once Upon A Time In The East won the National Book Critics Circle Award 2017 and was shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Radical was published by Penguin 2023 and was followed by My Battle of Hastings in 2024, completing her autobiographical trilogy. Her recent novel A Lover’s Discourse was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013, she has also directed a dozen award winning films, including How Is Your Fish Today (Sundance Official Selection) and UFO In Her Eyes (TIFF). Her feature She, A Chinese received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival 2009. Her documentary We Went to Wonderland was in the Official Selection of ND/NF at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Once Upon A Time Proletarian premiered at Venice Film Festival 2009. She had her film retrospectives at London’s Whitechapel Gallery (2019), Cinematheque Switzerland (2011) and the Greek Film Archive (2018). Her next novel, a subversive reimagining of Moby-Dick entitled Call Me Ishmaelle, will be published by Penguin in March 2025. Guo is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

promotes multidisciplinary research, teaching and programming with impact beyond academia, seeking to remedy class, racial, gender, and other inequalities, and to improve mutual understanding in UK-China relations. The MCI is based at the University of Manchester.

Venue accessibility: Please note that you must use the stairs to access the venue. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.

Host or Publisher The Manchester China Institute