The main forum and opening ceremony of the 13th Shanghai Book Fair of Shanghai International Literary Week recently took place at JIC Bookstore on Hongkou’s North Bund. This year’s Shanghai International Literary Week is hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Press and Publication, the Shanghai Writers’ Association, and the Publicity Department of the CPC Hongkou District Committee, with JIC Bookstore, Sinan Mansions, Duoyun Books, and the Instituto Cervantes Shanghai as co-organizers.
Centered on the theme “Intergenerationality and Rebirth”, this year’s main forum was split into two sessions, with Professor Jin Wen from Shanghai Jiao Tong University serving as the academic moderator. Guest speakers including British author Jeanette Winterson, Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge, Colombian novelist Héctor Abad Faciolince, Spanish writer Sara Mesa, Vietnamese writer Nguyễn Khắc Ngân Vi, Canadian author Alexander MacLeod, Australian artist Christopher Doyle, German scholar Sandra Richter, and British writer Hugh Lewis-Jones delivered keynote addresses in turn.
An intergeneration denotes the sequence of lives spanning successive generations. It runs through an individual’s entire lifespan: from childhood to old age, every person embodies a complete intergenerational sample. Intergenerationality represents a cultural and social “time lag”. Between generations lie nourishment and influence, oversight and rebellion, tangled misunderstanding and understanding, shifting estrangement and acceptance. Generations fall like leaves and surge like tides, yet intergenerational shifts do not advance in a strictly linear fashion like time itself. Intergenerational dynamics spark rebirth, which seldom arrives as anticipated amid natural cycles. Rebirth requires each generation, each individual, to revisit age-old questions through their own confusion until fresh answers emerge.
Jeanette Winterson, British writer
We invented language to pass on our finest thoughts across time, generations, history and cultures. We invented language so we might speak the weight of our hearts. Life has an outer and an inner dimension. Some beloved writers are no longer alive. That does not matter. The best part of them lives within you right now. Take that book from the shelf. Open it.
Nguyễn Khắc Ngân Vi, Vietnamese writer, screenwriter and journalist
Intergenerationality is an intense awareness of one’s place within history. This awareness constantly clashes with seemingly predetermined attributes. Therefore, intergenerationality first and foremost refers to an individual’s struggle against these predefined identities. Every full-length novel offers a new perspective on history, presenting alternative realities where we witness both generations and rebirth.
Sara Mesa, Spanish socially critical writer
When writing, one never knows who will read the work in the future, nor what that future will look like. Writing means joining a conversation that began long before us and will continue after we are gone. We read works by predecessors, and if we are fortunate, future readers will engage with our writings guided by different principles, continuing to ponder who we were and what mysterious quality makes us human.
Lídia Jorge, Portuguese writer
Global culture has transformed, and so have we. We hail from an agrarian nation, yet we pass on a digital country to the new generation. We hope young people read our works not to thank us, but to recognise how the world regresses and progresses through poetry’s emotional testimony. May this bring solace to their lives. They will eventually understand that even knowing nothing about us, they are never alone.
Christopher Doyle, Australian cinematographer
Creation demands both subjectivity and objectivity; you must push yourself to capture everything within your heart. Literary Week grants us access to cultures, viewpoints and modes of thinking from across the globe, a chance to exchange ideas and collectively confront vital topics. Is language’s essence a spirit, script, wisdom or emotion? Whether filmmaking or writing, we face the challenge of getting away with words — an English pun meaning to transcend and move beyond words, translating text into characters and imagery via mood, atmosphere and imagination.
Hugh Lewis-Jones, British scholar of polar and maritime history
Every day is a day for learning. Each of us has an immense amount left to discover. Learn from those older and younger than ourselves, and learn also from animals. Perhaps this is true wisdom: remember where you come from, cherish every ray of sunshine, and guard the land beneath your feet.
Notably, organisers invited family representatives of Hongkou’s 2025 “Young Reading Ambassadors” to attend the event. Five-year-old Lou Yiming ranks among the top juvenile borrowers at Hongkou District Public Libraries in annual lending statistics. “Reading brings joy. I love visiting Heping Academy with Mum, and my favourite books are animal tales,” she shared. Her parents commented: “Fostering good reading habits greatly benefits a child’s future. We hope to subtly nurture her love of reading, enrich her inner world and open her eyes to a broader world.” Statistics show that by the end of 2025, Hongkou District Public Libraries registered 14,112 juvenile cardholders, marking a 13.11% growth in young readers across the 14th Five-Year Plan period.
Over the subsequent six days, 14 Literary Week guests from 12 countries will participate in 30 diverse activities, including literary dialogues and book-signing sessions held at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, Sinan Literature House, Shanghai Book City, the East Branch of Shanghai Library and Duoyun Books.
Founded in 2011, this year marks the 13th Shanghai International Literary Week and the seventh consecutive edition hosted in Hongkou District. As a signature sub-brand of the Shanghai Book Fair, it serves as a key platform for cultural exchange and literary dialogue between Chinese and international writers. To date, nearly 400 Chinese and foreign writers and scholars, including four Nobel laureates in Literature, have been invited.
Hongkou is home to a constellation of luminaries in modern and contemporary Chinese literature. It sheltered many literary giants in the last century and hosted numerous League of Left-Wing Writers members, profoundly shaping the trajectory of modern Chinese literature. Adjacent to the main forum venue, Huishan Wharf on the North Bund bears witness to China’s modern international cultural exchanges. Here Mao Zedong bid farewell to students bound for France on three separate occasions. Eminent scientists and cultural figures including Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell and George Bernard Shaw first set foot in China at this dock. During World War II, it welcomed nearly 20,000 Jewish refugees fleeing Europe. Locating the main forum and opening ceremony of Shanghai International Literary Week at Hongkou’s North Bund vividly extends this legacy of literary inheritance and international exchange.
Ma Wenyun, Party Secretary and Full-time Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Writers’ Association; Sun Ganlu, Chairman of the Shanghai Writers’ Association; Zheng Lei, Deputy Director of the International Liaison Department of the China Writers Association; Gao Yuan and Bi Sheng, Party Group Members and Full-time Vice Chairmen of the Shanghai Writers’ Association; and Wu Qiang, Member of the Standing Committee and Director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Hongkou District Committee attended the event.