Dissident Chinese author Ma Jian arrived in Hong Kong Friday vowing to speak at the city’s literary festival as a major arts center that had pulled out of
HONG KONG – Dissident Chinese author Ma Jian arrived in Hong Kong Friday vowing to speak at the city’s literary festival as a major arts center that had pulled out of hosting him changed its mind.
The new Tai Kwun arts complex, which hosts the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, said Thursday it had cancelled Ma’s two speaking events after venue director Timothy Calnin said he did not want it to become “a platform to promote the political interests of any individual.”
Ma, whose books are banned in mainland China, is due to promote his latest novel “China Dream,” a title that plays on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rhetoric of national rejuvenation and is described by publisher Penguin as “a biting satire of totalitarianism.”
A replacement venue also pulled out Friday as concerns grow that freedoms are dying in the semi-autonomous city under an assertive China.
Calnin said Friday said the center had reconsidered and would host Ma as an alternative venue had not been found.
“Mr. Ma has made public statements which clarify that his appearances in Hong Kong are as a novelist and that he has no intention to use Tai Kwun as a platform to promote his personal political interests,” Calnin said in a statement.
Festival organizers said they were “delighted” with the decision.
“The principles of free speech and cultural expression are central to our mission as an international literary festival,” they said in a statement.
Ma had expressed concern he would be barred from Hong Kong after senior Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet, a British national, was refused entry to the city Thursday night.
