During the Singapore Writers Festival, the Chinese author Dai Sijie will present his works and discuss his condition as a Chinese writer living in France and writing in French on Sunday 25 October 2009 at 12 pm at the Arts House (1 Old Parliament Lane Singapore 179429).

12AM : Lim Jen Erh will moderate a conference with Dai Sijie. Aside from discussing his published works, he will also touch on what it is like to be a Chinese writer living in Paris and writing in French. This session will be held in Mandarin

2PM : His film Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002), based on his semi-autobiographical novel, will then be screened and followed by a discussion with the author-director. (Rating : P.G, In Chinese with English subtitles)

Film screening supported by The French Embassy in Singapore

Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a re-education camp in rural Sichuan during the Cultural Revolution. He later completed high school and university, where he studied art history. In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director, making three critically-acclaimed feature films, including China, My Sorrow (1989). He also directed a 2002 adaptation of his best-selling debut novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2000). He now lives in Paris and writes in French.