Cities Imaginaries Lecture 2024: Xialuo Guo

Cities Imaginaries Lecture 2024: Xialuo Guo 

The UCL Urban Laboratory's 'Cities Imaginaries' lecture is an annual public event, in which a distinguished speaker addresses the relationship of their creative work to the idea of the city in any of its cultural or social aspects. 

Previous speakers in the series have included Caleb Femi, Roger Robinson, David Olusoga, Sonjah Stanley Niaah, Urvashi Butalia, Gus Casely-Hayford, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Shaunak Sen. 

This year, Urban Lab are honoured to be joined by Chinese British novelist, memoirist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo, who will deliver an in-person lecture at Waterstones Gower Street, just next door to UCL. Xiaolu will be discussing her three non-fiction works and their themes of self, memory and place, introduced by Prof Matthew Beaumont. The discussion will be followed by a Q+A. Doors at 18:00 for an 18:30 start.  

‘When it comes to spinning light and shadow on the complexities of living, loving and language, Xiaolu Guo is one of the most valuable writers in the world.’ Deborah Levy 

Xiaolu Guo is a Chinese British novelist, memoirist and filmmaker. 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 shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize. Her recent novel, A Lover’s Discourse, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2020 and Radical is published by Chatto 2023. Named as a Granta’s Best of Young British Novelist in 2013, she has also directed a dozen films.  

Her feature film 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. She has been a visiting professor at Columbia University and Baruch College in New York. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her new book is My Battle of Hastings, published by Vintage 2024. 

Matthew Beaumont is a Professor of English at UCL. He has been a Co-Director of UCL Urban Laboratory since 2013 and is responsible for our Cities Imaginaries programme. He is the author of several books including The Walker: On Finding and Losing Yourself in the Modern City (2020) and How We Walk: Frantz Fanon and the Politics of the Body (2024).