Ecology has evolved rapidly in China as of late. The Middle Kingdom has gone from a notoriously polluted place to, seemingly suddenly, an environmentalist forerunner thanks to its huge green energy investments and a strengthened position in the Paris Climate Accord after America notoriously bowed out last year. Specifically to make sense of those rapid shifts, and the increasingly positive green energy and ecological news coming out of China, Noah Lerner founded the podcast Environment China.

The Princeton-in-Asia Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Beijing Office will record a live episode of that podcast at the Bookworm on Mar 15 as part of this year’s International Literary Festival, convening a panel with Sophie Lu, the director of China Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance; Dr. Chai Qimin, Chinese delegate to the UN Climate Negotiations; and Dr. Xu Shengnian from GEI, touted as China’s first environmental NGO to work abroad.

Ahead of the event, Lerner tells us more about his thoughts on China’s ecological prospects.

What can we expect at your Bookworm talk? What environmental issues do you want to dig into?
It should be a really interesting conversation. China is in the midst of a historic moment, where its environmental policies and industry are changing so fast that it can be hard to keep up, and easy to lose sight of what the important stories are. That’s why I’m excited to untangle all of this with these three leaders of China’s environmental field.

As the Bookworm literary festival draws quite a diverse crowd, there are certain general topics that I’m sure folks will want to hear about and that I want to make sure we cover.

First, the latest from China’s energy transition: How should we reconcile the slight rebound in China’s coal consumption in 2017 with the record-smashing levels of solar deployment? And what conclusions should we draw from the end of China’s 2013-2017 “Air Action Plan,” the central policy in its war on air pollution – blue skies returned to Beijing this winter, but there have also been growing pains related to northern China’s switch from coal heating to gas heating.

And, second, the latest from the international climate stage: Following President Trump’s cowardly withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, China has repeatedly expressed its commitment to the Agreement; meanwhile, there has been increased attention over the environmental challenges and opportunities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. What leverage do Chinese banks, companies, and NGOs have to help to solidify China’s climate actions beyond its own borders?

How did your podcast come about?
We built our podcast initiative, Environment China, to fill the gap that we saw in access and understanding to the both bottom-up and policy work being done to address China’s environmental and climate challenges. We see a huge interest in China’s environment, both domestically and abroad, but for those outside of the field, the issues can either feel impenetrable, or hopeless, or distant. By sitting down and talking with the folks “in the trenches” – sharing the stories from the entrepreneurs, journalists, campaigners, scientists, and policy experts, who are working tirelessly to push forward smart environmental action in China, we hope we can inspire others to pay more attention to environmental issues and perhaps even take action.

I founded Environment China, in late 2016, along with several other members of the Beijing Energy Network. Today, we’ve grown to a team of almost 20 people. We’ve published over 30 episodes, including five episodes in Mandarin.

Why the focus on the “positive” angle?
From the beginning, we decided to frame our show around the positive “solutions” coming from China’s environmental field. We always take care not to “greenwash” or downplay the magnitude of China’s environmental challenges, but I think it comes back to our mission – we want to showcase the stories of people who are trying to make a difference, and those stories almost always point to a way forward.

Take, for example, Dr. Peng Kui, from GEI, who we interviewed last August. Based out of the Chinese-NGO, Global Environmental Institute, Dr. Peng Kui started one of China’s first “citizen science” initiatives, training local herders in Qinghai in the Sanjiangyuan region to collect important data about how one of China’s most ecologically fragile regions is responding to climate change. Given the remoteness of the region, it is impossible to have scientists stationed there all year round, so Dr. Peng Kui’s program has empowered the local people to take ownership over the climate research, while also pairing the research training with a sustainable business development program to ensure the overall program’s longevity.

Other favorite guests include Yao Songqiao, an Antarctic explorer who founded WildBound, a nature-inspired environmental school, Jade Gray, the founder of Beijing’s Gung Ho! Pizza brand, which is pioneering sustainable restaurant practices in China, and Calvin Quek from Greenpeace, who has been working to push China’s banks towards greener investments.

Overall, what do you think have been China’s biggest points of environmental progress as of late, and on the flipside what major flaws remain that need to be addressed?
It has been amazing to watch how quickly things are moving in China. China’s renewable energy has been developing faster than anyone ever imagined was possible – in 2017, in one year alone, China installed 54 gigawatts of solar power capacity, surpassing the total combined solar capacity of United States added up across all years. Meanwhile, thanks to the explosion of sharebikes, bicycles have once again returned to China’s streets.

However, living in Beijing, it is still easy to see that China has a long road ahead of it before air pollution (and water pollution and soil pollution) become a thing of the past. It’s clear that reducing coal and oil consumption is the only path to securing a healthy environment and climate for China. The challenge will be to see how fast China can transition towards clean energy and away from the heavy polluting industry. I’m hopeful that China can serve as an example to the world of strong climate and environmental action.

You studied Mandarin at Yunnan Normal University. I’ve heard it’s a beautiful place; what kind of impact did your time there have on you as an environmental advocate? Did all of its greenery and natural wonder inspire you to fight the good ecological fight all the more?
Growing up outside of Boston, I was lucky to have access to canoeing along rivers and lakes in Maine and good mountain hiking in New Hampshire. At a very young age, I found myself most at peace sitting on pine needles on a forest floor or clawing for rocks at the edge of a lake – and I think those experiences installed a love of nature in me.

Before moving to work in Beijing, I lived in several places in China – first studying Chinese in Kunming, then Yangshuo, then Guangzhou. China has its own incredible array of beautiful natural landscapes that are worth visiting and protecting. But looking back, I do think that my experiences traveling through China’s largest cities served as a wake-up call – it is easy to see the urgency of environmental issues when the air around you feels unsafe.

But my environmental advocacy really took shape while studying at university in the United States, while working to push my college, Amherst College, to divest its endowment from investments in the coal industry. That experience, I think, led me to where I am now, at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing.

Noah Lerner’s Bookworm talk will be held on Mar 15 at 1pm. Entry is RMB 60. For more information, check the Bookworm Literary Festival’s schedule here.

Photo courtesy of The Bookworm
This post first appeared on our sister site, the Beijinger

As the Bookworm Literary Festival 2016 gets under way, we talk to festival coordinator Anthony Tao.

What does this year’s Bookworm Literary Festival have in store for families and children?
What it offers every time- we bring world class authors to Beijing. It’s an opportunity for kids to learn from the best. We have a wide variety of events: book readings, storytelling, workshops, suitable for all ages from 6 up.

How do you choose children’s writers for the festival?
This is the festival’s tenth year, so we have a large network of writers. Sometimes we get recommendations from other authors, or embassies will suggest writers from their country.

Do you think children’s writing can be truly international, or is it always specific to culture?
In some ways it can be more international than adult fiction. A lot of authors get ideas from their own culture – for example David Hill, who’s appearing at the festival, uses Maori legends, which are very specific to New Zealand – but myths translate very well to people from different cultures. Myths are universal. And when you add in illustrations, children’s books can be great no matter where you’re from!

Who were your favorite writers as a child? Who inspired you to become a writer?
My first children’s books were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle books – I don’t know who wrote those! At elementary school I loved Maniac Magee, Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Number the Stars, A Wrinkle In Time… They’re just beautiful stories, that get to the heart of what it is to be human, to be alive, for an audience who haven’t experienced it much yet. I’d be curious to go back and read them now. I expect they’ve aged very well, because they’re realistic and true. A Wrinkle In Time is an eerie book, dealing with themes of nostalgia and loss without being obvious about it. When I started writing it was science fiction that inspired me – actually a video game, called Starcraft. Children who are imaginative should try their hand at SF.

What do you have planned for next year’s festival?
That’s too far ahead to think about! We’ll get this one out of the way, and start planning next month.

The Bookworm International Literary Festival starts today and runs until Sunday March 27.

Photo: Jack Soltysik

For the latest in our series of profiles of writers appearing at the Bookworm Literary Festival, we talked to Josh Lacey. Josh is the author of the hilarious Dragonsitter and Grk series of books for young readers.

Travel is very important in your books. Did you travel when you were younger?

I didn’t travel at all when I was a boy. Our family holidays were almost always spent at the English seaside, which is lovely, although often damp and rarely sunny. Perhaps that gave me a longing to see more of the world, because I have tried to travel more as an adult. I have been to most of the countries where the Grk books are set – Brazil, India, Italy, France, the USA, and Eastern Europe – although I haven’t yet been to either Australia or the Seychelles.

Have you been to China before? If not, what are you most looking forward to?

I haven’t ever been to China, and I am most looking forward to: everything. I’m very excited to visit such a huge and fascinating country, and I just want to wander around with my eyes wide open, soaking up new experiences.

Who were your favorite writers when you were a child?

When I was growing up, I didn’t really have favorite writers, but I had favorite books. Some of them were: Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl; A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula le Guin; The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier; Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake; and the Tintin books by Hergé.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to be a writer?

My main piece of advice is very simple: read. Read, read, read. Read anything and everything. You’ll discover what works and what doesn’t, what you love and what you hate. A writer needs to be a reader first.

For the second in our series profiling authors who are appearing at the Bookworm Literary Festival, we talked to David Hill. David is a New Zealand author, best known for his stories for young adults.

You were writing for a long time before you started writing for young people. What inspired you to turn to YA fiction?
I’d been writing mainly fiction and non-fiction for adults. Then one of our daughter’s best friends died when they were both 15. I saw her sadness and courage, wrote a book called See Ya, Simon for teenagers, and realized what a rich lode of material there was to write about their lives. Plus I was a high school teacher for some years, and so many of the events and students I knew gave me ideas for stories and plays.

Did your own teenage years provide you with material for your books?
 
I appear in a lot of ways in my books. A lot of the protagonists think (or fail to!) like me. And like my son and my grandsons. A few books – one set in 1950s NZ, called Journey to Tangiwai have events lifted straight from my own childhood. But mainly it’s attitudes and feelings that I’ve had which seem to appear in the books.

Your event at the festival centers on Maori mythology. When were you first exposed to these stories and how have they shaped you as a writer?
 
In fact I haven’t written a great deal about Maori mythology, though the novel I’m trying to start does incorporate some elements of it. I feel it’s best written about my Maori writers. But of course there are some wonderful myths and legends, and I’ve felt privileged to write about a few.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become a writer?
 
To any aspiring young writer, I’d say: a. Read heaps. Every time you read, you’re seeing how other writers use certain tricks and techniques; b. keep a copy of everything you write; never throw anything away. You don’t know when you may be able to improve it or use it in something else. c. Think about mistakes you’ve made, embarrassments you’ve had, things you wish you had done better. Writing about your own blunders can result in some great stories – both tragic and funny.
 

David will be sharing Maori Legends of New Zealand on March 15 at 10.30am at the Bookworm.

In the run up to the Bookworm Literary Festival, we’ll be profiling some of the authors who write either for children or on family/ parenting issues. First up is Graeme Base, an award-winning author and illustrator, who has been writing children’s books for over 30 years.

Where did you grow up?
I was born at a very early age in England. I recovered from this setback at the age of eight when my parents moved to Australia and I decided to tag along.

Why did you start creating books for children?
I always wanted to be an artist, ever since I was a kid. I was always drawing in the margins of my school books. Eventually I did a graphic design course then got a job in advertising. I hated it! They didn’t like me much either – I was sacked for incompetence (hard to do a good job if you have zero interest in what you are doing). I started to do freelance illustration for some publishing companies, doing pictures for other people’s texts, then decided to have a go at writing a story myself. It was a poem called My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch. It was published in 1983 and I’ve been writing and illustrating my own books ever since.

Do your own children serve as inspiration for your books?
Strange to say, not a lot. I began writing and illustrating long before I had kids and the impetus was purely my own need to create. I had ideas for pictures and I wanted to make them real. Another strange fact is that my kids have probably read fewer of my books than many of their friends – my wife and I would always read to them but it just felt weird reading them one of my own books! Occasionally I have read them a draft manuscript (the original verse version of TruckDogs for instance, before it morphed into a novel) but this was rare.

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to be an illustrator?
The Four Ps.
PASSION: you have to love what you do.
PERSPIRATION: you must be prepared to work hard to turn your ideas into reality.
PERSISTENCE: never give up; you will strike disappointments, keep going regardless.
PROVENANCE: sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time – be aware of these times and capitalize on them. Luck is part of the equation!

Can you tell me about your biggest inspirations for Eye to Eye? 
When I was a child I used to imagine, like most children, that I could fly. I also remember pretending I was tiny, like an ant, or traveled to another planet, or climbed to the top of the highest mountain. These childhood memories were behind the idea for Eye to Eye. Then, a few years ago, I was lucky enough to go with my family to Antarctica. While we were there we had an amazing close-up encounter with a whale – it came right up alongside our little boat, rolled over so that its eye was right out of the water, and looked at us. This experience inspired me to create the whale painting in the book – it is my favourite image.

How does Eye to Eye stand out from the rest of your work? What aspects of it show your evolution and progression as an artist?
My early books, like Animalia and The Eleventh Hour, were packed with detail. I felt I had to fill every corner of the page with something to look. In recent years I have tried let the pictures have a greater feeling of space – more ‘filmic’ perhaps. In Eye to Eye there are some very open vistas with uncluttered horizons. I really enjoy this sense of the ‘wide blue yonder’!

What are you working on next, and why does it have you excited?
Right now I am taking a break from making books and concentrating on a toy idea I have had for many years. It is one of several ideas that I would like to try to make real. Soon I will start a new book (I have several ideas in mind) but right now I am having a great time in the workshop making wooden models and prototypes.

Can you please tell me a few anecdotal examples of parents or children who have approached you (after a book reading or an event) to tell you how their books have affected them? How is this gratifying and rewarding for you?
Ever since Animalia came out in 1986 I have been hearing how teacher and parents have used this book and others as springboards into language and other areas of learning. I never plan my books to be ‘educational’ but it is wonderful to see how people have used them in this way. These days, when I do book signings, I frequently meet young parents bringing their children to get a book signed who tell me their own parents brought them to see me when they were children themselves. It makes me feel very old (!) but also very, very lucky.

Graeme will be on the panel for Disseminating the Magic: Children’s Writing in the Digital Age, at 2pm on Saturday 12 March at Bookworm Beijing. 

If you’re worried about keeping up your kids’ reading skills during the winter break, here’s something that might give them that little extra push. From February 13 to March 29 (the end of the Bookworm Literary Festival), the United Foundation for China’s Health (UFCH) is holding its first-ever readathon called Read for Hope. The idea is for kids (ages 5 and up) to raise money for charity by securing sponsorship to read at least 30 minutes every day in any language.

So far, almost 1,000 students from four international schools – Canadian International School of Beijing, Dulwich College Beijing, the International School of Beijing, and Daystar Academy – have signed up to participate in the event. Organizations like Sports Beijing, the Bookworm, Roundabout, Le-Kids, and Depan have also committed to publicize the event and help with signup.

Participants will catalog their reading in a booklet provided by UFCH. Friends and family can decide to sponsor them for a modest daily amount (e.g. RMB 5 per day) or through a lump sum at the end of the readathon. The campaign will cap off with gifts for all the participants as well as prizes for categories like Most Donations, Most Sponsors, Class with the Most Donations, Class with the Most Sponsors, and Most Days of Reading. Grownups are welcome to join the action too.

One of the recipient’s of Chi Fan for Charity 2014, UFCH provides medical help to orphans, poor families, migrant students, and other vulnerable groups across China. The organization is getting ready to launch Wheels for Life, a mobile community clinic that aims to serve over 20 foster homes and migrant schools in Beijing. All proceeds from this year’s Read for Hope will benefit Wheels for Life and a migrant school in Daxing County.

To sign up for Read for Hope, visit UFCH’s website here. For more information, contact info@unitedfoundation.org or 5927 7462.

Photo: Courtesy of UFCH

The 2013 Bookworm Literary Festival will feature several writers, illustrators, and scholars from the world of children’s and young adult literature. Our friends at The Bookworm asked their experts for some top picks.

Australian author Meredith Badger, best known for her Fairy School Dropout series will speak on the BLF’s “Forever Young (Adult)” panel on Tuesday, March 19, 6pm.

For younger readers:

The 18th Emergency by Betsy Byars

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

For teen readers:

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Whisper by Chrissie Keighery

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield

Tickets to Meredith’s BLF panel are currently on sale at the Bookworm.

Photo: bookedout.com.au 

The 2013 Bookworm Literary Festival will feature several writers, illustrators, and scholars from the world of children’s and young adult literature. We’re all adults here but let’s face it, who can say no to big letters and bright colors and pictures? To entertain our infantile taste in literature, our friends at The Bookworm asked their experts for some top picks.

Australian young adult novelist, father of three and full-time firefighter Robert Newton will speak on the BLF’s “Forever Young (Adult)” panel on Tuesday, March 19, 6pm. His latest novel, When We Were Two, was shortlisted for CBC Book of the Year and won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction.

For younger readers:

Pretty much anything by Morris Gleitzman, but notably Two Weeks with the Queen

For teen readers:

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Tickets to Robert’s BLF panel are currently on sale at the Bookworm.

Photo: arts.gov.au

The 2013 Bookworm Literary Festival will feature several writers, illustrators, and scholars from the world of children’s and young adult literature. Our friends at The Bookworm asked their experts for some top picks.

Australian children’s book illustrator Ann James will be leading an illustration workshop for kids on Friday, March 15, 10am as part of BLF 2013.  Here are some of the illustrators that inspire her.

Bio: Ann James was an art teacher and moved into designing and illustrating education publications while establishing herself as a children’s book illustrator. James co-founded Books Illustrated, a center celebrating Australian children’s literature, in particular picture books and their creators. Some of the books she has illustrated include: The Penny Pollard series, the Hannah series, The Midnight Gang, Shutting the Chooks In, Little Humpty, The Way I Love You, and Lucy Goosey. Ann James’ visit is supported by the “Hello from Australia” exhibition, funded through the CAL Cultural Fund (Australia).

Favorite illustrators:
Jozef Wilkon – Atuk, Jozef, Little Kittens, Zoo, Noah
Quentin Blake – The Story of Dancing Frog, The BFG, Ten Frogs, The Wild Washerwomen, Clown, Patrick
Suzy Lee – Mirror, Wave, Shadows, Raven
Mary Blair – Peter Pan, Cinderella
Gabrielle Vincent – Ernest & Celestine, The Old Man & the Cats, A Dog A Day

Tickets for Ann’s BLF workshop are currently on sale at The Bookworm.

Photo: canberra.edu.au