Dear Friends,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the second edition of the EU-China International Literary Festival, which is being held in Shanghai and Suzhou from 21-27 May, 2018.

This year we have invited outstanding European authors from eleven countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Together with 26 well-known and aspiring Chinese writers from Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and Hangzhou, they will engage in a series of literary events and discussions with readers and audiences, and celebrate the diversity of European and Chinese culture.

Literature is at the heart of the European way of life. The festival will be an opportunity to encourage people, especially young people, to explore Europe and China's cultural heritage and to reflect on the place that personal exchanges occupy in all our lives. In this, our festival coincides with the EU-China Year of Tourism and the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

We would like to thank all our partners who made this event happen, particularly the embassies and consulates general of the EU member states, the various participating venues in Shanghai and Suzhou, including the Department for Culture and Education of German Consulate General Shanghai and The Bookworm, and of course the wonderful writers from Europe and China who will grace this festival.

We also encourage you to subscribe to our social media platforms to enable you to keep abreast of many exciting activities we develop as part of #Experience Europe#, a two-year EU public diplomacy programme.

Hans Dietmar Schweisgut,

Ambassador of the European Union to China