EU Book Club : Happening by Annie Ernaux

The event will be the third chapter of the EU Book Club, a collaboration between Italy, Germany and France, combining literature and film. After the first two talks and screenings organised by our Italian and German counterpart - "Clash of Civilizations over an Elevator in Piazza Vitorio" by Amara Lakhous and "The Collini Case" by Ferdinand von Schirach respectively, AFHK is happy to present "Happening (L'Evénement)" by the lastest laureat of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Annie Ernaux.

"Happening" is one of the writer's masterpieces. In a first-person narrative she revisits her struggle as a young woman 40 years ago to resolve her predicament: pregnancy and abortion. It was adapted into a film by French director Audrey Diwan, which went on to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2021.

Two guest speakers, Uncle Salt, from Corrupt the Youth, and Dr Sabrina Yeung (Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese, HSUHK) will discuss with the audience various issues, literary and social, raised in the original novel and also the film adaptation, after the film screening.

Guest Speakers

Dr YEUNG Choi Kit, Sabrina 

Sabrina YEUNG specialises in Comparative and Modern Chinese Literature. She received her Master and PhD from University of Paris-Sorbonne. Before joining Hang Seng Université, she taught in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

YEUNG Chun-Yin (Uncle Salt) 

YEUNG Chun-Yin, nicknamed "Salt" or "Uncle Salt" in Cantonese, graduated from Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong and Department of Philosophy, Chinese University of Hong Kong; and further studied a PhD Programme in Humboldt University of Berlin and King's College London. In 2016, Uncle Salt and his comrades established "Corrupt the Youth" and started to host "Philosophy Night" on RTHK 31, which aims to introduce philosophy to the general public. He is now teaching philosophy and critical thinking courses in various tertiary institutions in Hong Kong.