Xiao Hai: Adrift in the South

In association with Granta literary magazine, we are delighted to be welcoming the poet and author Xiao Hai 小海, a leading voice of China's migrant worker literature movement to discuss his latest work, a memoir of his life as a migrant labourer, translated by Tony Hao and published by Granta (2026).

Xiao Hai is our bookclub featured author for May/June so you can read a sample of his work. Born in Shangqiu City in Henan Province, at fifteen he moved to Shenzhen to join the workforce. He spent the next decade moving between cities, working factory jobs and writing poetry. He is the author of the poetry collection Sisyphus on the Wenyu River, and translations of his poetry have appeared in World Literature Today and Chinese Literature Today. 

Publisher's abstract

This memoir is a landmark text from China’s migrant worker literature movement, a grassroots group of writers providing an unvarnished account of what life is like for the 300 million migrant workers powering the world’s second-biggest economy.

Adrift in the South is a memoir of life as a migrant labourer in the twenty-first century, making iPhones and baby clothes, hand-stitching football shirts and cutting plastic into radios. Here, Xiao Hai reveals the alienation and tedium of factory life, the small indignities and indifference of the larger system. And he tells the story of how poetry led him somewhere unexpected: to join a small community of artists living, working, and studying together on the outskirts of Beijing.

Xiao Hai will speak in Mandarin and Chinese/English interpreting will be provided for the talk and Q&A. Luke Neima from Granta will also give a short introduction to Granta's work with contemporary Chinese writing.

All very welcome -- free of charge but please sign up on our Ticket-tailor listing. Tea and coffee will be available from 3:15 pm