LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

Last Boat Out of Shanghai

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Shanghai has historically been China’s jewel, its richest, most modern city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao’s proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus has opened the story to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves the story of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything as refugees in Hong Kong,…

Free

Helen Zia in Conversation with Putsata Reang

Portland Chinatown Museum 127 NW Third Ave, Portland, OR, United States

The Portland Chinatown Museum is honored to present a book conversation with Helen Zia, acclaimed writer, journalist, and activist. Helen Zia will be in conversation with writer Putsata Reang to discuss Helen’s new book, LAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI. A book signing will follow the discussion period. This event is part of the Portland Chinatown Museum's ongoing series, STORIES MY MOTHER AND FATHER TOLD ME, sponsored in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities. LAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI is based on the dramatic, real-life stories of a generation caught up in the mass rush out of Shanghai in the wake of China’s 1949 Communist Revolution, with startling parallels to the struggles faced by emigrants today. Shanghai has historically been China’s jewel, its richest, most…

$10 – $12