This Saturday, September 19 at 8 pm, Kaiser Kuo will host the China 10 Game Show, a Jeopardy!-style competition that pits four foreign correspondents against one another in a three-round, multi-category free-for-all. Winner takes home pride and a J visa. What kind of questions can we expect?

The categories: (more…)

The Beijing Flea Market is BACK, and this time with new vendors and even more variety! For one day (this Saturday, September 19, noon – 7 pm), The Bookworm rooftop will be the place to find more than 25 vendors with a huge selection of secondhand clothes, shoes, jewelry, bags, and accessories, plus vintage, handmade items by local designers, artisan eats and delicious drink deals! (more…)

Wil Sylvince‘s resume is as impressive as his comedy: former Chappelle’s Show host, emcee of New York’s famous Comedy Cellar, and two-time headliner at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He’s coming to Beijing for one-night only this Sunday, September 20, at 8 pm. Buy your tickets now!

(You can also reserve tickets via [email protected] and 6503 2050.)

Storm Xu, who has been called “the future of comedy in China,” will emcee, with an opening act by Beijing’s own Paul Creasy.

We’re showing three movies this week at The Bookworm: on Monday, the science fiction flick based off Kazuo Ishiguro’s award-winning novel Never Let Me Go; on Wednesday, the Chinese documentary Meishi (Coal) Street, about Beijing’s famous Qianmen nail house; and on Friday, the Japanese masterpiece Hana-bi (released in the US as Fireworks). Read on for more information! (more…)

Preparations for the Bookworm’s 10th anniversary celebrations are going swimmingly. Flea market, game show, comedy, book talk, poetry, storytelling, and so much more.

We’re doing our first Twitter giveaway tomorrow morning (at 10 am and 11 am … don’t tell anyone!). These will happen every day, so keep an eye on our account, @BeijingBookworm, for your chance to win.

It’s still early in the US election cycle, but China has been a major talking point for America’s presidential hopefuls. How do we separate facts from bluster? This Sunday, we’re hosting a speaker who can help do just that.

Dr. Medeiros was the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs at the White House’s National Security Council (NSC) until June 2015. Prior to that, he served as the Director for China, Taiwan and Mongolian affairs and was a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Note: Due to high demand, The Bookworm can NOT take reservations for this event. Please order your tickets online or buy them in person at The Bookworm.

Sunday, September 13, 2015, 4 pm

50 RMB (40 RMB members)

A good bottle of whisky should never linger half-empty. We’re opening up our ample whisky collection for a special night of tasting on Friday, September 25 at 7 pm as part of Bookworm 10 Anniversary Week. In short: buy two glasses of any whisky from the following list, and get a glass for free! (more…)

Investigative filmmaker Zhou Hao takes his camera inside a county government in Henan province in this revealing documentary following the life and work of a Chinese Communist Party secretary. The Transition Period won Best Feature at the China Documentary Film Festival, and was an official selection at festivals in Rome, Iberia and Guangzhou. (more…)

The Bookworm is turning 10 years old! We think a celebration is called for — an eight-day celebration, to be exact, beginning Saturday, September 19, featuring a flea market, game show, book talk, journalism discussion, community get-together, whisky tasting, and keynote addresses, culminating in a party with live music on Saturday, September 26. Of course there will be drink deals all week, and keep an eye on this space for chances to win free tickets. (more…)

Tomorrow at 7:30 pm, author/editor Derek Sandhaus will be here to discuss the controversial memoirs of Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse, an English sinologist who found himself documenting the rampant corruption, grand conspiracies, and uninhibited sex inside Empress Dowager Tz’u Hsi’s court at the turn of the 20th century. Sandhaus is the editor of an abridged version of Backhouse’s most famous book, Decadence Mandchoue, renamed Manchu Decadence, which focuses on the most extraordinary and valuable elements of Backhouse’s narrative. (more…)