Lieve Joris, born in Neerpelt, Belgium, in 1953. B.A. from the School voor de Journalistiek, Utrecht. Writer in Amsterdam.
Writer-in-Residence (1 September 2012 – 31 January 2013)
AFRICA AND ASIA: AN ENCOUNTER
From the spring of 2009 till the summer of 2012, I travelled on the increasingly busy route between Africa and China, trying to find out what happens when people who don’t share a colonial past, meet each other. When I arrived at NIAS in September 2012, the working title of my book was Africa and China: The Story of an Encounter. I’d written the first draft – minus one chapter – in quite austere conditions in the interior of China, and finished the second draft in the blissful company of a group of empathetic and knowledgeable scholars, a wonderful library service and an uncensored internet connection. Finally, a young African boy, dressed in a royal blue Chinese outfit, looks confidently into the camera on the cover of my new book On The Wings of The Dragon, Travels between Africa and China.