Author Talk! Xiao Hai: Adrift in the South w/ Tony Hao (Translator) & Ally Le

Join us at Yellow Pear Coffee (Park Slope, 384 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215) for a conversation with Xiao Hai, author of Adrift in the South, and Tony Hao, its translator. The conversation will be moderated by Ally Le. Each ticket includes an complimentary cafe beverage from our host, Yellow Pear Coffee.

About the Author, Translator, and Moderator

Xiao Hai (b. 1987) was born in Shangqiu City in Henan Province in China. At fifteen he moved to Shenzhen to join the workforce, moving between cities and factory jobs while writing poetry in his spare time. His debut memoir Adrift in the South was published by Granta in May, 2026. 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.

Tony Hao is a Chinese-to-English literary translator based in New Haven, CT. Authors he has translated include Taiwanese novelist Tong Wei-Ger, Chinese short story writer Ban Yu and Taiwanese transgender writer Liu Chen-Chun. He is the translator of Xiao Hai’s memoir Adrift in the South, published by Granta in May, 2026. His short-form translation has appeared in Granta, The Wall Street Journal, The Georgia Review, The Offing, and elsewhere.

Ally Le is a historian of modern China and Southeast Asia and a literary translator based in New York. Her works engage with the questions of colonial childhood; gender, kinship, and sexuality; and the extraction and circulation of labor and commodities in East and Southeast Asia. An alumna of the 2025 British Centre for Literary Translation Summer School, she is the winner of the 2026 Stevns Translation Prize. Her debut translation of Vietnamese novelist Maik Cây’s Bảo Tàng Lông [Museum of Hair] is forthcoming with Two Lines Press (US) and Peirene Press (UK) in 2027.

About this Event:

We're so excited to welcome you to this upcoming author talk!

• Check-in for the event begins at 6pm, programming will begin at 6:30pm

• Each ticket will include a beverage from Yellow Pear Coffee; and an option to add a personalized signed copy of the featured book. Additional beverages and snacks will also be available for purchase at the event. Non-caffeinated beverage options will be available.

• A book signing will follow the conversation.

• Additional copies of Adrift in the South, as well as a small selection of other nonfiction titles will be available for purchase.

• If you would like us to bring a title from our collection for purchase at the event, please contact us via email or dm.

• $8 of each ticket goes toward supporting our wonderful hosting partner. Any additional contributions in your ticket purchase helps sustain Yellow Peril Book's programming efforts (ty!). If you would like to contribute directly, you can also do so here!

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If you would like to attend but the ticket cost is prohibitive, please reach out to contact@yellowperilbooks.com and we will try to find a solution! We never want lack of funds to be a barrier to entry.

About Adrift in the South

When Xiao Hai turned fifteen, his family paid a vocational-school teacher 1,200 yuan to find him a factory job in Shenzhen. So began fifteen years spent moving between the garment mills and electronics factories of China’s fast-growing southern cities.

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.

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. 

Refunds and Exchanges

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Exchanges for future events are allowed if you reach out a minimum of 10 days before the start of the original event you signed up for. Our events are usually sold out and we want to make sure that we'd have enough time to fill any open spots with people who are hoping to join. Please reach out to contact@yellowperilbooks.com if you have any issues with your ticket.