Click on the player below to listen to Professor Barme's discussion on his new book, Forbidden City, at the Beijing International Literary Festival save the mp3 file to your computer here. Audio courtesy of the Bookworm.

4:24 | Over and out It's over now. Jenny and Jeremy Goldkorn thank everyone. Jenny announces that unfortunately, "There's no more books!" It's a fitting end to Barme's talk. His book (available on Amazon) is already sold out.

4:12 | One question for Geremie Someone finally asks, "Why did you write the book?" and Barme’s response leads to an interesting tangent. Apparently, a connection to the publishers of Wonders of the World, led to an introduction with Peter Carson, a man whose parents had an interesting connection to Forbidden City dating back to 1923. It was the year before Emperor Puyi was thrown out of the Palace and he was in the process of carrying out an inventory of the jianfugong room). Puyi had been busy stealing or “moving” many things (depending on your perspective) down to a refuge in Tianjin. Puyi knew that the thousand or so remaining eunuchs had also been siphoning off goods from the Palace and selling them at the local “eunuch market”, which was “sort of like Panjiayuan, but better. The last emperor wanted to help put a stop to it. But before the investigation could really begin, jianfugong burned down. Peter Carson’s parents were on the roof garden of what is now Raffles and saw the building burn. The Carson's even went on to join the firefighters from the Italian Embassy to help put out the fire. When they arrived, there they saw Puyi covered with soot, trying salvage what they could.

4:09 Three Questions for Matthew Wow, a fan. A guest asks a representative from the Beijing City of Cultural Heritage, “if it would be helpful if people who cared to give a donation of 20 or 30 RMB to your work could". The woman goes on to ask if western companies could donate and finally ends with another jawbreaker, “do you have any remaining calendars for sale? And do you want people to distribute them on your behalf?” In the midst of such questions regarding restoration, political reform and the architecture of the Forbidden City, her generous but out of sync questions sound very off key. We all wonder if she’s in cahoots with the Heritage Center.

4:01 | But it's a heritage site In a long response about restorative efforts, we learn that only 10-15% of people living in the Forbidden City area have deeds to their home. Most are tenants renting out from the government or military.

3:39 | Things move quickly Question time. They range from interest in restoration of the City to questions about how the palace functioned. Barme speaks quickly and bounces back and forth on various subjects. and we’re happy that we’re recording the talk for podcast publishing afterwards.

3:24 | A Palace of Blood and Tears It’s obvious and cliché to admit, but there is so much more to the Forbidden City than what even amateur enthusiasts or long-term expats purport to know. Some wince when Barme reveals that the Forbidden City was referred to as the Palace of Blood and Tears during the Cultural Revolution. He moves back and forth this way, dropping random historical facts and passages from his book. The audience isn’t as ignorant as one may think. They are clearly well educated, interested and interesting people in the audience. We learn this when Barme quickly winds down his talk and opens up the discussion for questions. In contrast to the Shanghai International Literary Festival, the BJ audience raises several hands.

3:16 | A good breakfast Barme is here promoting his new book and I imagine that this is the first time that many have heard more about the Forbidden City since wandering the palace with their audio guide. (As some of us will remember, Roger Moore used to be your English guide to the City before 2005; and it was an expat insider’s joke that the actor who once played James Bond, would inflect the word “concubine” when describing the emperor’s palace.) But Barme has more for us today. “It’s a book that tries to use the Forbidden City to try and understand Chinese history and culture”. Our ears perk up when the professor announces he’ll read three passages from his book. “The first passage covers a day in the life of the emperor. It just describes his breakfast”. Barme picks up his hardback, Jeremy looks on and we struggle to listen in over the busy café. The emperor would “gobble down” his breakfast in fifteen minutes.

3:08 | In the Beginning It’s 3:08 on a Saturday and The Beijing International Book Festival is about to begin. It’s absolutely packed at the Bookworm today. People are streaming up the stairs and truth be told, it’s almost too crowded. Still, while the café is packed, there a few seats open for the three o’clock talk by Professor of Chinese History at the Australia National University, Canberra, Geremie (pronounced as Jeremy) Barme on the Forbidden City. Danwei’s Jeremy Goldkorn is moderating.