Bookworms are salivating at the prospect of next month's eighth annual Shanghai International Literary Festival with an 80-strong line-up of authors, poets and critics offering a smorgasbord of literary lunches, wine-fuelled discussions and walking tours.
Topping the bill is Thomas Keneally, the prolific Australian writer who penned Schindler's List. He is supported by a slew of writers from across Asia and the four corners of the globe.
But glancing over the preliminary list of speakers, there is a glaring omission: a clear shortage of local talent. It may be an international festival, but the lack of a home team sits oddly, especially given the city's proud literary heritage.
Despite a handful of returning emigres and a few prominent overseas Chinese returning to their roots, there appears to be just one mainland-based Chinese writer - playwright, columnist and novelist Zhao Chuan - taking part.
Instead, the Shanghai literary scene is represented by the small but industrious clique of Westerners chronicling the city's colonial history and current social change.
Worthy though their efforts may be, this is a sad indictment not so much of the city's literati but of the timidity which sees public events continuing to be organised in the bubble expatriate community.
