[Margaret Laurence to Margaret Atwood]Lakefield
15 Oct 81
Dear Peggy--
As you probably recall, recently a group of Canadian writers (Alice Munro, Adele Wiseman, Bob Kroetsch, Gary Geddes, Pat Lane, Geoff Hancock, and a Quebec woman writer whose name I'm ashamed to say I can't remember) went on a visit to China. Among the writers they met was Ding Ling, who is China's most famous (and probably oldest) woman writer. Her career began in the 20s, and she has gone through periods of being a heroine of the revolution, then out of favour, and is now apparently the senior stateswoman of writers. Anyway, Adele had wanted to meet her for years, and this was finally realized. Ding Ling will be visiting Canada briefly in November, and Adele and I are organizing a reception for her at York University on Saturday the 28th of Nov. You and Graeme will be receiving invitations in due course. But a few of us (Adele, me Clara Thomas, Alice M., Gary Geddes) will be taking Ding Ling, her husband and a young writer (and translator) Richard Liu, out for a quiet dinner beforehand. We wondered if you and Graeme would care to join us for the dinner. We'd let you know the time and place a bit later. . . .
-from A Very Large Soul: Selected Letters from Margaret Laurence to Canadian Writers edited with a preface by J. A. Wainwright (Dunvegan, Ontario: Cormorant Books, 1995) p. 81.
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