Category: Book Reviews

Posted on

‘At the Chinese Table’: Memoir Traces Lifelong Love Affair w/ Chinese Cuisine

That first mouthful of authentic mapo tofu, just days after my arrival to the central Chinese provincial capital of Zhengzhou, still shines among the favorite memories of my early years in China. The sauce, seasoned with chile peppers and the numbing Sichuan peppercorns, danced across my tongue in a perfectly spiced symphony of flavors that I had never encountered in any tofu dish at a Chinese restaurant in the US. 

There was a lot at that time I still didn’t understand — I could barely speak Chinese, and was even trying to navigate a very confusing new work situation. But my taste buds had already begun falling for the country through every small but delectable bite, uncovering a whole new world of Chinese cuisine that still entrances me to this day and has shaped my life in countless ways.

For Carolyn Phillips, the author of the new memoir At the Chinese Table, Chinese cuisine did far more by firing up a passion that paved the way for her eventual career an acclaimed food writer. (See previous interviews with Carolyn about her encyclopedic Chinese cookbook All Under Heaven and her Dim Sum Field Guide.)

At the Chinese Table retraces her lifelong love affair with Chinese cuisine, with her Chinese husband JH, a scholar and gourmet, playing a pivotal role in the narrative. Told in striking detail with plenty of self-deprecating humor, the story starts in Taiwan and takes the reader on a very personal journey punctuated by many mouthwatering Chinese dishes. Along the way, a few family secrets get uncovered as well, adding a pinch of mystery to a memoir that makes for a truly appetizing read from start to finish.

It’s my great pleasure and honor to feature Carolyn Phillips, author of the new memoir At the Chinese Table.

Here’s Carolyn’s bio from the publisher’s website:

Carolyn Phillips is a food writer, scholar, artist, fluent Mandarin speaker, and author of the James Beard–nominated All Under Heaven, the first English-language cookbook to examine all thirty-five cuisines of China. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

You can learn more about Carolyn and her memoir at her website Madamehuang.com. Her new memoir At the Chinese Table is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

What inspired you to write this memoir?

I wrote a short story about my late father-in-law called “Monkey Eve” that was included in Best Food Writing 2015. That was my first suggestion that I might be onto something, and it encouraged me to write another one about my late mother-in-law. That second story, “Good Graces,” in turn became a finalist for the Beards’ M. F. K. Fisher Distinguished Writing award. I felt like I was onto something, so I shaped those two stories around a proposal for my food memoir.

Your husband and his family both have prominent starring roles in the narrative. How did they feel about the book?

My husband has been so wonderful and supportive. He told me to write it the way I wanted, and I interviewed him over many days about what he remembered, who all these people in his family tree were, and then I tried to string everything together in a way that made sense. (Believe me, that’s much harder that it sounds!) I did give J. H. the option of scratching out whatever he didn’t like. But he loved it and was fascinated by all the things I uncovered about his family, especially regarding his beloved maternal grandmother, Laolao. My happiest day was when J. H. told me that the things that had never made sense in the past now fit together like perfect puzzle pieces.

It took a considerable amount of bravery on his part to accept that Laolao had quite possibly been a concubine, rather than a wife. Even now, people want to hide that sort of thing, as if being a concubine were somehow shameful. But it wasn’t. And it wasn’t like she ever had a choice in the matter. Women were treated as chattel back then. They rarely ever had the opportunity to decide who they would marry or what sort of lives they would be allowed to pursue. Laolao’s family broke her will and her feet. They deliberately kept her ignorant and illiterate. Like I wrote in my book, they designed a doll that would not talk back. But then when her life was turned upside-down, Laolao summoned the bravery and cleverness she needed to support her mother, two brothers, daughter, and herself. She was a phenomenal person, and I can only hope that I’ve done her justice.

I also figured out that J. H.’s maternal grandfather was not Han Chinese, but rather Hani, an ethnic minority in Yunnan. That was also a big secret, but when J. H. told one of his sisters about this, she was rather happy about it.

Your memoir begins with your college years in Taiwan in the late 1970s, when the island first tempted your taste buds with its array of delicacies. What was it like to revisit this time in your life through writing this book? 

It was so strange and so wonderful. Many memories had been lost to me, but I found that I could summon them through food. Little details floated up as I thought about things like my host mother’s golden cabbage fritters (page 26 in At the Chinese Table). And then, as I recalled the smell of them, the taste of them, and the feel of them on my lips, I started thinking about what these sorts of foods meant and why Auntie Lee cooked them and why they turned out to be so unforgettable. I mean, we all know how aromas can trigger some of our earliest memories, but I’m such an enthusiastic eater that anything having to do with food does the same thing for me!

As I prepared to write At the Chinese Table, this turned into an enormous sorting process, something like finally getting around to cleaning out the basement and sorting out the tons of boxes that have been gathering dust for decades. People who had been long dead returned to my life, and it was the most wonderful gift ever. 

Being afforded the opportunity to write a memoir is inexplicably beautiful because I got to relive my life and see old acquaintances and dine with beloved friends and try through the perspective of age to make sense of my time here on Earth. I never really set out to learn Chinese or live in Taiwan or marry a Chinese guy or write books about the cuisines of China. It was all happenstance. Especially in my first few decades, I was incredibly passive. Life just sort of happened to me. I was more like a leaf on a river, rather than some stalwart pioneer. It’s only in retrospect that I can see the zigzaggy path I took and where it led me.

Your own drawings — many of food, but also much more — delightfully decorate the pages of the memoir. Why did you choose to include these in the book? 

Why, thank you! Publishers seem to regard my books as sort of package deals nowadays, a combination of writing and illustrations. But I’m not complaining. It’s incredibly nice to have people welcome both my writing and drawings.

This all started with All Under Heaven, which was originally contracted with Dave Eggers’s publishing house, McSweeney’s in San Francisco. They champion artists—especially graphic artists—in their books and periodicals, so I included some sample drawings in my proposal, and it seemed a great fit. They did ask if I wanted photographs, and of course I said yes, but then they said that the cost of producing the book would then go up dramatically (due to the glossy paper, full color printing, etc.), so I had to make a choice: much fewer recipes plus photographs, or lots more recipes with no photographs. That was an easy decision for me to make. I think I considered this choice for all of three seconds!

My next book, The Dim Sum Field Guide, developed out of an illustrated article I had created for the Lucky Peach “Chinatown” issue. Lucky Peach turned that article into a handout for the MAD Symposium in Copenhagen, which was a thrill. Not too long after that, I wrote a proposal for The Dim Sum Field Guide, sent it to Aaron Wehner, Ten Speed Press’s publisher, and he said, “Sounds cool.” I’ve also created illustrations for things like my history of teahouses and dim sum for Gastronomica, so I guess I’ve carved out a strange little niche for myself.

Every chapter in the book ends with two recipes. Could you tell us which one is your favorite and why?

Boy, that’s like asking me which of my children I love best. When it comes to the recipes that I’ve made more times than I can count, that would have to be my Taiwanese fried pork chops (page 24), as well as the garlic chile sauce (page 147) that is created out of fresh red chiles. We devour those chops in mere minutes, and whenever I have that chile sauce around I slather it on everything. They both are definitely addictive.

From an emotional point of view, my most beloved recipe would be the black sesame candy wafers (page 202) because they remind me so much of my late father-in-law. He and I had a very unusual but good relationship because neither of us like to chitchat much, and yet we both love to cook. Because of this, we spent many happy hours shopping in LA’s old Chinatown, which is where he lived, and then creating traditional Hakka dishes in his tiny kitchenette. He taught me so much about the art of cooking, about patience in the kitchen, and about inserting history and culture into the things that you eat. Cooking is such an ephemeral art—many hours of preparation and cooking that then disappear in a matter of minutes. But even so, he made me understand that such transitory pleasures deserve our care and attention.

Could you share with us a culinary memory that didn’t make it into the pages of your book, but still tantalizes you over all these years?

Oh goodness, there are so many. I was limited to 75,000 words, but initially gave my editor 150,000! Plenty was pared away, believe me. I could do a whole book on nothing but Taiwan’s night markets, or its open-air markets, or the amazing restaurants that offered food from all over China in its most stellar incarnations, or meals I ate with famous people, or some of the silliest and/or most awful things I’ve ever been served. (And they’re not what you might imagine…)

One thing that got cut was the delicious Chinese obsession with enjoying every last morsel of a fish. The first time this happened for me was at my host family’s house, when, at the end of the meal, the mother sucked the eyes and brains out of a whole fried pomfret. She was smiling happily the whole time, but she must have noticed my nervousness, so the next time she had me eat the cheeks, which were firm yet delectable little nuggets, and then we slowly worked our way up the skull. It really made me appreciate how much we Americans throw away that is perfectly edible and quite good.

And with J. H. I found that just about any fish served in a sauce would find itself returned to the kitchen halfway through the meal. Not that there was anything wrong with the fish. Rather, he’d ask, say, the chef at a Sichuanese restaurant to debone the fish and then simmer squares of fresh doufu and “red” doufu (coagulated blood) with the rest of the sauce and fish. What a divine way to devour every last drop! And West Lake vinegar fish at a Shanghainese place was also always returned to the kitchen halfway through dinner so that the sauce and remaining shreds of fish could be tossed with a bowl of steaming hot fresh egg noodles and a sprinkling of shredded ginger. I can still taste that to this day.

When I had the McSweeney’s people over for lunch one day—they were sort of test-driving my recipes while they considered my proposal—I served them a whole fried flounder that had been deep-fried until the fins and tail had crisped up into crunchy chip-like frills. Two of my guests were ethnic Chinese, and they actually tussled over the head. I was thrilled. And I knew I was going to finally get a book contract!

What do you hope people take away from reading your memoir? 

I’d love it if non-Chinese came away from this book with a feeling of closeness for Chinese people. It would be so wonderful if they could realize that Chinese and Westerners have so much in common, that we’re just different flavors of the same species. The Chinese people and their cultures and their cuisines have so much to offer to us, and we have so much to learn from them. We should be building bridges and embracing each other and dining at communal tables and swapping jokes and, yes, marrying each other too. 

It’s been my joy to live for the past many decades in a world that is in many ways very Chinese. My husband and I have been together for over 46 years now, and he has magnified my world in more ways than I can ever count. If I could have my way, more Westerners would seek friends and lives that are Chinese. And to do that, they would have to learn Chinese fluently. It wouldn’t be easy. In fact, it would be ridiculously difficult, probably the hardest things you could ever ask someone to do. But with fluency comes understanding. All the things that keep people apart—ignorance, hatred, fear—then disappear. Of that I am certain. 

If all of this sounds intimidating, know that the first and easiest step toward achieving that sort of understanding is learning to appreciate all of China’s cuisines in their many remarkable manifestations. It’s thrilling to sit down with a stranger and share some fresh-baked flatbreads in Xinjiang, or discuss the aromas of fresh oolong teas on the eastern coast of Taiwan over a bowl of perfectly cooked rice, or talk with a bunch of retired Chinese chefs in Chengdu about how foods used to be created. The payoffs for showing even an inkling of curiosity about Chinese culture are remarkable. 

Many thanks to Carolyn Phillips for this interview! You can learn more about Carolyn and her memoir at her website Madamehuang.com. Her new memoir At the Chinese Table is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘A Single Swallow’: On the Wings of a Resilient Woman Amid WWII in China

A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling

China and the US actually fought as allies during World War II?

I had spent so much of my young life secure in the idea of China as the enemy or competitor or otherwise, that the discovery of Chinese and Americans joining hands in the Pacific theater to fight against the Japanese astounded me. 

I’m embarrassed to admit I learned this not from my high school or even college history courses, but rather from some historical novels by Pearl S. Buck. 

Indeed, historical fiction has frequently served as an indispensable window into the past, filling in the gaps from my own education through realistic narratives that add a human perspective to devastating events from generations ago, such as World War II.

Award-winning author Zhang Ling, in the highly anticipated English translation of her novel A Single Swallow, transports the reader to a small village in eastern China during and after World War II, where one woman deeply touches the lives of others, including the three men who loved her — one Chinese soldier, one American soldier and one American missionary. A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling

The ghosts of these three men, who each knew her by a different name, manifest her into the pages through their recollections of her life — recounting everything from the chilling brutality and suffering she endures to the light she shines upon them and the world with her determination and resilience. Despite not having a direct voice, this woman speaks powerfully through her actions in what is ultimately a feminist tale.

Fans of historical fiction who prefer a story that takes its time, unwinding the narrative with lyrical prose and rich, evocative descriptions, will savor A Single Swallow. 

It’s my great pleasure and honor to introduce you to Zhang Ling and A Single Swallow through this interview.

Here’s Zhang Ling’s bio from Amazon:

Zhang Ling is the award-winning author of nine novels and numerous collections of novellas and short stories. Born in China, she moved to Canada in 1986. In the mid-1990s, she began to write and publish fiction in Chinese while working as a clinical audiologist. Since then she has won the Chinese Media Literature Award for Author of the Year, the Grand Prize of Overseas Chinese Literary Award, and Taiwan’s Open Book Award. Among Zhang Ling’s work are Gold Mountain Blues and Aftershock, adapted into China’s first IMAX movie with unprecedented box-office success at the time.

The novel A Single Swallow is available on Amazon, where your purchases help support this site.

What was the inspiration for your novel?

Compared with the attention Europe has received in the World War II narrative, the Asian portion of the war is little known to the rest of the world. For years I brooded over the idea of a Chinese war story, but the idea remained vague. Then I found, through my reading, there was a small, secretive American naval group specializing in spy and guerrilla warfare active in China during the war. This group, working together with the Chinese, established thirteen camps along the coastline, to gather meteorological data for potential air raids on Tokyo, and to train local guerrilla forces using the latest technology at the time. The 8th camp was located in a place called Yuhu, under the jurisdiction of Wenzhou, my hometown in southeastern China. An American presence more than 70 years ago in a poor and isolated village immediately roused my curiosity, and it became clear that I wanted to write a war fiction set in my hometown, about the Chinese and the Americans fighting together against their common foe. 

Your novel centers on Ah Yan, the woman loved by three different men, who in telling their own tales allow the reader to know her story. Why did you choose to narrate her life mainly through other characters?

This novel begins in the early 40s in a poor Chinese village. Women then typically didn’t have much of a say in any issues, which accounts largely for my decision not to adopt Ah Yan’s voice as a dominant one.

Ah Yan is a very complex character, and each of the three men who come to her life draw out a different part of her. I find it harder to write from Ah Yan’s perspective, i.e. to create multiple versions of “her” while using her own voice as “me” speaking. A third person narrative seems to offer me more freedom and ease. However, her actions, revealed through other characters’ voices, speak louder than her suppressed voice. In the end, she is the one who sustains and survives the three men who, each in their different ways, have tried to “save” her.

The novel is set during and after World War II, and touches on the human costs of the war. What research did you do in preparing this story?

My research mainly falls in two categories, library reading and field trips. Through the help of a local volunteer group, I was able to visit the training camp site which miraculously survived the Cultural Revolution. Vivid details emerged from my meetings with the surviving trainees and local residents who have clear memories of their wartime experiences. 

While my library research has helped me to gain a historical perspective of the war, the field trips made me understand the poverty and sufferings of China as a war-torn country, the initial distrust of the local people towards the “foreigners” forced upon them by war, and the displacement and loneliness the Americans felt in a country so far away from home. These elements have been reflected in my description of the bond that eventually established between these people.

The resilience of Ah Yan, despite her brutal life experiences, stands out in the novel. Without giving away too much, could you share with us a favorite moment from the book showing Ah Yan’s strength?

One section has stayed with me for a long time after the book is finished — that is when Ah Yan decides to lay bare her past in front of the entire training camp, just to stop, once and for all, the gossip that has haunted her wherever she goes. It breaks my heart to write about the trauma inflicted upon her by the war as well as the oppressive social norms that associated the loss of virginity with such a degree of shame. Her brave decision to speak out brings a light of humanity to the darkness of brutality and ignorance.

You first published this novel in Chinese, and later released this English translation. How have readers of the English version responded, compared to those reading the original Chinese version?

Readers in general are intrigued by the American naval presence in China and the training camp stories during the war. Ah Yan’s traumatic experience, her incredible resilience, her innate ability to forgive and love, and her power to neutralize the most trying crises seem to stir up a universal feeling of empathy, understanding and admiration. However, the Chinese readers seem to focus more on the historical events of the war, whereas the English readers tend to pay more attention to the feministic aspects in the narrative.

What do you hope people gain from reading your novel?

I’d like to present WWII in a different light through Swallow, so that the readers can, hopefully, gain another perspective from the Asian war experience. I also hope to bring more awareness to the sexual brutality women suffer during the war and its long-term traumatic effects on their lives.

Many thanks to Ling for this interview! The novel A Single Swallow is available on Amazon, where your purchases help support this site.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom’ – Excerpt

Starting a family in China can be a unique adventure, especially for cross-cultural couples. A native of Denmark, Simon Gjeroe shares his own foray into the world of parenting with his Chinese partner through his new book Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom, which is published by Earnshaw Books.

It’s my pleasure to introduce you to this book through the following excerpt.

You can learn more about Simon Gjeroe and Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom at Simon’s website. The book Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this site.

The first time I really started to consider my life as a prospective father was when I was around twenty-two or twenty-three years old. One day, as I was staying in a small village in the southern province of Guangxi, I chanced upon an old soothsayer from the Yi ethnic minority who I still remember vividly. She stood only about 1.5 meters (less than five feet) tall, had more wrinkles than a Chinese Shar-pei puppy, and only a few crooked teeth left in her mouth, all stained a reddish-black, dyed from years of chewing betel nuts. She wore a big black turban with her white hair sticking out, and a cape over a simple blue and reddish set of clothes. Around her neck, dangling from her long earlobes, and wrapped around her wrists were elaborate and lovely pieces of silver jewelry. I believe (maybe naively) that I was the first foreigner she had ever set her beady black eyes on. She looked directly at me for a while and then took my left hand and turned it over and looked at my palm with a concentrated look on her face. Then she started to tell me what my future would be. Maybe because of the betel in her mouth or because she spoke only limited and broken Chinese, and my Chinese was very far from perfect at the time, I did not understand that much. However, what I did understand was that I would live to be 88 years old, and father no less than four children. After she finished predicting my future, almost to underscore her divination, she spat a red chunk of saliva on the ground dangerously close to my feet and left.

Fu and I had been trying for children for some months (Fu had long since given up smoking), even before we were married (please don’t tell anyone), but since nothing had really happened and considering we were both already in our mid-thirties, we began to wonder if everything was okay down there. This included me visiting a very local hospital to have ‘my everything’ looked at thoroughly, while struggling to keep the door closed to prevent people from peeking in. Ultimately, I was prescribed something probably derived from a poor dead animal or a fast-disappearing exotic forest somewhere in Southeast Asia. It wasn’t fair on my little boys to stand trial on such a hot and humid August day in Beijing anyway.

Then I did what probably quite a few Chinese, but very few foreigners, would consider normal. I invited a couple of friends out for a meal at the local restaurant called Guolizhuang, which translates into something like “the contents of the pot will make you strong”. Here we were shown into a small private room for a dinner consisting of mainly animal genitalia, which, according to Chinese beliefs, should increase male potency. To be more precise, a set menu which had been given the poetic name “The Essence of the Golden Buddha” was presented to us and it included not only ox, sheep and dog penis and testicles, but also a floating turtle and a sprinkle of seahorses. To my surprise, it was really tasty, although the dog penises were a little like eating a really old gummy bear. The waitress politely explained that our female companion should avoid eating the testicles, because it could give her both a deeper voice and even a beard. But she added that the penises would be fine for her to eat.

Harmless or not, I have to say that I was very sceptical to begin with, but I must admit that for the next twenty-four hours after we had finished our exotic meal, I have never felt so energized. I might sound weird, but I really felt like a ball of pure energy was streaming out from my belly and through my whole body. Animal genitalia or exotic forest plants, whatever the reason, something happened down there and just one month after our December wedding, Fu came to me one day with the delightful, but shocking news that she was pregnant.

Many thanks to Simon for sharing this excerpt! You can learn more about Simon Gjeroe and Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom at Simon’s website. The book Made in China: A memoir of Marriage and Mixed Babies in the Middle Kingdom is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this site.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘When in Vanuatu’ Finds Paradise in Healing Ties that Bind

Globetrotting through the pages of books has long been a favorite pastime for many. And with post-pandemic restrictions, more of us have turned to vicarious travel, often via novels, to satisfy our wanderlust and curiosity about the world.

So you might say I made my first “trip” to a certain South Pacific destination, thanks to reading Nicki Chen’s latest novel When in Vanuatu.

Inspired by the time she and her husband lived in the Philippines and Vanuatu, the story follows Diana, a trailing spouse troubled by infertility after years of living abroad. When in Vanuatu dispels the notion that moving to a warmer, tropical climate promises an idyllic existence. But it also stands as a reminder of the redemptive and healing power of friendships, wherever we are in the world.

Armchair sojourners will delight in the details, from delicious specialties at the dinner table to divine beaches, and find much to ponder in its narrative as well.

It’s my pleasure and honor to introduce you to When in Vanuatu through this interview with Nicki Chen.

Here’s Nicki’s bio on Amazon:

Nicki Chen was born in Sedro-Woolley, WA, in 1943. While studying at Seattle University, she met her future husband, a Chinese engineer. They lived for a time in her hometown, but before their third daughter was a month old, his new job took them to a new home in the Philippines. They didn’t return to the United States to stay for another twenty-two years. While abroad, Ms. Chen earned an MFA in Creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts, a feat that required nearly round-the-world travel twice every year. In 1983 she visited Xiamen, China, her husband’s birthplace and the setting for her first novel, Tiger Tail Soup.

Ms. Chen has been an accomplished Chinese brush painter and a batik artist. Currently she lives in Edmonds, WA, and spends her time writing and traveling to visit her far-flung children and grandchildren.

You can learn more about Nicki and her writing at her website Nicki Chen Writes. The novel When in Vanuatu is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

What was the inspiration for your novel?

Before we moved to Vanuatu, I knew next to nothing about it—which, I suspect, is the case with most people in the world. But I was charmed by the country, by its beauty, its land and people. I thought it deserved to have a novel written about it. And I went from there.

The protagonist of your novel is a trailing spouse named Diana who is grappling with infertility. Why did you decide to explore infertility through your narrative? 

Of the expatriate women I knew in Vanuatu, most had no particular reason for wanting to be there. They were simply trailing spouses. I wanted a character who chose to live in Vanuatu for herself and for the peace and beauty of the country.

On a side note, the phrase “trailing spouses” was never used as far as I know during the time we were overseas (1971-1993). We were simply “Embassy wives” or “WHO wives” or “Bank of America wives,” etc. In my case: “an ADB wife.” But “trailing spouse” is apt.

In writing this novel, you’ve drawn from the time you and your husband spent living in Asia and the South Pacific. What are some favorite memories from that time that also made their way into your novel?

The first thing that comes to mind is the weekend beach trips we took in the Philippines. My favorite was to Hundred Islands. It was mentioned in the novel, but, sadly, it didn’t work out for Diana and Jay and their friends. In Vanuatu, snorkeling at Hideaway Island was a favorite. I still remember the underwater landscape there, which came in handy when I wrote Diana’s snorkeling scene.

Food I’ve eaten also made its way into the novel — the excellent churros y chocolate at Dulcineas in Makati, Clarita’s guinataang, halo halo especial. The restaurants and cafés in Port Vila are all based on places where I’ve eaten, although not necessarily the dishes Diana ordered. Manila has many wonderful restaurants. Diana and Jay made their own choices, though.

Your book marks the first time I’ve ever read a story set in Vanuatu. Could you share with us something about Vanuatu that has surprised or fascinated you?

First of all: the people. Before we thought about moving to Vanuatu, I imagined all Pacific islanders as Polynesians. But the ni-Vanuatu, as they call themselves, are Melanesians, more closely related to the people in Papua New Guinea than those in Hawaii.

Remnants of the colonial period. In the days when European sailing ships were exploring and colonizing the rest of the world, Vanuatu became the colony of two countries simultaneously, England and France. They called the result a condominium. (Some called it a pandemonium.) The colonizers set up two of everything: two flags, two police forces, two currencies, and two school systems. Vanuatu became independent in 1980, so they no longer have two flags, but they still have separate schools for English and French speakers.

Language: Vanuatu has the highest density of languages per capita in the world with an average of only 1,760 speakers for each of the 113 indigenous languages.

The official language, though, is Bislama, a creole language derived from English. It was developed during the period of “blackbirding” in the 1870s and ‘80s when ni-Vanuatu and other Pacific islanders were kidnapped or signed on as indentured laborers to work on plantations in Australia or Fiji. The men were thrown together with workers who spoke a variety of languages, so they developed a lingua franca based on English. Later they brought that language home with them. 

The language used in schools, however, is either English or French.

Seeking one’s identity emerges as a theme in this story. Do you think searching for one’s identity is more challenging while living abroad, and if so, why?

At various times in our lives, we might feel a need to better understand or clarify our identity, or even to reinvent ourselves. That could happen at home or when living abroad.

But yes, I do think it’s more difficult when living abroad. First, there’s the added question of deciding how much of one’s identity is tied up with the home country and all that implies. Am I an American (or Frenchman or Pakistani) who just happens to be residing in this foreign country? Or am I more interested in fitting in in that country? Or do I want to find my identity as a member of the international community, a cosmopolitan?

The more difficult problem for a trailing spouse is her career. Her former career and a big part of her identity is unlikely to be available to her where she lives now, and the opportunities to create a new career are limited, especially in a developing country or a place where work permits for non-citizens are tightly restricted.

What do you hope people gain from reading your novel?

First of all, I hope readers will enjoy reading it. After all the lockdowns and quarantines during COVID, I hope they will enjoy some vicarious travel to a couple of interesting and beautiful Pacific island countries. And I hope the reader will benefit from the experience of living for a few hours in the characters’ skins, that they will laugh and cry with them and better understand the hopes and struggles of people like Diana and Jay and their expat friends.

Many thanks to Nicki Chen for this interview! You can learn more about Nicki and her writing at her website Nicki Chen Writes. The novel When in Vanuatu is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘Rabbit in the Moon’ Memoir Shines With Unique Tale of Cross-Cultural Love and Life in Hong Kong

If you asked me to name some of the most transformative experiences in my life, my post-graduation “detour” to China and, later, marriage to my Chinese husband would rank among them. This blog has been largely inspired by the push and pull of my own cross-cultural relationship and adopted home in China, leading to a plethora of posts that stand as a testament to the many moments, from embarrassing to exquisite, worth pondering when you love and live a little differently.

But imagine embarking on this adventure in your mid-40s, as a grandmother.

That’s the unique lens that Heather Diamond brings to her new memoir Rabbit in the Moon, which follows how her cross-cultural marriage to a Hong Kong man and eventual moves (to Hawaii and later Hong Kong) which both challenged and changed her in the middle of life.

Her experiences, detailed in lyrical prose, deeply resonated with me. But even if you’ve never loved someone across cultures or borders, there’s much to cherish in Heather’s tale of starting all over and learning to embrace a whole new way of living in her mid-40s, proving it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. At the same time, the story immerses you in a corner of Hong Kong few travelers and even locals have visited, making it ideal for armchair travelers. 

It’s my pleasure and honor to introduce you to Heather Diamond and her new memoir Rabbit in the Moon through this interview.

Here is Heather’s bio from Amazon:

Heather Diamond is an American writer living in Hong Kong. Her first memoir, Rabbit in the Moon: A Memoir, will be released by Camphor Press in May 2021. She is the author of American Aloha: Cultural Tourism and the Negotiation of Tradition, and her essays have appeared in (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences of the Pandemic, Memoir Magazine, Sky Island Journal, Waterwheel Review, Rappahannock Review, Hong Kong Review, and New South Journal.

You can learn more about Heather and follow her writing at her website HeatherDiamondWriter.com. The memoir Rabbit in the Moon is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Can you tell us what inspired you to write this memoir?

Even before the current wave of anti-Asian violence in American, my central reason for writing was to share how being in an intercultural relationship and living in Hawaii and Hong Kong have changed my worldview. In the US, I taught multicultural literature and multiculturalism for years before I went to Asia, but being immersed in an international dormitory in Hawaii and a Chinese family in Hong Kong forced me to own up to my personal and cultural assumptions. When I went back to the US, I realized not everyone has the opportunity to see their culture from the outside by living in a space or country where you are not in the majority. If everyone had that experience, maybe we could all learn how to get along with each other. 

What’s the story behind the title?

On the surface, it is a reference to the Chinese legend about Chang’e, the moon goddess, and the magical rabbit that assists her by pounding the elixir of immortality. It is also a reference to a scene in the book when my husband-to-be points to the full moon and asks if I can see the rabbit. When I tell him that all I can see is a man in the moon, he laughs and says you have to have Chinese eyes to see the rabbit. Ultimately, the title is a metaphor because the whole book is about my learning to see the world with Chinese eyes. We played with that idea for the cover by creating what looks like a traditional Chinese paper cut  of a moon with rabbits and adding Hong Kong’s bauhinia blossoms alongside Hawaii monster leaves.

You first met your husband, who is from Hong Kong,  when you were in your forties with a granddaughter.  Could you talk about what it was like to be flirting with a cross-cultural relationship at that age?

My concept of age is relative because I’ve lived much of my life out of synch with my peers. I married the first time at eighteen, had my daughter at twenty, earned my BFA at thirty and my MA at forty. Being in midlife when I fell in love with my husband was exciting and made me feel young, but it also meant we both had a lot more to lose by making radical changes in our lives. I gave up a marriage and a house. I moved into an international dormitory with students half my age and became a student when I was used to being a teacher. It was disorienting and humbling to start over at everything, love included, in the middle of my life. 

Your husband plays a leading role in this memoir, and so does his family in Hong Kong. How did he feel about you writing this memoir, and in what ways did he support your endeavors?

Probably nobody in their right mind would choose to live with or be related to a memoirist. Who wants to wonder if anything you say might be quoted to the world? That said, my husband has been totally supportive of my writing even when he might have chosen to keep some things about our life private. He has also helped me with the material in countless ways: translating, answering endless questions about Chinese culture, and pushing me to see beyond stereotypes. We’re both ethnographers and he’s just as interested in traditions as I am, so we always enhance each other’s view.  

Your memoir explores the culture shock you felt in becoming part of your husband’s family. Do you have a certain memory that stands out as a culture shock story you’ve often told to others?

Many of the scenes in the book started as anecdotes I told to friends before I ever considered writing them down. One of those friends told me to write down the story that I tell in the book’s prologue where I insisted on getting a jade bracelet on my first trip to Hong Kong. I thought it would be a romantic gift, but my future mother-in-law took over the shopping and paid for the bracelet. I was so flustered, I didn’t realize the bracelet would be permanent until after it was jammed onto my wrist.

What do you think makes Cheung Chau such a fascinating place?

Day trippers from Hong Kong go to Cheung Chau for seafood, the beach, and the annual Bun Festival. They enjoy the village environment because it is so different from the high rise glitz and tangle of Hong Kong Island. The pace is slower and the air is fresher, and behind the scenes many traditions are still observed that are no longer part of urban life. Of course, even those are changing, but for now it is still possible to witness religious and cultural practices on Cheung Chau that have been abandoned as the younger generation becomes more modernized and focused on material things.

Could you share with us what you hope readers will take away from your memoir?

That’s a big question! I hope readers considering reinvention will realize that it’s never too late to change your life. I hope that readers in or contemplating being in an intercultural relationship will take away a survival tool or two. For example, I discovered that learning to laugh at myself—something I always resisted—was the only way I was going to weather the challenges of being so far outside my comfort zone. Sometimes being free entertainment is a good place to start. Ultimately, I hope readers will think about what we can learn when we get out of our own way and allow ourselves to be beginners in someone else’s culture. 

Many thanks to Heather for this interview! You can learn more about Heather and follow her writing at her website HeatherDiamondWriter.com. The memoir Rabbit in the Moon is available at Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘The Boy with Blue Eyes’ by Travis Lee – Book Interview

Over the years I’ve lived in China, the experiences I’ve recorded in my journals have served as rich material inspiring my own writing endeavors — including many a post on this blog.

When you live in another country and culture, you’re constantly immersed in an environment that challenges you in each and every moment, often with questions of what might have been…if you had grown there, or even lived there under drastically different circumstances.

Author Travis Lee has frequently drawn from his own life in China — particularly Wuhan — in penning many of his own works, from the book “Expat Jimmy” (featured here on the blog a few years back) to his latest novella “The Boy with Blue Eyes.” It follows the eponymous child as he rambles through the streets of Wuhan, and stumbles into some shadowy characters along the way, all told in unconventional prose that mirrors the uncertain and dubious world swirling around him.

It’s my pleasure to once again feature Travis Lee on the blog through this interview.

Here’s Travis’ bio on Goodreads: “Travis Lee lived in China for two and a half years. He currently lives in the States.” You can learn more about him and follow his work at his website. “The Boy with Blue Eyes” is available on Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Tell us what inspired you to write this story.

At Wuhan University, I lived in a small apartment much like the one the boy lives in. I was married, no kids at the time, but one day I thought, what if we had a child, and what if I had no residence permit, and we were scraping by illegally? 

The perspective of this child would be the most interesting, and challenging to write. I decided I would try to write it with no dialogue. I wanted people to picture a black & white world, minus the eyes, glowing blue against this background.

The idea was there, but I didn’t start working on it until after I returned to the States.

This story is written in an unconventional style. Could you talk more about why you chose to present the story in this way?

I had several false starts. I’d always get to the point where the boy makes it to the Information Market near Huazhong Normal University, and things would come to a standstill. After the third false start or so, I moved to the other books while ‘The Boy with Blue Eyes’ brewed in the back of my head. I believe real writing occurs subconsciously, and when we sit down to type, we’re receiving dictation from a higher part of our brain. 

During this time, I read ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’, ‘Naked Lunch’ and ‘Manhattan Transfer’, and I decided to try the unusual style in the first two books with the sense of city of the third, and see if I could finish it. Plus, ‘The Journey through Nanking’ employs an offbeat style, and that was my first professional publication, so I thought, eh, why not?

I wrote most of the first complete draft in Wuhan. I know people who’ve gone back and they talk about the development like it’s a good thing, but I hardly see the good in knocking down the old city to erect fields of highrises going for 20,000 RMB a square meter and mega-malls with ‘New World’ in the name–that slid easily into ‘The Boy with Blue Eyes’. One of the construction areas they visit is a real place; it’s the ruins of the backstreet serving the first university I worked at.

For a while, I didn’t think I’d ever publish it, so I kept the first complete draft locked away on my hard drive, tinkering with it here and there.

Then the pandemic hit. Shelter-in-place. And once I understood I wouldn’t have to try to impress some literary agent’s hypercritical slush reader, I went through and made the style even weirder, removing coordinating conjunctions, combining paragraphs, stuff like that, all while listening to Japanese music like Harumi Hosono’s ‘Paradise View’ and Muraoka Minoru’s ‘So’.

I guess that’s a long-winded way of saying, The story demanded it.

This book (like “Expat Jimmy”, which also was featured here on the blog) has characters falling into crime. Why did you decide to add some criminal elements to the story?

The story naturally went in that direction. The gang of boys and the blue-eyed man had to be doing something, and serving the corrupt official is where we ended up. Also, the blue-eyed man’s relationship with the official shows that despite his pretentions otherwise, the blue-eyed man is very much outside the guanxi network–he’s an outsider just like the boy.

What do you hope readers take away from your book?

I hope the style allows you to experience the story rather than simply read it. Too many writing groups and writer’s workshops love to tell you what you can’t do: you can’t use a semicolon, you can’t use the past progressive, you must describe what your main character looks like–ignore all that. Don’t allow some writing group to admonish you into writing their style. It’s your story, not theirs, so experiment, experiment, experiment. Find your voice and stay true to yourself, regardless of what others consider “real” writing. 

An enjoyable story, and the realization that no one can dictate your style to you–experiment, experiment, experiment. Writing groups will admonish you to do things their way, they’ll tell you you can’t use a semicolon, you can’t use the past progressive, you must describe what your main character looks like–ignore all that, and stay true to yourself.

Thanks so much to Travis Lee for this interview! You can learn more about him and follow his work at his website. “The Boy with Blue Eyes” is available on Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘Au Crépuscule’ (At Dusk): Knight in Making in Novel by Sabrina Mailhot – Pub’d on WWAM BAM

The group blog WWAM BAM just published my post ‘Au Crépuscule’ (At Dusk): Knight in Making in Novel by Sabrina Mailhot, which introduces a debut novel written in French by a fellow woman in the WWAM (Western Women, Asian Men) community. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:

Some literary dreams come years in the making, such as for Canadian author Sabrina Mailhot and her newly published debut novel “Au Crépuscule” (At Dusk). Written in French, the story first began as a class exercise and later grew into a passion for her, which eventually found publication, with the encouragement of her husband, who is Chinese.

You can head on over to WWAM BAM to read the full post. And if you like it, share it!

Share/Save
Posted on

‘Everything I Never Told You’ by Celeste Ng To Become TV Series

The best-selling debut novel by Celeste Ng titled “Everything I Never Told You”, a dark story centering on a family with a Chinese American father and white mother living in 1970s small town America grappling with an unimaginable tragedy, will be developed into a TV series, as reported by Variety.

Back in 2014, when Celeste Ng first came out with her novel, I had the honor of interviewing her for HippoReads. Here’s an excerpt of what I wrote about the novel:

Everything I Never Told You touched me on a personal level. Naturally, I was drawn to the family at the heart of the story. I write about Asian interracial relationships and am married to a Chinese national, so it was refreshing to read a book featuring an Asian father and a white mother raising mixed-race children. More importantly, Everything I Never Told You perfectly captures the insidious nature of race-based discrimination in America and reminds us that Asian Americans are not in any way exempt (despite the pervasive “model minority” stereotype about Asians which I previously debunked on Hippo Reads). While Celeste Ng set her novel in the 1970s, my husband (who lived with me in the US for nearly eight years) also faced discrimination similar to what the novel’s father, James Lee, suffered in the story. When I was reading Everything I Never Told You, I felt as if the Lee family’s sorrows could easily have been my own. It was an incredibly cathartic experience.

If you haven’t yet read “Everything I Never Told You”, you can find it at bookstores including Amazon, where your purchases help support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

‘Always Goodbye’: Ups, Downs in China, US and Beyond in Graphic Novel by Ray Hecht

In this midst of this worldwide pandemic, I’ve found myself passing on those dystopian novels I used to adore and instead seeking out a little more “comfort food” in the books I’ve read this year. Lighthearted, humorous and even self-deprecating stories of people grappling with everyday problems that you wouldn’t find in a disaster film have offered me much-needed refuge in these unusual and challenging times for all. Bonus if they touch on experiences I’ve had living here in China and Asia, including cross-cultural dating and relationships.

Thank goodness Ray Hecht sent me his new graphic novel Always Goodbye, which really hit the spot on all fronts.

The graphic novel spans Ray’s life from birth up to 2019, and it makes for a pleasant read, thanks to its honesty. As much as it charts the highs in his life, the novel also delves into those lows and failures too as he pursues a variety of different careers, not always with success. Ray approaches even difficult topics and moments with a refreshing sense of humor, and we could all use a laugh these days. And Ray’s experiences in moving to China and dating locals will resonate with those of us who have visited or lived here.

I’m honored to feature this interview with Ray Hecht about Always Goodbye.

Here’s Ray’s bio from Amazon:

Author Ray Hecht was born in Israel and raised in the American Midwest. He currently lives in Taiwan.

You can learn more about Always Goodbye on Ray’s website. The graphic novel Always Goodbye is available on Amazon, where your purchase helps support this blog.

Why did you decide to create this graphic novel?

I’ve always loved the comics medium. I worry I”m not quite good enough at drawing, and that’s why I’ve been focusing on prose writing for most of my creative career, but after a bit of a dry spell in book publishing I decided to return to my first love…

The decision was partly due to me just trying to practice the art of cartooning again. Focusing on myself has worked well with my writing before, so why not? Autobiography/memoir has been an indie comics tradition for many years, and it simply felt right for me to share my perspective that way. When I sat down and thought about the whole of my life, with the second half focused on being an expat in China until in the “climax” finale I moved to Taiwan, it seemed like a story worth telling.

What’s the story behind the title?

To be honest, I struggled to come up with a title. At last, it came to me.

Perhaps it’s a somewhat dark interpretation, but the one constant in my life seems to be that I always move. I moved from Israel to Indiana to Ohio to California to Ohio again to California again to China to Taiwan.

That’s a lot of goodbyes. So what else could I call this, other than “Always Goodbye”?

In your graphic novel, you chose to organize it chronologically, through your entire life. Why did you choose this approach?

Good question. Indeed, such a narrative doesn’t necessarily need to be chronological. Nor must it start at the beginning. Authors more clever than me may have taken a non-linear approach, but I went with being direct.

Back when I first thought about how to explain my life in a way that made sense, taking notes and interviewing my mom, I realized I didn’t just need to start with my birth; I actually needed to start with my parents. So the first years covered were 1954 and 1956, in Chicago and in the Ukraine of the former Soviet Union. From there, naturally it led to the year that I was born, and so on.

Plus, it was fun to map out a pop cultural or technological marker. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. 1982 to 2019, every year needed at least it’s own little chapter.

What was your favorite year to detail and why?

That would probably be 2008. A seminal year for me.

It was of course the year I risked it all and moved to Shenzhen, China to do the expat thing. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be in the China blog scene at all! But even before I moved, over in Southern California, a lot changed in my life. Maybe in a way that was the year I finally grew up. The crazy Burning Man festival part of that story was pretty interesting as well.

Your graphic novel gets very personal, including in how it portrays people close to you, such as family and friends. How have family and friends responded to your book?

I’ve been very fortunate to so far have almost no negative criticism from anyone portrayed in the book. I feel extremely lucky and grateful for that, otherwise it could have gone awkward.

Even if someone did respond negatively: My philosophy is that they were my experiences and I have a right to express what happened as long as I was involved (so long as I don’t literally libel someone, or expose some deep dark secret or anything). There was a common sense balance to the portrayals. I also didn’t include any last names for obvious reasons.

I needn’t have worried. For the most part, I have found that a lot of people are flattered to be caricatured in a graphic novel by me!

What do you hope people come away with from reading your graphic novel?

I suppose the main hope is to increase readers’ empathy.

If you’ve met me in person, please read to get a better understanding of who I am and where I come from. If you haven’t met me in person, I do hope that my life stories around the world are interesting and entertaining, and can also give some sort of deeper window into a different person’s perspective.

After all, isn’t that ultimately what all art is all about?

Many thanks to Ray Hecht for this interview! You can learn more about Always Goodbye on Ray’s website. The graphic novel Always Goodbye is available on Amazon, where your purchase helps support this blog.

Share/Save
Posted on

Staying at Home? Roundup of Books, Movies Featured Here For Your Quarantine

If you’re one of the millions of people around the world forced to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, chances are you may have a lot more time on your hands than you bargained for this spring.

If you’re in need of something to entertain you or offer some much-needed relief from the overwhelming onslaught of often unwelcome news, books and movies do come in handy. And I’ve featured a ton of them right here on the blog.

Consider this your ultimate quarantine list of resources I’ve previously featured on the blog.

This post I put out in late 2018 contains the vast majority of the books already featured on my site.

Since then, I’ve also featured a few more books you can peruse: Hong Kong Noir, Recipes from the Garden of Contentment, Travel to China, Squeaky Wheels, Someday We Will Fly, Touching Home in China, and Spinster Kang.

Looking for movies? My list of critically acclaimed AMWF movies remains a perennial favorite on this site. But don’t miss my earlier list of movies with Chinese men/Western women in love as well as any posts I’ve tagged under movies. Some of my posts on movies over the past couple of years highlight Last Christmas, The Sun Is Also a Star, Tomb Raider and Crazy Rich Asians.

Enjoy! And wherever you are, wishing you good health and safety during this critical fight against the coronavirus.

(P.S.: Looking for more books, movies and other entertainment during a quarantine or stay-at-home order? The Boston Globe lists free streaming movies possibilities and USA Today offers links to free resources. NY Times has a weekly updated list of what to watch, listen to and read.)

Share/Save