Was it you, you talked about having left behind a dissertation that you were that you felt like was, was to you got to use the word boring, to plodding. Do you find yourself thinking back on that kind of writing? And, or, and, and is there a contract between that and your fiction writing in terms of how you, how you approach it? In terms of being systematic, less systematic? >> Oh, well you see I never did get to write this, you know this dissertation about female ghosts, I never unfortunately got to write it. Instead the dissertation I wrote was about industrial townships and it was really, it was a terrible dissertation and I spent a year writing it. It was a year of agony and I think my poor advisor also thought, oh my goodness here she is again with her industrial township [LAUGH]. So I, I've, you know my feeling is that you should write what you are deeply interested in, because it translates in your work. And if you feel kind of like the Chinese industrial township, you know, if it really, I think it's if, if you feel passionate about it, it will come across. Whether you're writing about milk cartons or you know the, you know Stag beetles in the Amazon jungle, you interest is what drives the reader because you have a guide in the book. I think someone asked the question earlier, about food and stuff and there was a lot of food in the book and it associated a lot of animals. These actually my interests in fact, my editor made me remove some passages I mean they keep on eating, like let's get rid of this extra eating scene. [LAUGH] So, and I wrote a lot of these scenes late at night when I was feeling very hungry, I'm afraid but but like I said your interests drives the book. And you're driving the bus and if you're saying oh this is so great and look, look I think you're reader will also be carried along, as well and if you're feeling sort of very it is reflected in your work. >> So, I was just wondering if you were inspired by people in your own family as well when you were making character? the character for the Oma reminded me of my grandmother so much [LAUGH] one time I was, you know just a teenager, I liked to argue with my parents all the time. And she was living with us at that moment and she thought I was being possessed by a spirit [LAUGH]. She was like I live by a forest, near like a shrine and they're dead people everywhere. So she actually went out and bought a charm and my family's Catholic and she's Buddhist so we were very against it [LAUGH]. But she bought a charm and nailed it to both, like to all three of our doors [LAUGH] and she was like, okay, you'll be better now. You won't argue with your parents any-more and I was like, pretty sure I wasn't possessed by a spirit. [LAUGH] But so that character, definitely like I had a, I used the familial connection with her and I was just wondering if like you also base her on some, someone you know or any other character is. >> Well you know that's a question I do get asked a lot, is anybody based on a real person? And I've actually had, actually my sister said this when she said, when she found out I was writing a book she said, am I in this book? And I said, [LAUGH] no, no of course not. for me at least I don't think that I base my fictional characters on people, they sort of appear you know. As I said it's riding along and they show up but certainly, the two characters which I enjoyed writing the most were Old Wong, the cook, and her Ama. And I think that's because when I was writing, a lot of times I'll sort of hear dialogue and I don't know whether any of you feel this way, that you sort of hear dialogue in your head. And you'll, you know, hear two people talking to each other and you sort of, you know, write down what they're saying and for, you know, [UNKNOWN] Wong, their voices were very strong. A lot of times I actually translated from Chinese in my head, to keep that syntax, you know, that particular way of talking as you said, your grandmother said, there's something wrong with you. We need to take you to do, you know, there's a way in which they talk to you and I think the only explanation I have for that is that I have been scolded by a lot of old Chinese people during my life. So, I've internalized all these things [LAUGH]. >> Donna? >> I wanted to change the course of conversation a little bit and talk about some of the literary aspect, excuse me, literary aspects that went into writing your novel. We've spoken a lot about narration in this class, and between the pros and cons or the ability of the authors to convey and accomplish certain things in first person and in third person narration. And, with third person, it's I think it enables the writer to provide more insight to what's occurring with the other characters, and events that's happening around them. But with the first person, you're inherently limited to the scope and feelings and sentiments of that one character, and here you chose to write in first person. And I think that I, you did a fantastic job of, of writing it in such a way we could see Leon's transformation throughout this whole novel. And I was just inquiring as to what made you choose this, to do first person? And how you felt, writing your story in that way. >> Oh, that, I think that's a great question. You know, interestingly enough before this novel, I had really not been writing first person, my preferred point of view is 3rd person. and, so, but for this book you know I actually, as I mentioned I started writing this book because I saw a sentence in an old newspaper article. And I immediately had the idea of, there was a ghost marriage. Why would you ever marry a ghost? What circumstances would there be in your life so that you would be forced in to such an incredibly unlucky marriage, by Chinese standards? And, I had a picture in my head of this girl, with you know this opium addicted father and what happened and, so basically I went away and I wrote. The first chapter of the book, almost as you see it, I wrote it right away, then I put it way for a couple of years. You know, I didn't actually touch it after that. So I would have to say that for this book, the voice of the character just came out to me that it was Lelan's voice. When she says, one evening my father asked me whether I would like to become a ghost bride. Actually the original first line was, last night my father asked me, if I would like to become a ghost bride, which I think gives you an immediate sense of what's happening to her. in terms of, but later on you know when I thought about it, if we go back to the idea of these Chinese wonder tales. they really talk about fantastic events, but they talk about them in a very dry, way. You know, they als, as I mentioned earlier there's pseudo literary biographies of people like the governor of, the governor or such and such province and this is, these, these are things that occurred to him when he was a child, et cetera. And they're always told in third person and as I mentioned, when I was a child, I would read these accounts. Which were, perhaps, sometimes, only one or two pages long and they would say things like, he was, you know? He was tricked by a ghost and then he, blah, blah, blah all these things happened to him. They're so dry and yet, they promise so much and so, I felt that, for a book like this in which we actually enter the afterlife. it would be much more interesting to have a camera be first person, which you actually experience things for the emotions, the person they attach to. Also so, the other things was, I did think that if it was in first person that I could spring a few surprises on people like, her almost dying. I mean, there are things you do in first person although it is more limited than third person in many ways but you can control the element of surprise. in a, much better than third person, in some ways but on the other hand, I did also chafe at the point third person gives you a lot more freedom to manipulate events. You know, so you could have things happening simultaneously, folks realizing stuff. With first person it was, it ended up being a fairly linear story you know, you had to follow her on her journey. and so, I think those were the trade offs for it. >> Going back to something that you said just a couple moments ago about translating from Chinese to English in your head for dialog and conversation. I find that really interesting, and that was something that I was wondering what I was reading the novel. I mean, I don't speak Chinese, but being a bilingual person I noticed that sometimes it's, it's strange sometimes translating from one medium to another and syntax can get really, really interesting, moving from one language medium to the other. And so in terms of Looking at they allowed a sort of first person perspective, do you think that any of that sort of came through in the way that she was telling the story in terms of going in between, like, this world of language and the context of, sort of, like, Chinese syntax and diction, and then translating that to English for a Western audience Well, you know I think, the story is pretty much written in English in my head because I think in English but for dialogue particularly there's a certain kind of syntax that you get with especially as I mentioned the older people And I wanted to preserve that, so a way in which they're talking to you and you know that that's just the way they speak. So, I had a number of minor characters do that, but for Leelan herself I think all her thoughts and everything were pretty much in English. At least they were to me [LAUGH] the way I sometimes feel in this process, at least it it, felt almost like watching a movie for me at times. And I don't know whether you've experienced this in your own fiction writing, that sometimes, well it's like a dream a story's unfolding and you record it. And in some ways, I think for a book to be successful you all, or a movie, for that matter you all have to enter the dream. Because it's kind of a seamless continuation of this and if they add too many things that kick you out. Let's say, I think somebody was telling me they're watching some historical drama where all the actresses had zips on their costumes so, they said that was very jarring to them. you have to, once the dream is broken you know, people fall out of it. and, and then if that happens too many times you can no longer, you no longer connect with the dream and you stop believing in the story. So, that's how I feel about writing, I feel like you enter you enter a different sort of world and you have to sustain this fiction. The fabric of the fiction is how much you as a reader buy into it, you know? So if you're already say, no, no, no, no that didn't happen and we didn't have that kind of computer in 1982 and all. You know, you sort of lost your audience and that is very true of historical fiction too. I've had discussions with other writers of historical fiction about everything from language, you know people using inappropriate language for the time. or, or even making reference to ideas that were not there, actually my husband corrected me on this. At one point I had Leelon consider whether or not she was going mad or insane and I had used some, I don't remember, some sort of term for the self. And then, he said, no, no, no, that was not around at that time and she would never have heard about it. She cannot refer to herself in such, you know, whatever Fruedian language [LAUGH] and everybody said, oh, you're right, that is an error. You know, a lot of and then there are of course much more glaring errors, in which put you know they using their, some kind of machinery which they shouldn't be using in you know viking times [LAUGH] or something like that. So I think this is all part of sustaining the fabric of fiction and historical fiction certainly has that as a challenge. Much more so than if you were writing a sci-fi or space opera you know which you can write about whatever you like. [LAUGH] >> Well that's a perfect place to bring this discussion to an end. So thank you once again Yong Zai Chu for. Joining our global classroom. >> Thank you very much it was such a pleasure. [Applause]
