Our Most Powerful Story With Guest Author Zhang Ling
Is there a more magical experience than when you can taste a word on a page or hear a sound made by vowels and constants? Authors who weave beautiful connections between the natural and literal captivate us and our time. Zhang Ling, Chinese born Canadian author of several internationally acclaimed stories, is one of these word artists.
The first book I read of her’s, A Single Swallow, stunned me for weeks. A historical fiction book that entices us into exploring a new world and period of time. And even more charming, while holding the hands’ of ghost narrators!
Where Waters Meet is her latest delight, and I cannot encourage you enough to purchase this book to enjoy for yourself. From the silky blue-watercolored cover to the decision to present this as her first English written novel, it is clear that every care and skill was given to penning and publishing this story. I could not be more thrilled to host this personal interview with Zhang Ling to pull back the curtain on just how incredible of a story teller that she is.
But before diving into the questions, an excerpt from her latest fictional release, Where Waters Meet:
Photograph by Ming Han Low
The suitcase retrieved from Pinewoods had remained in Rain’s old bedroom, untouched for two days. Phoenix waited till George left town for a clinical seminar to open it. The time had come, she realized, for her to have the conversation with Mother.
Alone, face to face, soul to soul.
Mother’s room was kept exactly the same, as if she had never left. The last rays of the sun raged through the half-rolled curtains like a mad bull, smashing themselves against the wall, leaving behind a trail of angry dust. It was probably new dust, dust that had never seen Mother. The bed was neatly made, every corner of the quilt stretched out smooth and flat. Phoenix noticed a hair on the pillow slip, a fine thread of silver against the dark blue fabric, left there before Rain’s departure for Pinewoods. Still breathing, it seemed.
Can a hair live on when its root has expired?
Kneeling on the floor, Phoenix buried her face in the pillow, astonished at the dogged lifespan of someone’s smell. It was nearly three years since Mother had moved to Pinewoods. A faint mixture of sugar and sweat, like some overripe fruit. It was the smell, it suddenly hit her, of age and decay.
She felt strangely connected to Mother, though fully aware that they, the hair and the smell, were just what Mother had left behind, like the skin shed by a snake. The real Mother was lying on the dresser, inside the metallic urn glittering with a detached coolness made absolute by death, mocking the futile efforts of all the mortals who, regardless of how far they had fled, would all inevitably return to it in the end.
Rain’s initial signs of dementia had been minor and harmless, an occasional mixing up of dates, a rare instance of a door left unlocked, or a pill-time missed. Then, one day, Phoenix found a shoe in the fridge. Standing before the fridge with its door open and cool air blowing at her, she began to shudder. She had finally found herself face to face with the beast.
Excerpt Where Waters Meet
MK: Thank you for previewing your new novel for us! From your works that I have read, I want to start by asking what is your most frequently visited source of inspiration as a creator?
ZL: My inspiration comes from a number of sources, such as reading, traveling, talking to people, or sometimes simply observing people as they are engaged in their daily activities.
However, the most important source of inspiration is probably derived from my memories of the chitchats during family gatherings and holiday meals when I was young. I come from a very large extended family. Both my mother and my father have quite a number of siblings, a common situation in their generation, as in those days there weren’t any birth control measures. In addition, infant mortality rate then was very high, hence many parents wished to have “spares” just to be sure. As a result, I have cousins all over the world who can easily form a small army. My ancestral roots are from the countryside. As I grew up in the city of Wenzhou, my hometown, my grandparents were still settling into the city life, and I had seen poor relatives from the country coming to visit them all the time. As a child, there was nothing that I desired more than listening, with intense interest, to the stories my grandparents, my aunts and uncles shared about their childhood, the country life, the hard times, a weird neighbor, an affair that shocked the entire town, or a haunted house, etc. The memories of those tales fascinate me and give me an inexhaustible source of literary nutrition which I absorb and weave into my writing.
MK: How do you create a story that can transcend culture, time, and language?
ZL: Be aware of the background of your potential readers so that you can make good judgement as to how to present your story in a way that they can easily understand and relate to. They might not be as familiar as you think with the subjects you explore in your book. An event that is well known in one country/region might be totally “foreign” to another part of the world – we just can’t take it for granted that everyone has the same level of knowledge and familiarity.
Having said all that, I do not particularly like the idea of adding foot notes unless absolutely necessary. Frequent insertion of footnotes impedes the flow of narration and interrupts the continuity of the plot development and the momentum of the emotions gathered in the process of writing. I’d prefer to weave the background information subtly and unobtrusively into the fabric of the narrative.
MK: I loved the exchange, in Where Waters Meet, “The baby boomer generation all have a hard-time story to tell, but yours, good heavens, really hits home.”
What would you tell people from younger generations about drawing out those stories from the Boomer generation?
ZL: When interacting with people from older generations, we need to listen with patience and genuine interest, tell them honestly that we value their experiences and wisdom, and react to their stories with intelligent questions that show we’ve paid attention. The older generations have gone through many events (e.g. world wars, plagues, the Great Depression, etc.) which most probably won’t happen today due to the different geo-political situations as well as the advancement of technology.
Although we can read about their experiences through books and archive materials, nothing compares with a vivid tale told by a witness or survivor. Library research provides hardcore information such as the time, the location, the event, and the people involved in the event, but research alone is incapable of re-creating the emotions and feelings at the time which are a crucial element to a fiction writer. Library materials build the framework, or the bones, of a book, but a tale told by a witness and survivor gives our narrative the soul. If we choose to write a historical novel, the older generations’ memories are not only precious but also essential.
MK: After reading multiple of your books there is something very special I have noticed about them. And I am not sure it would have been as prominent to me if I had not spent time in Hangzhou as a younger person. The people and sense of place in Hangzhou distinctly sticks out in my memory as emanating a very particular way of life that celebrates aesthetics. How do you decide which aesthetic elements you are going to use to intensify your books? Would you attribute your artistry to the place you were raised in?
ZL: What an observant question! Hangzhou is the capital city of Zhejiang, my home province in China. My hometown Wenzhou where I spent my childhood and youth is about 450km south of Hangzhou. Zhejiang province is known for its mild climate, flat landform and rich water resources, which makes outdoor activities comfortable throughout the year and provides great opportunities for agricultural and fishing endeavors. As a result, Zhejiang is historically known as a rich and cultured region of China, producing many great writers, poets, artists and influential politicians. People raised in this area show a great sensitivity to aesthetic values in their daily lives.
My narrative style is definitely influenced by the environment that surrounded me when I was at the most impressionable age. However, I am not aware that I have made any conscious decisions as to what aesthetic elements to employ in a particular piece of writing. Oftentimes it’s the characters themselves who speak out to me about their needs and desires, and I simply listen and follow their wishes.
MK: Secrets or lying by omission seem to be a frequent thematic element in your works. Why do you think truth is this such a powerful motivator to characters and readers?
ZL: Secrets or lying by omission are indeed a core theme in Where Waters Meet, because during the time period my characters lived, truth might lead to unimaginable consequences. If Erwa told the truth about the real reason for his long hospital stay, he would lose everything he has gained and even be sent to prison; if Rain bared her war experience, she would be drowned in shame and spiteful gossip for the rest of her life. When Phoenix becomes an adult, the world has changed somewhat, as social restrictions have become more relaxed and people tend to judge others in a more tolerant and open-minded way. However, she still hides the truth from George as to why she decides to marry him. Lies and omissions are the most convenient and readily available weapon for self defense. Truth, on the other hand, is a forbidden fruit, so to speak. The more it’s kept from people, the more desirable it becomes to them.
People throw themselves onto the path of truth-seeking, like moth to fire, even when they know there are costs and consequences. Phoenix is a perfect example: when she embarks on the journey of seeking the truth about her mother’s past, she knows fully well she is going to get hurt and be scarred for life, but there is no stopping her. No matter how hurtful it can be, she needs to get to the bottom of it. Truth hurts and sometimes destroys, but it sets the mind free.
MK: An incredible feature film was produced from your novella, The Aftershock in 2010. Has that experience influenced your later projects and or writing style?
ZL: When The Aftershock was first published, I was a relatively unknown author. Much to my surprise, several top-rated Chinese directors simultaneously expressed their interest in a movie deal. Having one’s work presented in a different art form is exciting, and the excitement is redoubled when one discovers some of the movie-goers are turned into his/her readers through watching the movie. I watched the movie for the first time at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was surreal to see people filling every seat in a huge theatre, laughing and shedding tears as the story unfolded. For a while I couldn’t believe such a huge production (China’s first IMAX movie) was actually based (although loosely) on my work. However, even then I was clear-headed enough to know that whatever success the movie had achieved would not sustain me for long as a fiction writer, and the movie audience’s reactions, positive or negative, should not cloud my artistic judgement. There are things I’d like to stick to in order to reach my ultimate goal as a unique author. This movie has helped to raise my profile as a writer, but I don’t believe it has affected, in any major way, my choice on themes and narrative style.
MK: In much the same way that I have enjoyed your novels, Zhang Ling, I have absolutely enjoyed this interview. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and personal experiences with us.
The publication date for Where Waters Meet is May 1st and copies are available to readers through the link below. To learn more about Ling and her works you can find her on Amazon Crossing, Good Reads, and a plethora of online interviews. My personal favorite is linked here:
Zhang Ling is the award-winning author of ten novels and numerous collections of novellas and short stories, including A Single Swallow, translated by Shelly Bryant; Gold Mountain Blues; and Aftershock, which was adapted into China’s first IMAX movie with unprecedented box-office success. Born in China, she moved to Canada in 1986 and, in the mid-1990s, 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 China Times’s Open Book Award. Where Waters Meet is her first novel written in English, and she received support for this work from both the Canada Council for the Arts and an Ontario Arts Council grant.