Book Box: Dragons, fox spirits and more
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PHOTOS: QUERCUS, HACHETTE CHILDREN’S GROUP, ORBIT BOOKS, MANILLA PRESS, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE SEA, FLAME OF THE FOREST PUBLISHING
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SINGAPORE – In this week’s book box, The Straits Times looks at some books referencing Chinese myths that are perfect for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Buy the books at Amazon
Malaysian author Choo Yangsze on the complex symbolism of fox spirits
Malaysian author Choo Yangsze has built a career on writing about Asian ghouls and monsters.
PHOTO: JAMES CHAM
Malaysian author Choo Yangsze does not know how many stories of fox spirits she read before writing her new novel, The Fox Wife.
After all, Chinese literature is teeming with the creatures, from Pu Songling’s 18th-century Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio to first-person accounts of spirit encounters in the 1950s.
“It wasn’t that hard to find a lot of material on it and, from there, to extrapolate and build a world of foxes,” Choo says over Zoom. “What’s always intrigued me is what’s on the other side. Why would foxes bother with people? Opening the door to the other has always appealed.”
Book review: Choo Yangsze charms with fantastical tale of fox spirits
Malaysian writer Choo Yangsze is the author of The Fox Wife.
PHOTOS: QUERCUS, JAMES CHAM
There are humans and there are things, wrote 18th-century Chinese scholar Ji Yun, and then there are foxes.
“Darkness and light take different paths, and foxes lie in between darkness and light.”
This liminal quality infuses Malaysian author Choo Yangsze’s third novel, The Fox Wife, which is set in 1908 Manchuria and Japan, and cites Ji Yun, among many others.
Biracial author Siobhan McDermott draws on Chinese heritage for debut fantasy Paper Dragons
Born in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and an Irish father, author Siobhan McDermott grew up speaking both languages.
PHOTOS: HACHETTE CHILDREN’S GROUP, HELEN SCANLON
While many biracial children may feel torn between different cultural identities, Hong Kong-Irish debut children’s author Siobhan McDermott, 32, never felt the need to choose.
Over a Zoom call from her home in the small town of Welwyn Garden City, England, the author of Paper Dragons, which was published on Feb 1, says: “My parents fostered a strong sense of self in me. At home, my mum would speak in Cantonese and my dad spoke in English. I would get English and Cantonese bedtime stories, so I never felt that I had to choose between the two.”
Book review: Eliza Chan’s watery fantasy Fathomfolk deals with the climate refugee crisis
Scotland-born, Manchester-based author Eliza Chan is the author of Fathomfolk.
PHOTOS: ORBIT BOOKS, SANDI HODKINSON
Swim aside, Aquaman – the most immersive watery fantasy of late is no superhero blockbuster, but a debut novel inspired by East and South-east Asian mythology.
Scotland-born, Manchester-based author Eliza Chan has plumbed the lores of multiple cultures to create the world of Fathomfolk.
In the semi-submerged city of Tiankawi, humans live in uneasy co-existence with “fathomfolk” who have migrated from the increasingly polluted deeps.
While some have made it to the higher echelons of Tiankawi, most fathomfolk emigres eke out hardscrabble livelihoods in the city’s depths, restrained from even violent thoughts against humans by the pakalots, or manacles, that they are forced to wear.
The Straits Times’ Weekly Bestsellers Feb 3
PHOTOS: MANILLA PRESS, PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE SEA, FLAME OF THE FOREST PUBLISHING
Collide by Tay Guan Hin sees its second week as the No. 1 bestseller in non-fiction.
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