In her debut novel Yellow Papers, Wilson follows Chen Mu, a seven-year-old sent by China to America to study following the country’s defeat in the two Opium Wars. Rather than return, Chen flees to an Australian mining town, befriending local Edward Dawson. Years later, Dawson visits Shanghai during its 1920s heyday and falls for Ming Li, the wife of a Chinese businessman. History intervenes and the story picks up with the couple attempting to reunite, scarred by the wars.
Your debut novel The Yellow Papers takes place in China and Australia and spans both countries' histories over a few decades. Why did you decide to set the novel in China?
The original idea came about because of two Chinese women I know who both came to Australia at about the same age. One loved Australia from the very beginning. She eventually married an Australian and established herself as a successful business woman. The other – a tertiary student of mine – hated it and could see nothing good in this country. All she wanted to do was go back home, and she spent many-an-hour in my office in tears. This contrast interested me greatly, because it's something I've seen again and again – people leaving everything behind, sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstances, and having to cope with a totally new world, as it were.
My own family was like that – we immigrated to Australia from Algeria when I was ten, to escape a country that had been in the midst of civil war for seven years. Some of us quickly settled into this new life, but others – my mother, for instance – never did. So what is it that makes some people embrace a new country, and others reject it? I decided to explore this via fiction.
Why China? Well, like I said, the initial germ of the idea came from two Chinese women, but also because China has such a rich and complex history. For a writer, that's inspirational. The Yellow Papers covers several decades, from just after the two Opium Wars to the time of the Cultural Revolution. And in between you have Sino-Japanese War, WWI, the Great Depression, the Second Sino-Japanese War, WWII and the Korean War. Can you imagine how many people would have been displaced through all that? How many would have fled to the cities, to the country? How many left loved ones behind? And of course, whenever you have displaced people, you have some that will adapt and some that won't. So I used this history almost as a character in its own right, in that it influences the actions of my four main characters. You have Chen Mu, sent to America when only a very small boy, only to flee to Australia years later. Edward, an Australian man with a romanticised idea of the East, who falls in love with Ming Li, the beautiful young wife of a Chinese business man. And you have Huang Ho, Ming Li's grandson and a child of the Cultural Revolution. All four are carried on the wings of history, as it were, and how they adapt is what decides their destiny...
Parts of the book take place in Shanghai during its most glamorous time. What type of research did you do to properly convey this environment and is Shanghai a fun place to set a book?
Shanghai certainly was glamorous during the 1920s and 30s, for some. It was a great city of commerce between East and West, and Westerners from all over the world went there to make their fortunes. There was a building boom – Victor Sassoon was there, building extraordinary properties in every corner of the city - The Cathay Cinema and the Embankment Building, for example. Electricity and trams had been introduced. The cigar-smoking American reporter and author Emily Hahn was also there with her pet gibbon – Mr Mills – forever draped over her shoulder. Shanghai was known as the Hollywood of the East with a thriving cinematic and musical industry. It had cabarets, nightclubs and restaurants, and was also known as the Paris of the East. So yes, if you had money, Shanghai was very glamorous in the 20s and 30s.
But there was another side to the city. There were the White Russians and Russian Jews fleeing the newly established Soviet Union. They were poorly regarded, and had to take jobs that no other European would consider. Other Jewish refugees were also fleeing Europe to Shanghai, because it was one of the few cities left in the world where you didn't need a visa. And you also had the Chinese fleeing the north and flooding into the city. There was corruption too, as with any city – the Green Gang operated there in the 20s. And for a writer researching the city, there is a wealth of information available; it was a time when people – both men and women – wrote in their diaries or travel journals on a daily basis. It was also a time when people did the Grand Tour of the Far East, and many filmed their travels. Newsreels were also popular. Luckily, from a writer's point of view, many of these amateur and professional films have been archived, so to be able to actually see what the streets of Shanghai were like, to be able to stop the film and examine in minute detail a particular street, or inside a building or someone's house – priceless! And then there are photographs, travel guides, memoirs, maps and so on... So I wouldn't say writing Shanghai was fun per se - there was too much misery there as well as all the glamour – but it certainly was fascinating.
You'll be coming to Shanghai as part of the lit fest. Will this be your first time here and what are you looking forward to most at the festival?
Yes, it will be my first time – I didn't visit as part of my research because I felt Shanghai of the 21st century would be a totally different city to the Shanghai of the 1920s – but I'm very excited to be coming, and so pleased to have been invited. At the festival itself, what I'm looking forward to most is meeting potential readers, and going to other writers' events to hear their interpretation of China. But I'm also looking forward to imagining all the history that has taken place everywhere I look...
The Yellow Papers comes out in March. What was the process like in writing the novel?
Process-wise, I started off with just a germ of an idea – two Chinese characters with opposing views of the West. I let that 'simmer', as it were, trying to think of possible reasons for this. I started with research – very broadly at first, to get an idea of the history of China, so as to find the best time-slot in which to place my characters. Then, as a possible plot began to form, I narrowed my research more and more – if you can imagine a funnel, starting off wide but quickly narrowing, you'll have a good image of this. But the more narrow my research became, the more detailed it had to be, and I soon found myself doing some serious study in all sorts of areas – from history to psychology to symbolism to religion to regional diets and so forth. And as I researched, the plot became more and more detailed as I found wonderful nuggets of information. By then I'd started a first draft, and as I wrote more research was needed for minute details. What was the weather like at that particular time, at that particular place? What are the signs and symptoms of cholera? What posters would have been on the streets? How are silkworms raised? How did women wear their hair in the late 1800s, the 20s, the 40s, the 60s? And so on until the book was written to first draft stage. Then came a second draft, and a third, and then still more until I felt I'd written the story I'd wanted to write.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Simply to thank the organisers and sponsors of this festival for this opportunity.
// Marc 14, 12pm, RMB188. Crystal Room, 7/F, No. 5 Guangdong Lu, by Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu 外滩5号7楼广东路口 (6350 9988)
0 User Comments