On Writing by Zhang Ling, author of Where Waters Meet

Winner of the Chinese Media Literature Award for Author of the Year, the Grand Prize of Overseas Chinese Literary Award, and Taiwan’s Open Book Award, Zhang Ling is a literary darling in her native China. Her 2009 novella, Aftershock, was made into China’s first IMAX movie and became the highest-grossing film in China at that time. In 2020, English-speaking readers finally received the gift of Zhang Ling’s exceptional literary talent when her novel, A Single Swallow, was translated by Shelley Bryant and published by Amazon Crossing. Critics called Zhang’s English language debut “truly extraordinary,” “superb,” “thought-provoking,” and “vivid and moving.”

Now, Zhang Ling returns with WHERE WATERS MEET (May 1, 2023; $28.99; Amazon Crossing hardcover), a captivating multigenerational saga that brings much-needed attention to the suffering women endure during wartime and their extraordinary resilience in extreme circumstances. Mo Yan, winner of the Novel Prize in Literature, says “Few writers could bring a story about China and other nations together as seamlessly as Zhang Ling.” Zhang vividly portrays historical events in modern Chinese history that are not well known to the Western audience, including the recruitment of “comfort women” during the Japanese occupation; the famine of early 1960s; and the exodus to Hong Kong in the 1960s-70s. 

WHERE WATERS MEET is Zhang’s first novel to be written in English. Says Zhang, “A different language brings in a new sense of rhythm, contextual associations, and musicality, which rejuvenate me as a writer. Writing in two languages gives us an extra eye to perceive ourselves as well as the world around us. This third eye helps us to discover not only the differences, but also the overlapping areas, between the two languages. When we start to explore these areas, we oftentimes find unexpected pathways to the depths of human minds.”

On Writing

by Zhang Ling, author of Where Waters Meet (May 1, 2023)

I have worked diligently, over the last two decades, on numerous writing projects, producing nine novels and several collections of novellas and short stories in Chinese, the language I was born into and grew up with. Where Waters Meet (2023), my tenth novel, is special as it’s my first endeavour in English. I’ve been conscious, during the process of creation, of the distance between my overly active brain and partially paralyzed tongue, a plight typical of someone struggling in the slough of a second language.

The brain is enthusiastic and eager while the tongue, lacking dexterity and efficiency, is numb, disoriented, and sometimes simply lost. There have been times when I am totally debilitated by sudden attacks of frustration and self-doubts about my ability as a writer. Eventually when my brain finds my tongue, I discover a new world different from the familiar, comfortable, old world built with my native language. I am grateful for the challenges, which, in the end, have turned into a reward.

The biggest challenge in writing Where Waters Meet is to find the exact English words, phrases, and expressions to state culturally non-English concepts. In addition, the decision on where to elaborate and where to be cursory can be tricky, too. Some historical events are well known to Chinese readers, and thus no lengthy background introduction is needed. Yet an elaborate description might be necessary for English readers. I have to fight hard against the temptation to insert footnotes. Eventually I decide to stay away from footnotes and weave background information into the narrative, despite the risk of potentially running into a cumbersome sentence.

However, there are pleasant surprises, as well. A different language brings in a new sense of rhythm, contextual associations, and musicality, which rejuvenate me as a writer. When I am experimenting with a language I’ve always used only for practical purposes, I feel restricted and liberated at the same time. New images, metaphors, and associations came without warning, forming a new fabric of writing, weird at first glance, then becoming titillatingly alluring once my eyes have warmed to it.

A language is not just a collection of words and a set of grammatical, phonetical and syntaxial rules, it also carries with it rich cultural, historical, and social implications particular to the group of people who use it. When we switch from one language to another, we become aware of, to various degrees, these implications as an inherent part of the language we choose.

Writing in two languages gives us an extra eye to perceive ourselves as well as the world around us. This third eye helps us to discover not only the differences, but also the overlapping areas, between the two languages, which give life to unforeseen inspirations for cross-cultural thinking.

When we start to explore these areas, we oftentimes find unexpected pathways to the depths of human minds. One’s first language gives one a sense of belonging and rootedness which unfortunately gets lost in a second language. In a second language, one feels a little drifty and uncertain. However, this sense of uncertainty and rootlessness might result in a rekindled motivation for adventure and risk-taking.

War, trauma and healing are familiar subjects in my writing, because I have lived, for the first part of my life, in a country with a long history of such events, also because of my seventeen years’ working experience as a clinical audiologist treating, among others, veterans and refugees from various disaster-stricken and war-torn countries. While I continue to explore these familiar subjects in Where Waters Meet, the change of the working tool, i.e. the language for writing, seems to take me to a strange road.

I all of a sudden lose my compass, and the previous rules and tricks cease to work. I am left with almost nothing but my naked intuition to rely on. When stripped of all its accessories, the intuition grows bolder and more reckless, leading the way with a savage force not seen before.

So, here it is, Where Waters Meet, the final product, the joint labour of my brain and tongue, now walking into the world of books, quietly seeking an understanding audience. A journey is done and the fight between the brain and the tongue is temporarily ceased. But there will be more journeys and more struggles, as long as the second language attempts to intercept and express perceptions gained through the first language.

The road might be treacherous, winding, messy, and sometimes even dangerous, but it’s all a part of the human endeavor to conquer the mountain of ignorance and prejudice and cross the border of misunderstanding, to reach out to and understand each other, a little more with each try.

—

Zhang Ling is a former senior audiologist and fiction writer in Toronto, Canada. She was born in Wenzhou, China and came to Canada in 1986 to pursue her MA in English at University of Calgary. She obtained her second MA degree in Communication disorders at the University of Cincinnati. Zhang has published nine novels and several collections of novellas and short stories in Chinese and received numerous literary prizes, including the Chinese Media Literature Award for Author of the Year, the Grand Prize of Overseas Chinese Literary Award, and China Times’ Open Book Award.

In 2009, Zhang’s novella, Aftershock (2010 film), a tale about the survival of the horrific 1976 Tangshan earthquake, was made into China’s first IMAX movie, directed by Feng Xiaogang. This movie became the highest-grossing film in China at the time. Her novel, A Single Swallow, was translated into English, French, and German and became Amazon’s #1 Kindle bestseller in Chinese literature and WWII historical fiction. The novel also was the winner of AudioFile Earphones Award and was featured in The New York Times’ Globetrotting section. Where Waters Meet will be published in May 2023 from Amazon Crossing, and it is her first novel written in English. For this work, Zhang received support from both the Canada Council for the Arts and an Ontario Arts Council grant.

WHERE WATERS MEET

A daughter discovers the dramatic history that shaped her mother’s secret life in an emotional and immersive novel by Zhang Ling, the bestselling author of A Single Swallow.

There was rarely a time when Phoenix Yuan-Whyller’s mother, Rain, didn’t live with her. Even when Phoenix got married, Rain, who followed her from China to Toronto, came to share Phoenix’s life. Now at the age of eighty-three, Rain’s unexpected death ushers in a heartrending separation.

Struggling with the loss, Phoenix comes across her mother’s suitcase—a memory box Rain had brought from home. Inside, Phoenix finds two old photographs and a decorative bottle holding a crystallized powder. Her auntie Mei tells her these missing pieces of her mother’s early life can only be explained when they meet, and so, clutching her mother’s ashes, Phoenix boards a plane for China. What at first seems like a daughter’s quest to uncover a mother’s secrets becomes a startling journey of self-discovery.

Told across decades and continents, Zhang Ling’s exquisite novel is a tale of extraordinary courage and survival. It illuminates the resilience of humanity, the brutalities of life, the secrets we keep and those we share, and the driving forces it takes to survive.

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing