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Kathryn Tse-Durham: Please, Enough of the Dragons! – My musings on Asian Representation in Media and Literature

Kathryn Tse-Durham: Please, Enough of the Dragons! – My musings on Asian Representation in Media and Literature

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There was a time when my love for art eclipsed my love for books. When I was studying at an international school in Hong Kong, I had a brilliant art teacher named Mr Buck in Grade 10. It’s true what Maya Angelou said: at the end of the day, people won’t remember so much for what you said or did, but they will remember you most for how you made them feel. Mr Buck made me feel seen. He treated me like an individual whose ideas and work had something to offer the world.  Best of all, he made me realize how cerebral and exciting art can be, and for a time I dreamt of becoming an artist. We need more teachers that inspire us to dream, don’t we?

Our school had a very internationalized student body, so I never felt out of place. Having grown up as part of the Chinese diaspora in Australia, I was a third-culture kid, and my Chineseness was never something that stood out at my school. Those were happy days. So I was very sad when I had to move back to Australia for boarding school. It was a difficult transition, and for a time things turned dark and lonely. As if things couldn’t get any worse, my new art teacher, Mr V, was nothing like Mr Buck, whose class I missed terribly.

Mr V took me aside during class one day and held up one of my ink drawings, an intricate sketch of a strange, Dali-esque contraption. It was just a doodle really, but he seized upon it for an important revelation as he fixed his intense blue eyes on me. “Listen, you have excellent technique. You have extraordinary skill. That is not up for dispute. But you have to produce art that reflects you. Your culture, your background, your upbringing. Your art has to mean  something. Look at these, and you’ll see what I mean.” My throat seized up as he showed me sketches drawn by a fellow student, who, like me, was of Chinese descent. These were pencil sketches of sinewy, bulgy-eyed, snarling dragons like those frequently seen on traditional Chinese paraphernalia. Mr V looked at my bewilderment sympathetically and patted my shoulder. “Spend some time thinking about what reflects you, and we can talk more then.”

After that, I dreaded art class.

This sort of pervasive and presumptuous labeling and stereotyping contributes to how Asians are represented in popular media and literature. So many films and books I’ve come across represent Asians in a very narrow light, often against a clichéd backdrop of culture and festivals and folklore. This is especially true in children’s literature. In films, the Asian is often the one-dimensional sidekick depicted as a martial art enthusiast or bespectacled nerd who’s inevitably relegated to the friend zone by the attractive (and often white) protagonist.

Asians, like everyone else, come in all gloriously sized and shaded packages. Asians are not all yellow-skinned as depicted in traditional Western media. Some of us can be as white-skinned as the fairest, easy-to-sunburn Caucasian – like my baby daughter, whose beautiful white skin is so pale that I’ve nicknamed her Snow White – or as beautifully brown as Priyanka Chopra, who is considered one of the most gorgeous women in the world. Asians come in a wide range: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Fillipino, Burmese, Thai, Nepalese, Cambodian, Indian, and more. Most of all, Asians come in a myriad of personalities, with different quirks and talents, strengths and weaknesses. We don’t all like kung fu or sashimi; not all of us are good at math and science; nor is every Asian unquestionably filial and submissive, and we are not always shy and nerdy wallflowers. If you look around and really see us, you will notice that Asians can be tall and muscular, hot and curvy and sexy; we can be cool and witty and charismatic, artistic and creative and desirable.

Ann M. Martin was one of the first Caucasian writers back in the eighties to represent Asians in a more diverse and unconventional light when she created the character of Claudia Kishi, the popular, artistic, and fun-loving Japanese-American girl who, to this day, is considered by many readers to be the coolest character in The Baby-Sitters Club. That’s the type of representation we need more of in literature and the media. Asians are a diverse bunch of individuals with so much more to offer than good grades, kung-fu, fortune cookies, and accented English.

Because I am a fun and loving wife (husband rolls his eyes), I accompanied said husband to nearly every Marvel film in the past decade. It has struck me just how under-represented Asians have been in all these blockbuster movies, and it makes me wonder why we are given so little time of day. I mean, there are so many excellent Asian actors. And many are as photogenic as their Caucasian counterparts, if not more so. What are we missing?

After Black Americans celebrated Black Panther, Asians are finally getting their very own Marvel film called Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, starring talented Canadian-Chinese actor, Simu Liu of the hit TV sitcom Kim’s Convenience. I am hoping that Shang Chi won’t just be another kung-fu fest amidst a sea of cone hats and firecrackers, dripping with tacky dialogue and cringe-worthy Chinese clichés. I really want to watch a superhero movie that portrays Asians in a diverse and more realistic light, because we are so much more than just the kung-fu chopping likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. With the refreshing likes of Ali Wong, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Jameela Jamil, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Manny Jacinto, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Daniel Wu, and Steven Yeun (just to name a few) thrown into the mix, we’ll have a much better and representative variety of the Asian spectrum. The range of Asian characters in the much-lauded Crazy Rich Asians was a nice breakthrough, and we need more of this representation to show that Asians, no matter how rich or poor, are people you can identify with on some level because we’re all just human.

It came to my attention that a TV show my husband and I have enjoyed watching, Kim’s Convenience, has recently been embroiled in controversy. Actors from this popular Canadian sitcom have spoken out about what they say is the show’s poor approach to depicting Korean Canadians. Co-stars Simu Liu and Jean Yoon shared their frustrations on social media, saying that the writers’ room, which was “overwhelmingly white” lacked diverse voices yet declined their creative input, even after the actors voiced concerns about “overtly racist” storylines. Liu writes that he was “growing increasingly frustrated with the way my character was being portrayed”. “The characters never seemed to grow,” he continued, adding: “I remain fixated on the missed opportunities to show Asian characters with real depth and the ability to grow and evolve.” The producers’ and writers’ dismissal of their input has been frustrating, he said, given that “we were a cast of Asian-Canadians who had a plethora of lived experiences to draw from and offer to writers”. 

A writer has an important job. Some of the most crucial responsibilities of a writer are to imagine, to delve, to engage, and to go beyond the obvious and recognizable. We have to challenge our readers and not just show them what they might be comfortable with. Writers have the duty to question stereotypes and simplistic thinking. Thankfully, there are wonderful Asian writers who do challenge the audience by moving past the obvious and recognizable. If you are looking for good books that show Asians are indeed so much more substantial and diverse than what popular media portrays, then I would highly recommend these books about the Asian experience by these talented authors: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (this book so struck a chord with me and was so moving that it made me bawl); Free Food For Millionaires (excellent take on the Korean-American diaspora) and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee; the groundbreaking and award-winning Under the Pendulum Sun by Hong Konger Jeannette Ng (a fantasy novel with one of the most unique premises ever). I am grateful for the genius of Haruki Murakami, whose novels have captivated readers all over the world with his unusual protagonists and surreal storylines (some of my favourites are South of the Border, West of the Sun; and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle). Then there’s the incomparable Kazuo Ishiguro, whose achingly beautiful writing and nostalgic storytelling has set him apart as one of the greatest writers ever (e.g. Pale View of Hills, When We Were Orphans). 

Things are slowly progressing. Asians are starting to get more diverse representation in popular media and literature. Recently, Chloe Zhao made history by becoming the first ‘woman of colour’ to win the Best Director Oscar for Nomadland. I am grateful to her and others who forge ahead against all odds, and in the process breaking stereotypes and showing the world that Asians are a force to be reckoned with because we ARE your peers and your equals, and we come in all shapes and sizes and personalities. I like The Good Doctor, a TV show about a brilliant doctor on the autistic spectrum, in which several main characters are played by Asian actors like Will Yun Li and Christina Chang. I am so glad for K-pop and K-dramas that have garnered a huge international following, because they show the world that Asians can be just as attractive, intelligent, artistic, and dynamic as their Western counterparts. Internationally acclaimed Korean films such as Parasite and Minari are incredible breakthroughs, and neither had to feature any dragons, kung-fu, or flying daggers to mesmerize the audience. I am so grateful for these films, because they show Asians have real depth and the ability to grow and evolve, or stumble and disintegrate, just like anybody else; and along the way we glimpse aspects of Korean culture that blend seamlessly into the storytelling.

I write The Ellanor Chronicles in part to live out my dream to share my stories with as many readers as possible; and in part to challenge the stereotype that Asian writers best stick with crafting quintessentially Chinese-themed stories. I like to write about what I know, what I love – about elves and magic and adventure, and through The Ellanor Chronicles I want to show that regardless of skin colour and cultural background, we are all multifaceted people, nuanced and sometimes complicated, with our own story to tell. I’m not just someone you can label and put into a box. And neither are you.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
25th June 2021

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: Life is Like a Box of Chocolates…Preferably With Ganache

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Forrest Gump is one of my favourite movies. I watched it as a teen with my high school friend Karen. I remember the tears streaking down my cheeks as I watched Tom Hanks’ face up close, his mentally-challenged but heartbreakingly endearing Forrest talking at Jenny’s grave and telling his childhood sweetheart how much he misses her. Some stories are timeless. No matter how old I get, I just don’t tire of them. Perhaps you remember the scene where Forrest sits on a bench next to a sweet elderly lady and offers up a box of chocolates.

I love chocolate. Especially dark chocolate with ganache. My, what a slice of heaven.

Anyway, I digress. Back to Forrest. He’d bought the box of chocolates for Jenny, whom he was about to go meet after a long separation. Against decorum (but when it’s Forrest, we instantly forgive him), he’d already eaten a few of the chocolates himself. In his Southern drawl he says to his bemused companion, “Mama always says that life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” And that line shall always remain iconic, forever nostalgic, a shared wisdom that would’ve easily been dismissed as tackiness of the Hallmark channel variety if it hadn’t been uttered by such a beloved movie character.

In response to Forrest, I can almost hear the Chinese elders shudder and touch wood and retort, “Aiya, it’s fine as long as you don’t know what good stuff you’re gonna get.” 

There is a saying, a sort of mantra, in Chinese culture: “出入平安” which translates to ‘May you be safe wherever you go’. Naturally, we all want to get through the day without crashing the car or getting mugged, least of all to meet a prematurely fatal end. This is essentially what the mantra is about: live another day well without mishap. In my experience as a Chinese person growing up in the West, I often observed this fixation on safety and well-being, which partly explains why, in general, the Chinese are known to be particularly cautious and less risk-taking than their Western counterparts (though this is becoming increasingly less pronounced especially in the younger generation). It is as if those Chinese elders believe that repeatedly uttering this mantra “出入平安” will magically immunize us against life’s inevitable pitfalls. A life of static peace and quiet, untouched by tragedy, is what they wish for us, perhaps because they themselves had seen too much pain and suffering back in a time when poverty and hardship was the norm rather than the exception.

But for all their well-intentioned wishes, life is not static, and life is not supposed to be all smooth-sailing, is it? Even for the most disciplined and straight-arrowed, and regardless of our life circumstances, sooner or later we will all look tragedy in the eye. Because nobody is immune to life’s curveballs, which comes in many forms. And absolutely nobody, unless it’s fiction, is immune to life’s ultimate curveball – the great beyond, the final farewell.

And when you come to think about it, it is the unexpected, the dramas of life, that provide the best material for stories. Stories – the greatest ones – are always about the unexpected, the twists and turns that uproot the protagonist’s life in some way. After all, nobody really wants to hear a story in which nothing out of the ordinary happens. Great tragedy is often followed by heart wrenching story-telling. Back in 2011, who knew that a tsunami would hit and devastate so much of South-East Asia? It was a tragedy that uprooted and destroyed numerous lives, and it inspired the book-turned-movie “The Impossible” starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. In 2020, who knew that the whole world would get hit by the COVID pandemic? The movie “Contagion” starring Kate Winslet suddenly became a wonder, something that Nostradamus fans look to as proof, no matter how nonsensical, that certain prophecies come true. And in a couple of years, when the wounds are not as fresh and it won’t be considered as offensive, Hollywood might make another blockbuster out of this global tragedy. In light of such disasters, when our mortality is at stake, we scale back and focus more on the basics – stay healthy, stay alive, be strong for our loved ones. And the Chinese mantra “出入平安” becomes ever more meaningful, for now we prize peace and quiet in a way that we never did before.

The older I get, the more it becomes apparent that life is what happens when things don’t go according to plan. Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t mean we shouldn’t plan and work hard. My motto is that we should work hard and try our best, and leave the rest up to a higher power. Some of the best things in my life happened because things didn’t go according to plan.

In February, we welcomed our little girl – quite the unexpected curveball – to our family. It has been a hectic, life-changing few months, filled with sleepless nights and days revolving around her feeds, pumping milk, changing nappies, burping her, and getting her to sleep. Now that she’s so much more alert and inquisitive, I start seeing the little girl she might grow up to be. And it’s magical.

Life with two kids, a dog, work, and a household to manage (thankfully with a lovely domestic helper!) also means that for the next few years I won’t get a full night’s sleep. It also means that I won’t get as much time to write, so I’ll have to figure out how to maximise my time and do as much writing as I can with what free time I have. My fourth Ellanor book is still in the making – mostly in my head, because I’m still planning out the chapters – and so I won’t give any spoilers here, but only say that the next book will be full of action and drama, twists and turns. How will Elly and Goldie respond to life’s curveballs? Oh, and parts of it will take place in North and South America, and a couple of other places that I haven’t yet decided on. That’s all I shall disclose for now.

I look at my chubby little baby girl, now full of crescent-eyed smiles, and I watch her being cuddled by my son while my corgi lies close by sniffing her tiny toes, and my heart is full to bursting as my exhaustion melts away, and I think: sometimes, what you get is infinitely better than any ganache. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
30th April 2021

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: My Journey with Ellanor

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I’m driving to Central, and the sun is beating down as I meander through the traffic. As usual, there is another standstill. “Mummy, what is that?” my little four-year-old chirps, and I turn my head a fraction to the left and flinch. “Ow!” I groan, massaging my neck. The crick has been bothering me since I submitted my manuscript for my third book to my publisher a few days ago. I’d spent the last week staying up late into the night editing and making final revisions to the manuscript. The stress of meeting a deadline and hours and hours of sitting and typing must’ve strained my neck and upper back muscles. But alas – Huzzah! – the third installment of The Ellanor Chronicles is finally ready to come out at the end of this year! Elated and relieved, I ordered a bunch of delicious take-out and feasted with my hubby as we binge-watched Cobra-Kai and reveled in 1980s nostalgia. Amidst this pandemic, this has become the new normal – celebrating quietly and without much fanfare at home with loved ones.

People often ask me what it’s like to write and get a novel published. There are those who assume it’s an uncomplicated process where you sit down and type out the whole story in one go, and there you have it. I can’t tell you how far this is from the truth. If a writer takes their craft seriously and is determined to write a good story, especially one with a huge scope like The Ellanor Chronicles, it requires a tremendous amount of discipline and perseverance. It starts with brainstorming and planning out the story, outlining the chapters, followed by the actual writing which could take months, even years. It took J.R.R. Tolkien over ten years to write The Lord of the Rings (whose ethereal elves inspired my elves in The Ellanor Chronicles), and six years for J.K. Rowling to finish Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (which then got rejected by about twenty publishing houses until a sharp-eyed literary agent named Christopher Little snagged it).

After the first draft is ready, the strenuous process of rewriting and editing begins, and it is this last leg of the journey that can be most tedious and stressful because you want to polish your work to a shine before it gets revealed to the world. It is imperative to have an excellent, perfectionistic editor to guide you through this process to help enhance your writing, which involves correcting at least 90% of the typos and errors. But as the author, the final process becomes a personal crusade to fill in every little plot hole and inconsistency and edit every misplaced punctuation mark and inconspicuous misspelling that the editor has missed. Because even if it is fantasy fiction, the world the author depicts must still be convincing to the reader. So yes, writing a book to meet a professional standard is a great deal of hard work, especially if you are not James Patterson with a slew of ghostwriters and editors at your beck and call.

When I think back on my writing journey, I’m amazed by how much has transpired. There has been a series of triumphs, disappointments, surprises, frustrations, elations…But ultimately the journey has enriched me and made me grow. Back in 2013, I had been married for two years, working hard as a Speech Therapist and contemplating doing a Ph.D. I had already gotten in touch with some professors to see if they would want to become my supervisor. But embarking on a five-year academic journey meant that I wouldn’t have the time or the energy to do what I had dreamed of doing for years: writing and publishing a novel before I started a family. So I put aside my Ph.D. aspirations and set out to realize my childhood dream, no matter that it sounded foolish and fanciful. And the rest is history.

These days, bookshelves are overcrowded with young-adult fantasy novels about vampires and werewolves (don’t get me started) and dystopian futures. To be fair, some of these are excellent (e.g. the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman), whereas the success of some confounds me to no end. But I wanted to offer something different: a planned series in which elf and human worlds collide, and the heroine is a unique young elf much like a young female Indiana Jones, who lives out her dream of being a globe-trotting explorer after she is pushed through a portal into the contemporary human world. My protagonist is an elf named Ellanor Celendis, better known as Elly, who resides in the elven realm of Alendria. The series charts Elly’s adventures as she blossoms from an insecure twelve-year-old into a strong-headed teenager who learns to take on responsibility and fight for the people and the world she loves. Elly is sweet-natured and struggles with feelings of inferiority as she is ostracised at school for being an oddball as well as being the grand-niece of the one who allegedly betrayed his people to the goblins during a war that took place centuries ago. A recurring theme in this story is that appearances are deceitful; things are not always what they seem.

Through my story, I want to convey to readers that though there is much darkness and evil in this world, there is also light and much that is good. Through Elly’s adventures and expeditions, readers get to learn about various cultures and different life issues that affect the human experience. Through her inquisitive eyes, I want to convey to readers that regardless of race, skin colour, or social upbringing, we are all essentially the same in the most fundamental ways, and we should treat one another with respect and dignity. We live in a world where people of all ethnicities and cultures make society interesting, lively, and functional; this is something that I want to exemplify and celebrate in my story. The first book takes the reader to London, where Elly learns a bit about British culture as well as Chinese culture when she befriends a Hong Kong-Chinese immigrant family. The sequels take place in different parts of the world, including South Korea, Europe, and other places that I will keep mum about for now as I don’t want to reveal spoilers!

So you might ask – is all that hard work worth it? All I know is that one day I will be gone from this world, and if my books can make even the tiniest difference – if they can make my readers smile and dream and think and talk about things that matter – then yes, it would have been worth it. “If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” – Benjamin Franklin

Last year in October, I was interviewed by RTHK Radio 3 about my journey on becoming a writer and published author. You can listen to the interview here.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
17th September 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: The Giant that was Clive Staples Lewis

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My little boy and I have a ritual. We started this around April amidst the surreal and mostly homebound year of Covid-19. Instead of reading him books at bedtime, he wanted me to tell him tall tales that I would make up on the spot. I discovered this is good practice for me as a writer. Every night at dinner, he rattles off a list of characters on his little fingers, characters that I had made up for him off the top of my head. “Mommy, tonight I want a story about James the Giant, Dillon the Dinosaur, Goldilocks, Calvin the Cockroach, and…” He would often pause and try to come up with a new character, perhaps a gargantuan scorpion or snake or other. And I would smile gamely and wrinkle my brow and thank God that He blessed me with some skill for weaving the fantastical. For every bedtime story, my little boy always includes James the Giant, who started off quite villainous, but got rehabilitated into a gentleman by the nosy but good-hearted Goldilocks and her little human friends (one of them named Jonathan, of course).

There is another type of giant that walks among us, one that makes the earth shudder not in the literal sense, but in the figurative sense. There are certain people that we look up to, people that seem bigger than life and inspire us to take that risk, walk that extra mile, put in that extra hour of practice. Clive Staples Lewis, or more commonly known as C.S. Lewis (or “Jack” in his social circle), is a literary giant who is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, and dozens of other notable works such as The Four Loves and Mere Christianity. He was known to be one of the most brilliant yet humble intellectuals with a wicked sense of humour. Apparently, he liked to play pranks, and he donated much of his earnings to charities and never told anybody about it. And he was very kind. Even his personal secretary attested to this, and a personal assistant often knows more about their boss than even their own friends or family. This is what made me want to learn more about him. Great writers are usually known for their intellect, but not always known for their kindness and warmth and humanity.

Actually, I am an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, who was a great friend and colleague of C.S. Lewis at Oxford.  One day I will write about Tolkien, who was an extraordinary person in his own right. In my younger years, I never got into The Chronicles of Narnia because it just didn’t captivate me like Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings did, a colossal story that is forever seared into my heart. But I felt compelled to write about Lewis after a recent discussion I had with my husband, during which I learned some very moving things about the man and made me realize something important: before one becomes a good writer, one should strive to be a good human being. This is because writing is an organic process that reflects our world view. If we do not understand people, if we lack compassion, if we do not believe that all humans of all races and skin color and backgrounds should be treated with respect and dignity, it will show in the things we write about. And what good can writers with intent to preach evil do for humanity? Adolf Hitler wrote the Mein Kampf, the autobiographical manifesto which describes the process by which the Nazi Party leader became antisemitic and his plans to destroy Jews and other ‘impure’ peoples and transform Germany into the world’s conquering power. But such works should serve to remind us of the atrocities that we should avoid at all costs, not to inspire us to be more hateful and destructive. C.S. Lewis famously quoted, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.” The man believed passionately in God and love and all that is good and wholesome, all that grows and nurtures the human spirit. In all that he writes, you can see his beliefs and values shine through, and this is how his writing has given hope and inspiration to many over the decades.

As a writer, I was curious about the advice that C.S. Lewis imparted about writing. I have been reading his masterpiece The Screwtape Letters, a one-of-a-kind story about how the devil trains his apprentice to lure a Christian man from his faith. Though I am only a few chapters in, I am already struck by his unique prose, which is at once sardonic, poetic, and searingly clear. There are times when you come across something in a book and you go, “Yes, I totally get that! I’ve thought about it in vague terms, but never was I able to put it into words like that. How did the writer articulate it so well?” Lewis had a great talent for this, as most great writers do.

In his letters and other sources, C. S. Lewis left various bits of advice on the craft of writing, and I’ve shared some of his words of wisdom here, with bits of my thoughts embedded throughout:

  1. Avoid distractions. So, turn off the radio and the TV and devote an allotted time to your craft.
  2. Read all the good books you can. Only by reading good writing can you learn to become an even better writer and broaden your horizons.
  3. Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. Hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.
  4. Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about . . .)
  5. Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he needs to know—the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.
  6. Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.
  7. Avoid ambiguity. The way for a person to develop a style is to know exactly what he wants to say, and to be sure he is saying exactly that. The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.
  8. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence could not mean anything else. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them. Avoid fancy, unnecessary words. There is nothing worse than reading a piece of pretentious, convoluted writing that makes you want to stop in two minutes.

C.S. Lewis said, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” And I agree. Literature in the form of good stories don’t just reflect life; it enriches and adds colour to life that can at times feel unbearably dull, repetitive, and mundane. This is why doctors, bankers, lawyers, and others who slave for hours at the workplace stumble home bleary-eyed and melt onto the couch and wind down with a good dose of Harry Potter or Netflix. We crave stories because they give us renewed hope and rejuvenate our fatigued souls. Loving stories is neither a weakness nor a frivolous thing. It is being wonderfully human. And by all accounts, C.S. Lewis was a wonderful human being, a gentle giant, and that is probably why his writing is achingly beautiful. For my Jonathan, one day I shall name one of our bedtime giants “Jack” and whisk my boy off to the world of Narnia.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
13th August 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: Of Beautiful Battle Scars and Flawed Utopias

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It is already July. I’m a mixed bag of emotions and thoughts as I reflect on how this year has transpired. I believe 2020 thus far has been a year of heavy trials and tribulations for many all over the globe, and for some the traumas and devastations will linger for years to come. There is a lyric in John Lennon’s Beautiful Boy that “life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” How true that is.

With so much time spent social-distancing at home, one upside is that I’ve been able to catch up on some late-night reading after putting my boys to sleep. I devoured the excellent dystopian Scythe trilogy by Neal Shusterman. It is one of the most original and intriguing stories I’ve read. Though the books are aimed at a young-adult audience, the subject matter is actually quite dark and heavy. It is an easy read, and it leaves you with plenty to mull over. This is what great writing conjures: ideas, questions, epiphanies, and lessons learned. And from this story, a glaring moral lesson can be gleaned: in our quest to attain a perfect world, a Utopia in which humans are immortal and no longer fall sick, a world in which humans no longer have to fight for justice and freedom or strive for progress, a so-called perfect world where we can no longer identify with the tragedies and triumphs of Shakespeare…We’d lose essential parts of our humanity, wouldn’t we?

Once the very things that make up the essence of songs and poetry and novels and films  – turmoil, tragedy, loss, regret –  are somehow eliminated, then what is left? For how do we truly appreciate and treasure love, family, friendship, triumphs, and the sanctity of life in a Utopia where death and loss and tragedy are no longer part of the equation? Scythe cleverly and elegantly asks these questions, and though it is never explicitly told, we are shown (as all great stories do) the answer: though these are not the things we want in life, it is the difficult stuff that gives our life meaning and makes us grow. Think about your favourite, most inspiring stories. Les Misérables. The Taxi Driver (Korean film). The Shawshank Redemption. The Pursuit of Happiness. Schindler’s List. The Book Thief. The Theory of Everything. The Untouchables. These stories are worthy of telling because they celebrate the tenacity of the human spirit: that no matter how crushing life gets, we don’t give up, we survive, we forge on until the light emerges at the end of the tunnel. Because the darkness doesn’t last forever. The sun will rise, the skies will clear. We may stumble, we may cry and scream with anguish and tear our hair out; but then we grit our teeth, hold our head up high, and keep going. And therein lies the great contradiction of the human condition: we hate hardship and tragedy, we try to avoid pain at all costs; but without any of the difficult stuff, aren’t we just empty and stagnant vessels waiting to expire? As M. Scott Peck stated at the beginning of his wonderful book The Road Less Traveled: Life is difficult. So perhaps the least we could ask for is this: let the inevitable turmoil come, but at bearable dosages please.  

A little personal anecdote to show that sometimes, mishaps can be a blessing in disguise: When I was studying for my Masters degree in Australia, I was assigned to intern as a Speech Pathologist at a small country-town hospital. As a city girl, I was not happy about this. Why did I have to drive over eight hours cross-country by myself in my beat-up Volvo with NO air-conditioning in the searing summer heat while my classmates were assigned to nearby hospitals and clinics in the city? “Because you ticked the box that indicated you have wheels,” my supervisor laughed, and I mentally kicked myself. So I accepted my plight and set off for Bundaberg, a small town in the middle of nowhere that’s actually world-famous for its ginger beer and rum. There I was, speeding along the highway in that sky-blue tank of a Volvo with nothing but packed bags and a 2003 Nokia mobile phone (no GPS or smart phones back then!) when the steering wheel started shuddering and the hood started smoking! Images of kidnapping highwaymen and murderous psychopaths flashed across my mind as I slowed the car down and parked at the side of the highway. I waited for over half an hour alone on that huge expanse of road and dry shrubbery before the familiar yellow and blue RACQ truck arrived, and I prayed that the driver wasn’t some lecherous predator. The friendly bearded man fixed up my Volvo and gently reminded me that perhaps it was time to give up my ancient contraption for something like an amiable Toyota or Honda, before waving goodbye and driving off, leaving me deflating with relief as I quickly jumped back into my tank and sped away, thanking God I was alive and kicking. And you know what? Despite my initial reluctance and the rocky-road start, I had one of the best times of my life in Bundaberg.

As I reflect on this year of personal hardships and challenges, I also smile at my victories, some big, some small. Like everyone else, I have battle scars, and I am proud of them. And as Hong Kong, my beloved home, is embroiled in adversity, I want to say this on behalf of all of us who love this glorious city: we shall forge on. The sun will come up. One day, stories will be told of what we overcame. And I shall keep writing.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
8th July 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: My Two Cents

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“Miss Kathryn, have you finished your third book?”

I often get this question from students and readers who have finished the first two instalments of The Ellanor Chronicles, my fantasy book series. After having hosted a number of creative writing workshops with the English Schools Foundation (ESF) and my private ‘Atomic Da Vincis’ classes, teaching about creative writing feels like a calling that I could do for the rest of my life. And yes, I have indeed been working on my third book, and the manuscript is currently with my wonderful editor. The truth is that writing a book requires a tremendous amount of hard work, and some people, bless them, may think it is as easy as jotting down notes on a piece of shorn paper.

I’ve been racking my brain about what piece of essential advice about creative writing I can impart. My two cents. Something that may seem painfully obvious, but just isn’t really emphasized and deserves mentioning. I mean, these days it’s so easy to find information about creative writing tips online. So what wisdom could I possibly impart to you, dear reader? Most who have taken a creative writing course might remember (or not) the ‘Elements of Fiction’ – Plot, Character, Setting, Point of View, Style, Theme. Use ‘Show Not Tell’, and make sure to use a good range of vocabulary words. Make sure you proofread and use the correct grammar. You know, the usual fare. But at the back of my mind, I knew there was something that just hasn’t been emphasized. An important point that is often glossed over. And out of sheer providence, a few days ago I came across a short video clip featuring Dr Jordan B. Peterson, an acclaimed Canadian clinical psychologist, social commentator, scholar, and author…and possibly one of the most intelligent people I have come across. In his usual conversational but profoundly eloquent way, he was speaking on the topic of writing, and his words so resonated with me that I sat bolt upright and shouted, “That’s it!”

This is what Dr Jordan B. Peterson said in his distinct voice that conveyed his incredulity: ‘“What blows me away at universities is that nobody ever tells students why they should write something. People think it’s because you need the grades. But, no. No. You learn to write because you need to learn to think. Thinking makes you act effectively in the world. Thinking makes you win the battles you undertake. And those could be battles for good things. And if you can think and speak and write, you are absolutely deadly. Nothing can get in your way. So that’s why you learn to write. And I can’t believe people aren’t just told that. It’s the most powerful weapon you can possibly provide someone with.”’

Dr Jordan B. Peterson absolutely nailed it. Learning to write is important because it hones your mind, a blade that needs sharpening. Writing and thinking sharpens those edges and makes you intellectually lethal. When I took a distant creative writing course through Oxford University back in 2009, I’m sure I grew new brain cells from all those writing tasks that made me think, analyze, critique, rewrite, polish. Those few months were one of the happiest times of my life. I not only grew as a writer; I also grew as a person. I learned to see the world through a wider, sharper, more colourful lens. This is that I want to emphasize – good writing requires you to be a good thinker and a good observer of the human condition. You need to be curious about the world and ask questions and figure out right from wrong, truth from false, the sensible from the senseless. If you want to write a good essay, thesis, poem, screenplay, short story or novel, and you want it to stand out and engross readers and make them go, “Wow, I want to keep reading this!” – then you need to think well. If you want people to listen, you have to communicate well. Writing is essentially a form of communication, isn’t it? Good writing requires layer upon layer of planning, critiquing, analyzing, organizing, revising, rewriting, editing. And here’s what I’ve found – writing can be so much hard work, but it can be loads of fun, too.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that good creative writing can change the world. Why do we tell stories? Sure, we want to entertain. But ultimately, it’s because we have something to say. We want to communicate something important. I strongly believe that telling stories is one of the most powerful ways to say something to the world. And so, you have to use those Elements of Fiction:  Plot, Character, Setting, Point of View, Style, Theme – and use them to their full potential.

Let me refer to a particular short story as an example. Many of you may have heard of or read the wonderful children’s books of master storyteller, Roald Dahl. ‘Matilda’, ‘The BFG’, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ are timeless tales. To this day, Matilda makes me laugh and tear up. I didn’t know that Roald Dahl had written a collection of short stories for adults until I was at university, and boy, did they blow my mind. I didn’t think I could be more impressed by Dahl, but I was in for a surprise. One particular short story has stayed with me: The Landlady. It is a dark and terrifying look at 17-year-old Billy Weaver’s first and last stay at a bed and breakfast. If you haven’t already read it, then you should. It would be thirty minutes well spent.

As a writer, you have to create characters that are multi-dimensional and real, flawed but likeable enough that the reader still roots for them. In ‘The Landlady’, the protagonist is young Billy Weaver who comes across a seemingly harmless landlady. On the surface, she epitomizes the ‘grandma-next-door’ and offers him a room at a big discount at her little bed & breakfast. With the subtlety that comes with a great storyteller, Dahl’s writing style (which involves plenty of dark humor, sarcasm, and suggestive dialogue) masterfully builds up the suspense and dread the reader starts to feel for poor Billy, who is so trusting that you want to shake him by the shoulders and yell at him to open his eyes and see the old woman for what she really is. The setting should press all the readers’ sensory buttons, and this is where the technique ‘Show Not Tell’ comes in – as a writer, we need to show how things unfold in the story through the reader’s sense of smell, touch, sight, hearing, and taste. Roald Dahl masterfully created the setting so that it is easy for the reader to know that the story is set in London just after the Second World War, by the way the buildings look, by the way characters talk and dress, and by the things they eat, and much more. Then the plot is what a good story hinges upon. Planning out the plot is one of the things my students have most difficulty with. It nearly always involves the character facing some sort of dilemma that makes the reader wonder how it’s all going to end. There needs to be a climax, the moment in the story where the protagonist is faced with some problem that the reader wants them to overcome. Some endings resolve happily, and some don’t. Because that’s life, right? Not everything ends well, and good people die everyday, and injustice is around every corner. And as the reader, you start to brace yourself as you notice strange things about the gregarious landlady who doesn’t seem so kindly anymore, and then you get the sense that danger is looming, that there is no doubt poor Billy Weaver is in the clutches of a taxidermy-loving psychopath who so stealthily lured him into her web. And though it isn’t explicitly told, the story ends in a way that makes you realize Billy is doomed to die.

Every good story, whether or not it has a happy ending, conveys a message to the reader. Some like to call it the theme or moral, but however you label it, we can always take something away from a good story. And so as you finish reading The Landlady, perhaps somewhat spooked and shaken, you might think: in life, things are not always what they seem. Looks can deceive. Danger can come in the smallest, sweetest, most innocent-looking packages. And that is the life lesson you can take away with you. Roald Dahl’s dark tale, like many wonderfully written stories, makes you ponder and learn. It may even change your life in some way.

Think about it: writers not only get to create an entire universe with the words they write, but with these very words writers also have the power to change the world. When it’s put that way, writing seems like a pretty darn cool thing to master, huh?

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
24th May 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: Mother’s Day and Calvin the Cockroach

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“Mummy, can you puh-lease tell me one more story? A VERY long one?” It is bedtime, golden and magical, just me and my four year-old boy, closed off from the rest of the world behind a wooden door against which our corgi rests snugly. My furbaby likes being with us at bedtime, not wanting to be excluded because, after all, he did come before the hooman-baby.

I rest my cheek against the pillow and take in my son’s sweet face, still rounded and baby-smooth.  “OK, darling. What story would you like tonight?” I stifle a yawn, for I am feeling sleepy after yet another busy day as a working mummy. 

He grins, his cheek dimpling. “I want a story about a cockroach!”

Well, that wakes me up. I absolutely hate cockroaches. Why can’t he choose some other creature, something less feral and revolting. Perhaps a ladybird? A bee? A house lizard?

Nope, he insists on the cockroach. And since I am a story-teller, I take up the challenge. I smile and roll onto my tummy, just like him. “OK, then give mummy a big kiss,” I demand with mock-petulance. And so he happily obliges, and I breathe in that delicious sweetness that still lingers on his baby-like skin, and I begin. “Once upon a time, there was a very unique cockroach named Calvin who wore a red hat…” And my boy beams and giggles with such sheer joy that my heart is full to bursting, and in that instant I wish that I have magical powers so that I can channel that moment into a pearl that I could plop into a jar full of other pearls that I could one day string up like a necklace. And I would wear it around my neck so that I could forever hold those pearls close to my heart and relive them one by one when he decides he is too old for bedtime stories and no longer wants mummy to put him to bed.

Today is Mother’s Day, and as I write this my heart feels a myriad of things. Happiness. Bittersweetness. Sadness. Compassion. Grief. Hope. Joy. Wonder. Nostalgia. Regret. Gratitude.

I celebrate this day as a mother and a daughter. As a mother, I welcome this day with joy, wonder, and gratitude. I love being a mother and I am thankful to have my boy in my life. As a daughter, I celebrate this day with my mother who suffered a massive stroke last year, and she is no longer the same person. But it’s funny how the stripping away of a person can sometimes strip away walls, too. Before her stroke, so many things were left unsaid. But these days, I tell her everyday that I love her, and she replies, “I love you, too.” She may not remember my birthday anymore, she may forget things that happened two minutes ago, and she may ask the same question over and over again; but what matters most is that she knows she is much loved.

As I write this, I also think about how Mother’s Day isn’t easy for so many women. I remember what that was like: when I found it hard to feel celebratory on this day. There are women waiting for their miracle, the mothers who have lost a child, the mothers who have suffered a pregnancy loss, the mothers who have suffered stillbirth, and those who have lost their mothers or grandmothers. There are also those who were adopted and perhaps don’t have a mother-figure in their lives, or those who are searching for one. There is a big wide world out there filled with people whose lives I can only imagine, whose experiences and plights I may find hard to identify with. So before I throw out the blanket well wishes and yell, “Happy Mother’s Day!” I take a moment to think: this may not be a happy day for everyone, and if it is not, I wish for better and happier days ahead.

Memories connect us to our loved ones, and as a mother I want to make wonderful memories with my son. I want him to remember my quirky tall stories about Calvin the cockroach and other strange tales about giants and ogres and whatnot. I want my boy to remember that his mommy so loved spending time with him, shrouded in that magical blanket called love that may change form over the years, but shall never leave. And perhaps one day, when I am too old and frail to get out of bed, my son can hold my wrinkled hand and tell me stories that I can take away with me.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
10th May 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

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Kathryn Tse-Durham: Love and War in the Time of COVID-19

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Hi everyone! This is my first blog ever, thanks to Hedgehog Publishing. I’m a working mommy to a 4 year-old boy and a furbaby, and I’m a speech and language therapist and author of The Ellanor Chronicles. By coincidence, I was recently interviewed by a Bloomberg News journalist who’s co-writing an article about how mothers in Hong Kong have been coping with the pressures caused by the coronavirus outbreak. School closures, mask shortages, working from home, social distancing – all of these have turned our lives upside down. Since the journalist seemed to like what I wrote, I thought I would include some of what I sent her in this first blog post, because, let’s face it, who hasn’t been significantly affected by the outbreak? Even my dog has been impacted and must wonder why these days he almost never gets a break from my boisterous little boy who has overtaken his territory with sprawling LEGO train tracks.

To say that it’s been a tough, surreal month is an understatement. ‘Love and War in the Time of COVID-19’ –  one day I might just write a memoir about this madness that has affected every aspect of my life. It seems that this outbreak has brought out some of the finest qualities in people, and also the most bizarre and in some cases downright terrible. This truly is the age of globalization – just look at how this virus has taken root all over the globe. Now the world understands the strange phenomenon of the hoarding contagion and would no longer laugh at Hong Kongers for being the only ones on the planet to hoard rice and toilet paper. Our family never caught that hoarding bug, but it did affect us. Instead of rice, we turned to pasta and noodles and bread. Instead of toilet paper – well, we were prepared to resort to other feasible and hygienic solutions in case our supply ran out, which ultimately didn’t, thank goodness. 

So, how are mommies coping with all this madness? I can only speak for myself, so I’ll say this: it’s all a learning curve, and nobody’s perfect so mommies shouldn’t be too hard on themselves nor on each other. It’s important to stay flexible and positive and realize that nothing lasts forever, so we shall bear with it because the sun will come out eventually. As a working mommy with a plate so full that sometimes I end up getting five hours of uninterrupted sleep if I’m lucky, I thank God that I have a good helper to help ease the workload. And in a time like this, some things come into focus a lot more – that close relationships, more than money or success, are what keeps us happy and sane throughout a crisis. So for me, it helps that my husband, my partner-in-crime, makes me laugh and lets me have a good cry on his shirt sleeve and watches juvenile Netflix rom-coms with me just so I can snuggle up with him after a harrowing day; it helps that he surprises me with goodies from Lululemon and helps out at home and spends quality time with our son and tells me that I’m beautiful and doing great, even when I feel like a total wreck. Of course, no marriage is perfect. But kids are more astute than we give them credit for – so if mommy and daddy work as a team and look happy together (most of the time), then it will keep them anchored and happy, too.

Sure, there are plenty of downsides of this COVID-19 outbreak. For one, it’s scary that it’s so infectious. I feel terrible for those who lost loved ones to the disease. I hate staying cooped up at home and not being able to see my students in the flesh. I so miss the fresh air on my face that’s not covered by a mask. I hate that my son is missing out on school and socializing with peers and friends. I miss taking him out to parks and playgrounds and Ocean Park. I hate not going out for my Personal Training sessions to keep up with my kick-boxing.

But here’s the thing – not all of it has been bad. I know I risk coming across as flakey by saying this, but as a generally optimistic person I do try to make the best out of a bad situation. I think that if we don’t try to focus on the good stuff, we’ll just all lose our sanity. So, perhaps it’s self-preservation, but it’s helped to keep me sane and relatively happy (most of the time) since all this outbreak madness started.

One upside is that because I’ve been working from home, I’ve had more time to write and finish up my third book in The Ellanor Chronicles, woo-hoo!  But I think the best upside of having to stay home so much is more quality family time. I believe that young children thrive on a schedule with plenty of time allowed for free-play. I’ve been coming up with ways to teach my 4 year-old son things that he may not get to learn at his kindergarten, and I have been pleasantly surprised by how well he has taken to these new tasks that I had previously thought might be a tad too challenging for a boy just emerging from toddlerhood. In the past month of home-schooling him, he’s learned to write his (rather long) name and little love notes to his grandparents and cousins. Over two days he learned to ride a bike without training wheels because Daddy’s had much more time with him since he’s working from home. My boy’s  learned to play the tunes of Twinkle Little Star, Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, and Mary Had a Little Lamb off by heart on his little blue electric keyboard.

So, despite the pressures and limitations imposed by this outbreak, as a mommy I have found great joy in watching my child still learn and thrive in this limiting environment. I feel blessed that my husband and I love each other’s company and yet know how to give each other space, so that being stuck under the same roof 24/7 hasn’t left us feeling murderous towards each other. As an author, I’m glad I’ve been able to make good use of all this time spent at home to work on my writing. It hasn’t been easy, but we make do with what we have, and sometimes we stumble across gems in the mire of muck and disorder. Because that’s life, right? Finding the beauty amidst the chaos. We must.

Kathryn Tse-Durham
Author of The Ellanor Chronicles
13th March 2020

This blog post is also posted on Kathryn’s Facebook Page. Visit here.

book launch

Book launch event of Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-Tailed Fox

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Back in June when I was getting ready for this little publishing project. I didn’t quite expect this roller coaster ride that would come to me. I think I will write a bit about that later. Let’s write something happy today.

As mentioned previously, the book launch for Ellanor and the Search for Organoth Blue Amber is postponed due to social unrests and safety reasons. Now it is back on, but instead of celebrating the launch of the first instalment, we are using this occasion to celebrate the launch of the second instalment, Ellanor and the Curse on the Nine-tailed Fox! Small publisher like us might have very limited resource, but on the other hand we are very flexible, God bless us, we just need this flexibility so much.

Alright, book launch details as follow:
Date: Jan 19, 2020 (Sunday)
Time: 3.30 – 5.30pm
Venue: Nectar Integrative Dining, G/F, Shop D, 108 Hollywood road, Central

Drinks and Canapes will be served. Please RSVP by emailing to info[@]hedgehog-publishing.com

Cheers!

#theellanorchronicles #kathryntsedurham #hedgehogpublishing #publishing #hongkong #event #booklaunch

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