New Voices: Fan Wu

Fan Wu grew up on a state-run farm in southern China, where her parents were exiled during the Cultural Revolution. She came to America in 1997 for graduate studies and began to write five years later. In 2007, she left her job in high-tech to write full-time. Her debut novel, February Flowers, has been chosen as the inaugural book by Picador Asia and has been translated into nine languages. Her short fiction, besides being anthologized and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, has appeared in Granta, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, Redivider, and Asia Literary Review. Her second novel, Beautiful as Yesterday, is forthcoming by major publishers in the US, the UK, Australia and Asia. Wu holds an M.A. in Communication from Stanford University and currently lives in Santa Clara, California. She writes in both English and Chinese. Her website: www.fanwuwrites.com

First of all, congratulations on your child's birth! Has this changed the way you write at all? How do you write? Can you walk us through when you sit down at your desk?

Thanks. I really enjoy having my daughter, though motherhood is quite exhausting. Before her birth, I was able to write several hours most days of the week and being a night owl, I was most productive in the evenings. But now I don’t really have a schedule and my writing time is fragmented, in between her feeding, sleeping and playing. I write whenever I can, which sometimes means 4 or 5 a.m.

What about writing in English? I've noticed an interesting rhythm in your stories, a kind of sharp, almost formal rhythm--it's so hard to explain these things. Are you conscious of this? I have wondered whether it comes from having Chinese as your first language? Sometimes writing in a second language seems to create such beautiful, surprising rhythms.

I began to write creatively in 2002, five years after I came to America, and I chose to write my first novel in English because I thought it could help me learn my new language.

Yes, I’m very much aware that my English has certain formality in it, which presumably resulted from my paying great attention to wording, grammar, sentence structure, etc., as non-native speakers tend to do.  Also I was trying to learn English from writers whose styles seemed most accessible to me, such as Naipaul, Hemingway, Salinger, Alice Monroe, William Trevor, to name a few. I’m very attached to Chinese so even when I write in English, Chinese is always in the back of my mind and it can intervene with my English. That may explain certain surprising rhythms. I have to admit that writing in English doesn’t come natural to me and sometimes I’m maddeningly frustrated.

Do you think in Chinese, or English? Dream?

Both, sometimes in Chinese, other times in English. It depends on which language I’m writing in at the moment. These days, I’m writing a novel in Chinese, so I think mostly in Chinese. I tend to dream in English, don’t know why, but when I dream of my family, especially my late grandma who raised me, they usually speak Chinese.

It must have been a great honor to have February Flowers chosen for the first book by Picador Asia. What was that like? Can you tell us a little about the imprint and the publishing industry in Asia?

I was lucky to be chosen as Picador Asia’s first author. The imprint was then looking for an Asia-based book, preferably in English, for its launch in the autumn of 2006, and my agent presented my debut novel, February Flowers, at the right time. I did book tours in Australia, Hong Kong, Beijing, Singapore, and the UK, and had more than 80 events and interviews. It was a great pleasure working with the people at Picador Asia, who are dedicated, professional and friendly.

Picador Asia is backed by its parent company Pan Macmillan, an effort to publish Asian writers in the global market. In the past, many Asian writers were mainly read locally and their books rarely gained international readership. Of course, translation was a big challenge (it still is and will always be), but lack of marketing also hampered their successful reach outside Asia. Picador Asia has opened a new territory in the publishing industry in Asia, and hopefully many more Asian voices will be brought to the world in the years to come.

Do you have readers that write to you from China?

Yes, some are Chinese, some are foreigners living in China. A reputable Chinese publisher called Hua Cheng is going to publish February Flowers in China, which I’m very excited about.

You translated February Flowers yourself. What was that like? What were the greatest challenges? Did the rhythm of the sentences change?

When I began to write, I was determined that I would write in both Chinese and English,  a promise I later found naïve. It took me three years to write February Flowers, my first creative writing piece in English, and upon completion, I realized that my Chinese was getting rusty, so I then spent half a year translating it into Chinese to keep up with my mother tongue. It wasn’t a direct translation, but more a rewriting, which was inevitable because the two languages are utterly different, different flows, rhymes, ways of saying things. A language is not just about vocabulary and grammar; it’s about the mindset. A British translator, Esther Tyldesley, once said that translating Chinese to English is like “putting Chinese clouds into an English box.” Translating English into Chinese renders a similar dilemma.

By the way, I wrote my second novel, Beautiful as Yesterday, in Chinese, then translated it into English myself. As for my third novel, I'm also writing it in Chinese first.

I love the cover for February Flowers. How involved were you in the other facets of publishing?

I assume you mean the US version. I’m glad you liked the cover. I have to say I didn’t like it the first time I saw it. Too sexy, too feminine, and too commercial in my taste, though I thought it was a beautiful cover. The cover I had in mind was more of minimalistic Zen style, like a Chinese ink-brush painting. I told my editor so and she explained to me how marketing worked. I figured I’d better focus on writing and leave the marketing to professionals.

I was quite involved in the process of publishing, especially while I was working with Picador Asia/Australia/UK and Simon & Schuster. From editing, galleys, jacket designing, blurb soliciting, to publicity scheduling, I was always updated with the latest and my input was always considered. I was less involved in the book’s publication by regional publishers but I had good communications with my translators.

I read in an article once that when you came to America you could finally acknowledge your "rage." What kind of rage did you feel?

I actually don’t remember ever having said that.

You live in California and said once that you didn't have much contact with other writers. Do you wish you had more? What do you think are the pros and cons of writing groups?

I was working in a stressful high-tech environment for many years before devoting myself to writing, so it hasn’t been easy for me to find time to socialize with other writers. Also, writing bilingually means that I have to spend a lot of time learning English while keeping up with Chinese, a very difficult language and you get rusty very fast if you don’t use it. Yet another obstacle is that I live in Silicon Valley, where literature is probably the last thing on people’s minds. Yes, I do wish I could hang out with other writers more but I have to accept reality too.

I rarely go to writing groups, so I cannot say much about them. Based on my limited experience, I think they can be very useful if you’re lucky enough to meet good critics and you know how to take criticism. And of course, it’s always nice to be with likeminded people. Writing is a lonely passion, so support is very much needed. But for people with thin skin and who want to please everyone, writing groups can be damaging.

Have you ever had someone tell you something about your writing that you hadn't realized, or articulated, yourself?

I was told that my writing was poetic in English, which I wasn’t aware of. I was also told that February Flowers should be made into a movie, directed by either Ang Lee or Wang Jiawei (known as Wong Kar Wai in the west).

Do you plan your novels out beforehand?

Yes. I have to feel excited about my stories and characters before I start to write and during those preparation days, I pretty much live with my main characters, trying to get to know as much as possible about them. Writing a novel to me is like designing a maze, every passage, twist, and turn needing to be planned in advance. There’ll be surprises here and there to demand alterations and modifications, but key plots usually remain mostly unchanged. Knowing the ending, even a tentative one, is a must for me to start a novel, though with my first two novels, I’ve changed both of their endings.

Can you tell us about your revision process? How do you go about revising?

I typically put aside my manuscript for two to three months before I start the revision. But it stays in the back of my mind all this time and I jot down notes whenever I have any, questions about each character, each scene, each chapter, and of course, the beginning and the ending. The day before I start revising, I read the book from cover to cover in one sitting as if it were new to me, then I go through my notes to see if they still make sense. After I deliver a manuscript to my agent or publisher, they’ll send me suggestions and questions, which will become the foundation for the next round of revision.

With February Flowers, how much changed as you went through subsequent drafts? Anything you look for in particular? 

I had two big revisions and many small ones, changing both the beginning and the ending, adding several characters and incidents, deleting quite a few scenes I deemed unnecessary. I was mostly looking to see how well developed my characters were, and how tightly knitted the story was.

Lastly, do you think are there any particular challenges to being Asian and publishing in America? And, not to sound negative, any advantages?

I didn’t know anything about the publishing world until I began to seek representation. I approached many agents and got rejected many times, some telling me that though they liked the novel they didn’t think it would be viable in the US because it was too subtle. Stereotypes and ignorance (sometimes arrogance) towards foreign cultures, I think, are some of the biggest challenges minority writers face here. The situation has been improving though, which is encouraging. As for the writers themselves, staying true to self is always most rewarding.

At least one advantage I can think of: your work stands out because [of] who you are.