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SYNOPSIS
FIREWIFE is about plight and emancipation, sexual subjugation and liberation, escape and desire. It’s about human vacillations. It’s about the gap between merely knowing and actually living one's true self. It is about the tension between being mentally adventurous and being physically (therefore really!) adventurous. FIREWIFE is a story of eight contemporary women: a photographer, the six women she photographs, and a girl traveling in between lives. FIREWIFE draws upon the Chinese creation myth to tell the story of a fledgling photographer, Nin, who leaves her corporate job in California to photograph women throughout the world. Her journey turns into a search for the truth about women: the women of fire and the women of water. In Taipei, she meets Zimi, who leases her forehead as advertising space and wants to donate her eggs to an infertile friend; in Bangkok, she photographs Ut, a fourteen-year-old girl forced into prostitution; in Tokyo, Nin’s subject bares her body so that sushi may be served upon her daily. Each of their lives echoes a stage in Nin’s own journey of discovering her rawer and truer self. Author Q/A: 1. What prompted you to write FireWife? It all began when I came across a photograph in a book about Japan. The photograph showed a woman naked on the floor of a restaurant, four men sitting around her munching on sushi served on her naked body. It’s only later that I learned that this phenomenon is called Nyotaimori, which means using female body as a table, platter. I was so affected by the photograph. I went home, sat down, and wrote. I wrote the story of the sushi table woman that evening, in one sitting. It was an amazing writing experience, as though I was inside her and I was writing to set me free. The story of the sushi table woman became the seed chapter for FIREWIFE. I wrote about these women in FIREWIFE because I wanted to give them their own voice. I wanted to give them a page of their own. 2. How would you characterize yourself as a writer? I am a writer who writes far from “the center of things.” In the context of the West, I am neither white nor man, and even though I am considered an Asian American now, I wasn’t born and didn’t grow up here in the US. In the context of the East, I am not a writer from a super emerging power like China or Japan or Korea or India; I am from a small Islamic country called Malaysia. In the context of Malaysia, I am neither Malay nor Muslim, I am a Buddhist Chinese born and raised in Malaysia who now lives in Vermont. And in the context of Vermont, simply put, I still can't tell an elk from a moose, I am a tropical island girl who now lives among wintry mountains. If I were to use two words to describe myself as a writer, I would use Chinese Diaspora. I believe writing from the peripheral and straddling three cultures (Chinese, Malaysian, and American) give me a unique view of our world. 3. Explain more about the Chinese creation myth, the mythological character Nuwa, and how the myth bonds women over time? Nuwa is a Goddess in the Chinese creation myth. In the original myth, she is known for kneading the first humans out of river mud and for mending the sky when the sky was damaged in the battle between Fire and Water. In FireWife, I created a back-story to explain what precipitated the battle between Fire and Water. I also made Nuwa push open the egg of time, as opposed to Pan Gu, a man, as told in the original myth. The original myth does not bond women over time. I revised the myth so because I have always been fascinated by the idea of coincidence and the possibility that we humans are ALL connected more profoundly than we know. My revised Chinese creation myth is an attempt to answer my own intrigues about chance encounters and destiny, and the fragmentation and displacement in our modern times. 4. The Japanese practice of nyotaimori has reached the United States. What does this say about the state of women in the world today? The practice of nyotaimori is uncommon in Japan and is often tied to Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Nyotaimori is gaining more attention here in the US in recent years. A restaurant in Los Angeles offers this epicurean experience. My view on nyotaimori has somewhat changed over the years. When I wrote about the Nyotaimori woman, I was furious about the extreme female objectification. Could things be worse than women working as tables?! I felt the state of women was in dire straits. Years later, my view is more nuanced and conflicted. I feel that if a woman, armed with other economic means, wants and chooses to work as a platter or table, she should be able to work without having to compromise her strength and worthiness as a woman, a human, an individual. However, if a family member were to choose such a career, I would probably be beyond distraught. 5. Which characters had the most impact on you and why? I wrote about these eight women because something in their lives and something about them resonated with me. I wanted to set them free. The Chinese woman in New York City who jumped off the Verrazano Bridge, for instance, gave me goose bumps every time I read about her. This piece came to me during my short stint as a hotline volunteer for a domestic violence shelter. Shortly after I wrote the piece, a friend of a friend, who had been a battered wife, jumped off the Coronado Bridge in San Diego. She didn’t even shut the car door. She drove to the bridge, got off the car, and jumped. I didn’t know her when she was alive. But every time I read this story, I remember her plight and feel as though we knew each other. 6. What would you like other women to take away from this book? I hope that my readers will never forget the very intricate tie between our peace and plenty and the sufferings of the world. I hope that they will see that the plight of women is a global issue, not an Asian issue; it is an issue concerning mankind, not just women, not just men; it is an issue concerning our present, our future, our children, our earth, our world. I hope that my readers will come to own a new pair of eyes, a new way of seeing their own vacillations in life, their own needs to embark on a “temporary exile from regular life” during which they are not wives, not husbands, not mothers, not fathers, not friends, not workers, free from the daily routines to assemble who they are as expected and respected. I hope that my readers will be inspired to not only know but also live who they truly are whenever they can. 7. What’s next? I am working on a new novel—Yuyu and the Banyan Tree, a coming-of-age story of a Malaysian Chinese girl and her relationship to a banyan tree. The story is set in my hometown, the beautiful Penang island of Malaysia. |
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