Writers from China's diaspora
Asked how she places herself among the authors of China's diaspora, Taiwan-born Shih Shu-ching says: 'I'm a transit writer.'
By moving between Taiwan, Hong Kong and New York since 1965, Shih has brought a broad range of styles and ideas to her novels and non-fiction - from the history of her home town in southern Taiwan, to colonial Hong Kong, the cultural fusion of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and two books on Buddhist monk Sheng Yan, the latest of which, Xin Zai He Chu (Where The Heart Lies) was released last month.
The author says being a transit writer also means the odd dose of literary jet lag. 'Sometimes when I walk on Fifth Avenue, I feel like I'm floating,' she says from her Manhattan apartment near Carnegie Hall. 'I used to have nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night and not know where I was.'
Her point of reference when she feels this anxiety is Eileen Zhang Ailing, the pioneer of urban Chinese fiction whose literary career halted when she fled the mainland during the Sino-Japanese war. She moved to Hong Kong and later lived in the US until a lonely death in 1995.
Shih says she worried that the change of landscape would be an impediment to her literary career. 'I'm always on the road, but I don't want to be like Eileen - an orchid that loses its roots.'