Interview With an Author: Sunyi Dean

Sunyi Dean (she/her) is a biracial fantasy author who was born in Texas, grew up in Hong Kong, and now resides in North England. She writes speculative fiction with a weird slant, and her debut novel, The Book Eaters, was a USA Today bestseller. Back in the day, her high school was a former mission house built on the edge of the original Walled City, and her grandparents lived in Hong Kong through both World Wars. In her spare time, she likes buying whisky, picking up dumbbells, and dying in jiu-jitsu. Her new novel is The Girl with a Thousand Faces, and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.

What was your inspiration for The Girl With a Thousand Faces?

The setting of Hong Kong itself was a huge source of inspiration, especially the wild and lonely coastline near Sai Kung.

Are Mercy, Daiyu, Siu Yin, or any of the other characters in the novel, inspired by or based on specific individuals?

No one specific, I’m afraid! Mercy is sort of an amalgamation of various Chinese aunty stereotypes when you meet her, though she soon develops beyond that. 

Same question for Erika and Bao (because I think there may be stories behind both characters)?

I’m so sorry to disappoint! I’m always very cautious about basing my characters on real people. Erika is someone I spent a lot of time designing, though, because I like to have queer rep when possible, and I thought she would be an iconic way to capture how people are freer to be themselves when war isn’t pressing down on them. 

In your Author’s Note, you mention that, while Cobra Lily is your creation, she was inspired by a historical figure named She Aizhen. How did you first learn of She Aizhen? What was the most interesting thing you learned about her?

I went looking for any historical stories of real female gangsters and found her! A fun/gruesome fact: she survived a police raid, which turned into a mutual massacre, and was one of the few people to walk out alive. 

How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?

It changed enormously! I went through multiple drafts and revisions and must have around 150,000 words in my "book graveyard" at this point. Whole storylines came and went. I would have loved to have had more legends and lore, for example, the tale of the Painted Skin Demon, which got cut in one of the edits. Definitely Google that if you have time!

Is Kowloon Wall City based on a real area/neighborhood of Hong Kong?

It was, although that place is gone! They tore it down in the late 1980s. At one point, Kowloon Walled City was the most densely populated neighborhood on earth, and largely operated outside of laws and regulations. My old high school was built on what used to be the edge of the walled city and still has high concrete walls with barbed-wire fencing. But modern-day Kowloon is just a big park, a mall, and a museum, with almost nothing remaining except some old fort walls. Much like in the novel, the real residents of KWC had a strong sense of community and great pride in their neighborhood. They did not want it gentrified.

How familiar were you with Hong Kong’s history, specifically during the World Wars, prior to writing The Girl With a Thousand Faces? Did you need to do a bit of research? If so, how long did it take you to do the research and write your novel?

We do learn quite a bit in school because it’s close to home, but I also spent two years on and off reading non-fiction books about that time period and how it affected China for years to follow. So much of it couldn't be included, sadly. 

What was the most interesting or surprising thing that you learned during your research?

The heartbreaking extent to which Allied forces threw China under a bus to slow the Japanese and win the war. They knew no other country could absorb such massive loss of life. But it was a brutal sacrifice.

Your biography says that you grew up in Hong Kong. Do you have any favorite places? A hidden gem that someone visiting should not miss, but would only learn about from a resident?

Get out of the city! Rent a boat or a kayak and go exploring in the UNESCO heritage sites. See the ghost islands and the hidden beaches. There is a mythical zone in Sai Kung where, allegedly, a portal to another world exists; check it out if you dare!

In your Acknowledgments, you mention that The Girl With a Thousand Faces is "a heartfelt nod to my grandmother’s personal history." Can you tell us a bit about your grandmother and how her journey is reflected in your novel?

My grandmother grew up very poor in rural Shanghai. She had about 12 siblings, but only 5 of them made it to adulthood. She never learned to read or write and had no formal education. She moved to Hong Kong for a better life and mostly found it. Due to the war, she married late and had the (for that time) highly unusual experience of being a solo working woman till her mid-30s. She had her first child at 36; my mother was her third and last baby, born in 1958 when my grandmother was about 40. 

She lived through the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, including periods of near starvation and bombing. Beatings and rapes of civilians and captured soldiers were common, as was torture and violence. Somehow, she mostly pulled through that unscathed. She survived two bouts of cancer, was the main breadwinner for her family despite being illiterate, and lived to see her youngest daughter (my mother) gain 5 degrees in universities abroad and travel the world. She was enormously kind and generous, despite a life of grueling hardship, and looked after me sometimes when I was little while my parents were at work. 

She died when I was fifteen to a third bout of cancer. She would not have understood the job I have now, because books were a closed and baffling world that was denied to her, but she would have been delighted for me all the same. 

If/when The Girl With a Thousand Faces is adapted to a film or series, who would your dream cast be?

I’m so bad at film questions because I know very few actor names! I’d love Michelle Yeoh to direct it, though. 

What’s currently on your nightstand?

I just finished There Is No Antimetics Division by qntm, and I'm devastated it’s over. Going to need ten business days to recover.

What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you’ve experienced or that has impacted you?

I adored Pluribus and Severance as shows. That kind of surrealist absurd horror just deeply appeals to me. 

What are you working on now?

Delighted to say that I finished a novel earlier this year and sent it off to my editors. Currently working through my first round of edits! 

No title yet, but it is a literary-leaning, near-future sf set in rural Texas, about a man who accidentally caused the apocalypse and is now trying to fix it. The only person who can help him is a woman who is currently in prison, because she was saddled with the blame for his actions. Think Station Eleven meets Scanner Darkly, but with sweeping landscapes and a side serving of Normal People.