Asian girls are submissive. They have bound feet and aren’t allowed to speak unless spoken to. Asian girls are China dolls, geishas and sexual objects who do as they’re told. Yeah, right. If these stereotypes are all people know of Asian females, they obviously have yet to meet the headstrong Princess Emmajin, the horseback riding 16-year-old who longs to be a warrior in her grandfather’s army.
Emmajin is a lead character in the new young-adult fiction book, “Daughter of Xanadu,” published by a division of Random House.
In the story, Emmajin is fictitious, but her grandfather is a real historical figure who ruled China 700 years ago during a lapse in dynastic rule, Great Khan Khubilai. His summer home was in a city whose name is commonly Anglicized to “Xanadu,” (also a real place, now in ruins, with no relation to the Olivia Newton John movie). Commonly portrayed as nomadic barbarians who invaded and conquered in history books, Mongolians in “Daughter of Xanadu” help tell the other side of the story.
The Great Khan isn’t the only historical figure. The young Mongolian princess falls for a rather strange and charming foreign man, a young explorer, who will make her choose between the yearnings of her heart and her ambition to find glory on the battlefield – none other than a 21-year-old Marco Polo.
Eastside author Dori Jones Yang, fluent in Mandarin and former Hong Kong-based correspondent for Business Week, has created a “gripping tale,” according to one critic with a fictitious heroine, but rooted in historical research – 10-years-worth, in fact. That’s how long Yang spent completing her book, a process which included several revisions and traveling to Inner and Outer Mongolia, the Silk Road, Beijing and southwest China, checking out where Polo had visited and learning about Mongolian culture and history.
“I wanted to present a strong Asian woman,” said Yang, who ‘s lived on the Eastside for 20 years, first in Bellevue, now in Newcastle. “Emmajin is brought up to believe in the glories of Mongolian conquests, so she wants nothing better than to join her grandfather’s army.”
Emmajin is a stereotype-defying Asian woman, but despite similarities, she’s not inspired by Mulan, a King-Arthur-like legend.
Yang’s own cross-cultural romance may be more of an influence. During her eight years of living in Hong Kong as a journalist, covering the Sino-British negotiations over Hong Kong’s future and the Tiananmen Square crisis in Beijing, she met and married her husband, Paul Yang.
“After being a thrilling read, the main message of the book is that that it’s important to understand what other people’s beliefs and cultures are … it’s not an ‘us versus them’ thing,” said Yang, who thinks people of all ages, not just young adults, will be able to enjoy this, her third book.
In addition to exploring exotic locales, seeking wisdom and making history come alive (Yang was both a journalism and history major at Princeton University), the book aims to do one more thing.
“People don’t know much about Asian women in the United States,” said Yang, who says the submissive-stereotype probably stems in part from years of foot binding in China.
But still, there are legends of warriors such as Mulan, onna-bugeisha or female samurai and women who, born from Mongol leaders, commanded not only their families, but their tribes and militaries.
Powerful women like Emmajin.
Meet author Dori Jones Yang:
Island Books is hosting Yang for a book signing and talk at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12, at 3014 78th Ave. S.E. The author will also have a talk at the Literary Lions Gala at 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, at the Bellevue Public Library.
For more information, go to dorijonesyang.com.
