A local novel set in 18th century China

FIRST PERSON | CHARLES BUSH

My latest novel, The Boy with the Jade, published today, is historical fiction set in 18th century China. It tells the story of Baoyu, a boy growing up amidst the extravagance, tumult and cruelty of a high aristocratic family. Trapped by expectations that he pass the Imperial Examination and continue his family’s lineage, felled by tragedies when he falls in love, Baoyu seeks escape and a new life. The Boy with the Jade is inspired by a classic Chinese novel, Hong Lou Meng, commonly translated as Dream of the Red Chamber.

I’m a white American male, born and raised in the Midwest. I never ate in a Chinese restaurant until I was in college, never had a friend of Chinese ancestry until I was in my late 20s. How, then, did I come to write a historical novel set in 18th century China?

The answer starts with the fact that, for many decades, I’ve been partnered with a Chinese-American man, Calvin Lau. We were legally married in 2013 and have lived on Pine Street near Fillmore for years. In the 1990s, he embarked on a personal journey to read what are considered the six classic Chinese novels. These are:

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Water Margin
Journey to the West
Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus)
The Scholars
Hong Lou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber)

Initially, I wasn’t interested in joining him, but after several months of hearing him talk about how much he was enjoying his project, I decided to read the six myself.

I found all the novels interesting but was absolutely smitten with Hong Lou Meng. I found many of the characters fascinating, especially the novel’s boy protagonist: sensitive, thoughtful, complex Baoyu. Hong Lou Meng also offers a rare insider’s view of daily life in an aristocratic household in 18th century China.

At the same time, looked at simply as a novel, Hong Lou Meng is a monumental jumble. It’s absurdly long — its English translation from 1,800 to 2,500 pages. It is said to have 30 major and 400 minor characters. Characters disappear for long stretches. Important turning points are rushed through in a page or two, while endless pages depict characters sitting around telling jokes or reciting their own poetry. Contradictions in plot, character, and setting abound.

One critic writes: “The Chinese novelist seldom feels the challenge to concentrate on one major episode until all its potential meanings have become dramatized. Instead, he crowds his pages with scores of characters, some only names, and piles incident upon incident, climax upon climax.”

I ended up reading several different translations of Hong Lou Meng, published, confusingly, under several different English titles. All the time I kept thinking: this novel tells compelling, moving stories, but they certainly are badly told.

Meanwhile, I had been writing fiction for more than 10 years, was a member of an excellent writing group, and had already published one novel. While I didn’t consider myself a great novelist, I was familiar with the techniques of contemporary fiction writing and knew how to use them.

I realized I could isolate the single most important of the many plot threads running through Hong Lou Meng – the one tracing the childhood and youth of Baoyu – and write a novel that would appeal to the contemporary reader. I could deepen the major episodes, eliminate the extraneous characters and tell Baoyu’s fascinating and moving story in a way that would do it justice.

With that insight, I set to work, and that’s how this white boy from the American Midwest ended up writing a historical novel set in 18th century China.

Charles Bush is a neighborhood resident. He will be reading from The Boy with the Jade on Saturday, November 15, at 2 p.m. in the Chinese Center on the third floor of the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch. The book is available directly from the publisher, historythroughfiction.com, and on Amazon.