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Yangsze Choo

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Yangsze Choo
BornPhilippines
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
GenreFantasy
Website
yschoo.com

Yangsze Choo (Chinese: 朱洋熹[1]; pinyin: Zhū Yángxī) is a Malaysian writer of Chinese descent, whose novel The Night Tiger was selected as one of 70 works in the Big Jubilee Read, a campaign to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Biography

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Choo was born in the Philippines, to a Malaysian family of Chinese descent.[2][3] Her father was a diplomat and the family moved frequently, so she spent her formative years in Thailand, Germany, Japan and Singapore.[3] She attended Harvard University and subsequently worked as a management consultant.[4] She began to write after leaving management consultancy to focus on her family, often writing at night.[5]

Her first novel The Ghost Bride took three years to write.[3] It is a fantasy novel, based on the practice of ghost marriage and drawing on Chinese mythology to create its world.[6] It became a New York Times best seller, and was selected as a Best Book by Oprah.com.[4][7] It later formed the basis of the Netflix-original series The Ghost Bride, which was co-directed by Malaysian directors Quek Shio-chuan and Ho Yu-hang. It starred Huang Pei-jia, Wu Kang-jen, Ludi Lin, and Kuang Tian.[8][9][10]

Her second novel, The Night Tiger took four years to write.[3] It is set in 1931 in Malaya, then part of the British Empire, and addresses the Malaysian myth of the weretiger.[11] It was selected as one of 70 works in the Big Jubilee Read, a campaign to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.[12][13]

Novels

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Reception

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The Ghost Bride was described by the New York Journal of Books as suitable for readers who want "to learn about cultural tradition or who have tired of either vampire or zombie genre".[16][17] Critical theorist Anita Harris Satkunananthan,[18] through her analysis of the work, coined the term "Malaysian Chinese Domestic Gothic" to describe the text.[19]

Patricia Schultheis, writing in the Washington Independent Review of Books, described The Night Tiger as a "darn good yarn" that is "free of political polemics and post-colonial self-righteousness".[20]

Personal life

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Choo lives in California, with her husband and children, and keeps chickens.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Huang Juan (黄涓) (8 March 2021). "透过民间传说唤醒内心记忆 马来西亚作家朱洋熹走红欧美文坛" [Awakening Inner Memories Through Folklore, Malaysian Writer Yangsze Choo Became Popular in European and American Literary Circles]. Lianhe Zaobao (in Chinese). Retrieved 7 September 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Yangsze Choo | Authors". Macmillan. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  3. ^ a b c d Gopinath, Anandhi (14 March 2019). "Local author Yangsze Choo on the runaway success of her debut novel". The Edge Malaysia: Options. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  4. ^ a b Miller, Stuart (7 February 2020). ""Wild Dreams"". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  5. ^ Kamal, Intan Maizura Ahmad (7 November 1921). "History and hantu are the ingredients behind Malaysian master storyteller, Yangsze Choo's recipe for literary success!". New Straits Times. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  6. ^ Vinczeová, Barbora. "The Concept of Afterlife: Transforming Mythology into Fantasy in Yangsze Choo's The Ghost Bride." Ostrava Journal of English Philology 11.1 (2019).
  7. ^ Asia, Tatler. "Yangsze Choo". Tatler Asia. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  8. ^ Cheema, Sukhbir (22 January 2020). "'The Ghost Bride' directors tell us what it's like working with an all-Malaysian crew and why the Netflix series was shot in Mandarin". Mashable SEA. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Creepy ghost wedding custom featured in 'The Ghost Bride' on Netflix | The Star". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  10. ^ Chin, Koyyi (10 August 2020). "Director Quek Shio Chuan Tells Deeply Personal Stories Through His Films". Tatler Malaysia. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  11. ^ Bin Zubair, Hassan (2020). "Book Review: The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo". Journal of World Englishes and Educational Practices. 2 (1).
  12. ^ "BBC Arts - BBC Arts - A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's record-breaking reign". BBC. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  13. ^ "BBC Arts - BBC Arts - The Big Jubilee Read - 2012-2022". BBC. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  14. ^ Choo, Yangsze (2013). The Ghost Bride (1st ed.). New York: William Morrow & Co. ISBN 978-0-06-222732-4. OCLC 828723965.
  15. ^ Choo, Yangsze (2019-02-12). The Night Tiger: the utterly enchanting and spellbinding mystery and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick. Quercus. ISBN 978-1-78747-048-4.
  16. ^ "a book review by Diane Brandley: The Ghost Bride: A Novel". www.nyjournalofbooks.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  17. ^ Brandley, Diane. "The Ghost Bride: A Novel". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  18. ^ "Anita Harris Satkunananthan – MLA Commons". Retrieved 2022-04-19.
  19. ^ Satkunananthan, Anita Harris (2020-07-27). "Transnational Hauntings, Hungry Ghosts: Malaysian Chinese Domestic Gothic Fiction". SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English. 57 (1): 37–54. doi:10.22452/sare.vol57no1.5. ISSN 0127-046X. S2CID 221095058.
  20. ^ Schultheis, Patricia (21 March 2019). "The Night Tiger: A Novel". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
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