My Half of the Sky: Is Today Mother's Day?

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Monday, May 10, 2010

Is Today Mother's Day?

There seemed to be a lot of confusion over Mother's Day this weekend. On Saturday, my husband came home with a dozen roses. My youngest handed me a poem she'd written at school. "Is today Mother's day?"

Mother's day can be loosely tied to ancient spring celebrations in Greece honoring Rhea, the Mother of Gods. Or to celebrations in England honoring the Christian Mother Mary (Mothering Sunday). But our present holiday is thanks to one ordinary woman--Anna Jarvis-- an unmarried, childless woman who cared so much about her mother that she went about creating a day to honor mothers. Three years after her mother's death, she held the first mother's day on May 10, 1908. The idea caught on, and eventually (1914) Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday.

Yesterday, while my eldest son prepared a feast, I went to hear Anne Quindlen discuss her latest book Every Last One at the Commonwealth Club. A mother's day treat for myself. She discussed her writing process, saying she often felt as if she was channeling the feelings of another person. That she was just the conduit. Often she'd sit down to write and get so involved that when she looked up at the clock, several hours had gone by.

One shouldn't be watching the clock, counting the pages, the words, the letters.

I thought, yes, when the stars are aligned and all goes right.

Just like one shouldn't be watching the date. When it goes right. Every day is Mother's day. At least it should be. Right?

But then the magic isn't always there.

This morning, I took my son to school. He turned on a rock station, the guitar notes making my eyes twitch. I turned the radio off. He turned it back on, switching stations to a no-less jarring tune. He gave me an impish grin.

"Whatever happened to Happy Mother's day?" I asked.

"That was yesterday."

Here's hoping that magic happens--in your writing and your life--more times than not.

Books of the Week


I am Nujood Age 10 and Divorced< by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Escape by Carolyn Jessop with Laura Palmer

By coincidence both of these books are about women who, due to religious and cultural constraints, were forced into arranged marriages with men many times their age.  One of them was from Yemen, and one of them was from the good ole U.S. of A.  Both stories-although not literary gems- are fascinating.

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What People Are Saying About My Half of the Sky

My Half of the Sky was the BookSense Pick for August 2006 as well as a Forbes Book Club Pick.

"McBurney-Lin tells a wonderfully entertaining story with the traditional coming-of-age theme (which is experienced universally)...weaving in the cultural challenges of growing up in China's rapidly changing social system."
Mary Warpeha, co-President of the Minnesota Chapter of US-China Friendship Association
March 2010

"The novel ...includes many of the tales and the folk ways of the people living in the rural areas of South China, still followed provincially. The story takes place in current China, but could relate the dilemma of any young woman in rural China through the ages."
Kitty Trescott, National Board of the Midwest Region of US-China Friendship Association. March 2010

"A lot is expected of a young Chinese girl. My Half of the Sky by Jana McBurney-Lin is the story of Li Hui, a young girl who has just achieved marriageable age. She seeks to make the most of herself, but the expectations all around her make it difficult, as her parents seek to use her as pawn to their advantage, she is faced with what she believes to be true love. She must balance career, romance, and family, all to somehow make everyone happy, a tough endeavor indeed. An engaging and entertaining read from beginning to end, "My Half of the Sky" is a poignant tale of the modern Chinese woman, and recommended for community library collections.
--Midwest Book Review November, 2008

“It is a rare women’s novel that sensitively describes the life of a young educated woman in modern-day China in its full complexity, without resorting to unnecessary sentimentalism. Jana’s deep knowledge of the realities of life in China and Singapore makes the reading extra rewarding. In fact, with every new page the novel gets harder to put down and you find yourself gobbling it up before you know it. Finally, the author has given a voice to the Li Hui in all of us, as we struggle for the golden middle between tradition and the modern momentum of our world.”
Isabella Sluzek
Friends of the Museum Book Review 2008
Singapore

You'll be rooting all the way for Li Hui as she struggles, ahead of the curve, to be her own woman in an emerging, modern China. Jana McBurney-Lin's My half of the Sky is a beautiful, witty, touching debut novel.
Thomas B. Sawyer
Head Writer TV Series "Murder, She Wrote,"
Author - The Sixteenth Man

A complex and mesmerizingly original tale of a young Chinese woman caught between the modern world and the pull of her ancient culture. McBurney-Lin’s intimate portrait of China sparks with insights and is peopled with characters so rich and alive, they seem to breathe on the page. Dazzling and unforgettable.
Caroline Leavitt, Author - Girls in Trouble

McBurney-Lin's debut novel is a gift. Li Hui is a memorable heroine, a young woman torn between her heart and her culture.Her daunting journey is a trip into China's complicated soul, and a deeply moving exploration of love, honor, duty, and loss." Frank Baldwin, Author - Balling the Jack

My Half of the Sky is a wonderfully-crafted story that was obviously written with a piece of McBurney-Lin's heart. A masterpiece."
Lee Lofland, Author - Howdunit: Police Procedure and Investigation

My Half of the Sky heralds the arrival of a fantastic new storyteller. With artistry and precision, Jana McBurney-Lin's clear-eyed prose takes the reader on a new journey into a past world that speaks to a modern sensibility, a modern world, a modern woman. This is a book to be treasured.
Emily Rapp, Author - The Poster Child

Through vivid descriptions of sights and smells, Jana McBurney-Lin's My Half of the Sky is a haunting, emotional journey of what it means to be an honorable female in modern China. Jill Ferguson, Author - Sometimes Art Can't Save You

Q & A with Jana

How did you get the idea for My Half of the Sky?

My husband is from southern China. One year, when we went back to his village to visit family, I saw a large poster on the side of a house. The poster portrayed a couple holding a child. Underneath the happy couple were the words, "A girl baby is just as important as a boy baby."

"That's so cool," I said. "That the government is behind the valuing of little girls."

He just shook his head. "The government can say what it wants," he said. "But a house with no male is a problem."

Aha. Now there was a story. What if a little girl was born into a household and managed to survive? How would she continue to thrive? To succeed in a place where the traditions were so against her? That was the beginning of My Half of the Sky.

Are your characters based on real people?

My gut instinct is to say, "Yes, of course." I've lived with these characters so long--twelve years-- they feel like old friends. Family. But the truth is they are all figments of my imagination.

How did you do your research for this book?

My husband and I lived quite a while--eight years--in Singapore. Over the years, he has not only told me a lot about the village. His parents, who lived with us while we were in Singapore, told us a lot about the village. And we visited--and continue to visit--as often as possible. In fact, the cover photo for My Half of the Sky was taken from my brother-in-law's house.

Have you always wanted to be a writer?

No. Not consciously. When I graduated from college, I had dreams of being some hotshot businesswoman. Granted, my major was in Communications, with a minor in Jajpanese. But, still, business was hot then with Japan. I figured if I went off to Japan for a year and honed my language skills, I'd be on everyone's "want to hire" list. Then I got to Japan. I not only realized it takes a great deal longer than a year to hone the language, but that I was more interested in the culture than in business. One time, I was asked to teach English to a group of secretaries from the National Diet (the US version of Congress, only larger). These secretaries mentioned that they worked for the only woman in the Diet. The only woman? I wanted to meet this woman. How had she gotten there? What was it like being surrounded by all that maleness every day?

When I interviewed her, I discovered that the woman had no problem with her colleagues except when she had to go to the bathroom. At the time, the Diet building had only men's bathrooms. So, her male secretaries would have to scout out the bathroom first to ensure the coast was clear. This was in 1986. I was so fascinated by this woman that I wanted everyone to know about her. That was my first magazine article. My first step into the writing world. And I was hooked.

This book is about China? How can Americans--and other cultures-- relate?

We all grow up with stories in our heads. Stories about the way things should be. And it's important to have stories. Important until the stories restrict forward movement.

As an example, when we moved to the US seven years ago, we had very little furniture. We had brought a couple of pieces with us from Singapore. But, in particular, we had no beds. I remembered that my great-great grandfather had built a wooden bed which was in storage in my mother's garage. I asked her if we could use that bed--it was beautifully made and so meaningful.

"No," she said. "That's your brother's bed."

Well, my brother lives in Germany. How could it be his bed? According to family tradition, she explained, the bed was to be passed down through the male lineage Never mind that I was in arm's length of the bed and actually needed a place to rest my head. And that was a story passed on by my not-very-traditional mother. Where we reconcile past traditions with the forward momentum of the globe is a struggle we deal with each day. All of us. So, I think we can all get something from Li Hui and her struggle.

Are you writing a sequel?

Yes. I started in the fall of 2006. I'm about halfway through.

Book Club Questions

Interested in reading My Half of the Sky for your next book club choice?

Here are some questions to get you started:

1. In the first chapter, Li Hui stands in line at the post office to use the phone behind Orange-haired Aunty who wore expensive perfume. Li Hui is thrilled to be behind this woman and to sniff her air. However, after she speaks on the phone with her father, she can't get out of the post office fast enough. The expensive perfume smells like a gas leak.

Why is there a shift in Li Hui's appreciation of the things money can buy? How is this scene a metaphor for what later happens to Li Hui?

2. When Li Hui goes to dinner with Chan Hai she gets all turned around, feels lost. Chan Hai points out where they are and says, "It's amazing how all of us can be so close to something and not see it."

How is this phenomenon reflected in Li Hui's relationship with her father? Chan Hai? Husband? Does Li Hui ever learn to see?

3. Waipo often told Li Hui a story about the dragon who came to the village, and how a smart little girl scared the dragon away with firecrackers.

What are Li Hui's dragons? Does she ever find firecrackers?

4. Is Crazy Lee Sa really crazy? Why is she viewed this way? What characteristics do Crazy Lee Sa and Madame Tsui Ping have in common?

5. Li Hui is claustrophobic--has a fear of riding in elevators ("moving boxes.")

In what way is her life like a moving box? Does she ever get over her claustrophobia? How?

6. What happens to Li Hui in the end? What will become of her?

7. While this story takes place in China/Singapore, what aspects--if any--can you relate to?

My Half of the Sky