My mother tells me stories of a woman on the moon. When she first heard the story, she was a little girl in China, sleeping at her aunt’s house beside the river, banana trees thrashing with night storms. When I first heard the story, I was in my parents’ bedroom in the American midwest, the quiet night punctuated by the neighbor’s howling dog. Separated by time, by culture, by distance, by language, my mother’s stories are handed to me fragmented, and I am tasked to put them back together.
As a second-generation daughter of immigrants, I am often saddened by the stories that will be forever lost between my mother and I. Yet, as I grow as a reader and writer, I see the potential between the cracks: a chance to insert myself into my culture’s history. It is inevitable that myth will mutate with time. The right author will make the best of it.
Below are eight novels based on Asian folklore.
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe
One sister plays housewife to a conservative Singaporean politician. The other survives New York City as a sugar baby. Little unites sisters Su and Emerald other than the fact that, thousands of years earlier, they were a pair of snakes in Tang Dynasty China. Now, in present day, their secret is threatened when free spirit Emerald joins Su in Singapore, a city stiff with conformity. A reimagining of the Chinese folktale “The Legend of the White Snake,” Amanda Lee Koe’s Sister Snake tackles family, sisterhood, and queerness with dark glee.
Ninetails by Sally Wen Mao
Silicone sex dolls come to life. A shapeshifter finds herself hunted. A fox spirit seeks vengeance through seduction. Though the shapeshifting nine-tailed fox of Chinese fables has often been labeled as a trickster, Sally Wen Mao’s short story collection, Ninetails (which, yes, has nine tales) recontextualizes the fox through the eyes of women and immigrants. At last, the fox spirit is written as perhaps what it was always meant to be—a protector of the lost and unwanted.
Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho
Malaysian fairy tales and speculative fiction collide to form Zen Cho’s short story collection Spirits Abroad. Aptly split into three sections: Here, There, and Elsewhere, Cho’s stories explore everything from invisible forest dwellers in rural Borneo to fairies in the U.K. In “The Fish Bowl,” a girl preparing for her entrance exams bargains with a wish-granting koi with a ravenous appetite. “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again” explores the love lives of sapphic dragons. “The Four Generations of Chang E” rewrites the famous moon goddess Chang E into an extraterrestrial. There’s everything you need, and everything you never knew you needed.
The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
It’s Manchuria, 1908, and a woman is found dead and frozen in the snow. An aging detective named Bao is assigned to identify the woman, and as the case progresses, he finds himself circling back to the fox gods that intrigued him throughout his childhood. Elsewhere, a woman named Snow searches for the man she believes to be responsible for her daughter’s death. When their respective searches narrow in on one photographer, Bao and Snow’s paths inevitably collide, and the mystery of the fox spirit comes to light. Quiet and enigmatic, The Fox Wife explores grief and vengeance amidst magic and myth.
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Nghi Vo’s novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a classic story within a story, opening with an elderly woman named Rabbit recalling her time serving the exiled Empress In-Yo. According to Rabbit, In-Yo was originally sentenced South for a political marriage after losing her family and kingdom. Alone amongst strangers, In-Yo forms a friendship with Rabbit, soon confiding in her her dark desires for vengeance. Rich with history and myth, The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a novella examining patriarchy, as well as the angry women left in its wake.
Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, illustrated by Kuri Huang
Inspired by the Chinese fable of Chang’e, Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess follows Xingyin, the secret daughter of Chang’e, who must flee her home on the moon when her existence is discovered. Alone in the Celestial Kingdom, hiding amongst the very people who imprisoned her mother, Xingyin plots to save her mother, all while falling in love with the Emperor’s son, Prince Liwei. A revitalized myth filled with action and sweeping romance.
Ponti by Sharlene Teo
16-year-old Szu’s mother was once a beautiful actress, famous for staring in the cult horror trilogy Ponti. Now, she’s a medium and a hack, persuading people to turn over their life’s savings for a seance. With little comfort from her mother and no father figure in her life, Szu finds herself lonely in 2003, Singapore, until she befriends transfer student Circe. Flash forward 17 years, a soon-to-be divorced Circe is reminded of her past with Szu and Szu’s mother when a remake of Ponti comes up at work. Inspired by the Nusantara lore of the pontianak, a vampiric female ghost, Ponti is an exploration of friendship and memory.
The God and the Gumiho by Sophie Kim
The God and the Gumiho follows Seokga, an exiled trickster god who is offered redemption, so long as he can capture a recently escaped demon and the infamous Scarlet Fox. While capturing the demon may be possible, more so with the help of his local barista, Hani, capturing the Scarlet Fox may be a bit more challenging, especially considering Hani is the Scarlet Fox. As Seokga and Hani continue their journey, their relationship only grows more complicated as friendly bickering turns to something more.
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