Vanessa Hua on Writing About the Forgotten Women in Mao’s Inner Circle
Vanessa Hua’s Forbidden City is narrated by a courageous, risk-taking sixteen-year-old whose life in a small village in China is up-ended when she is selected to join an elite dance troupe of young women trained in ballroom dancing to entertain Party leaders, including the Chairman. Hua’s is a fresh feminist take on the Cultural Revolution, an intriguing perspective on a complicated historic period still partially in the shadows. The Author of Forbidden City Talks to Jane Ciabattari Hua, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, is also the author of the novel A River of Stars and a story collection Deceit and Other Possibilities Her honors include a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, and an NEA fellowship. Our email conversation took place during the week that supply chain issues which had delayed the novel’s publication twice were resolved. Jane Ciabattari: How have you managed during the tumultuous and uncertain last few years?