|
This A-Profiler we bring you Marilyn Chin, poet and author of Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen. Find out how Chin started writing poetry, how her novel evolved, and which mooncake filling is her favorite.
What age did you start writing poetry and what inspired you to become interested in poetry?
I began as an avid reader of poetry and an avid listener of my grandmother’s chanting and singing of Chinese poems and songs. Then, I became hooked in college when I started reading contemporary women poets like Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich. Then, I entered the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and the saga, oh lord, continues!
Was your family supportive of your poetry?
Of course not! They wanted me to be a lawyer or a heart surgeon! My granny refused to RIP until I got a tenured teaching job! She had an old crazy cousin who was a poet and he died of madness and starvation in Guangdong. She was really worried about me.
 What was your inspiration for writing Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen? How did the novel evolve? What was the process like when you wrote the novel?
I began with writing “Moon” a tale I published in CHARLIE CHAN IS DEAD, an Asian Am anthology pubbed in the late 80s. Then, I just kept writing and experimenting with different kinds of tales and with multiple characters and point of views...then the wild twins Moonie and Mei Ling and their cleaver wielding granny started dancing in my brain…and there, I found the central protagonists…and viola, the book started to hold together! It took me over 10 years of exhilarating fun and excruciating pain!
As an award winning poet who has written with strong Asian American females in mind, how do you tackle which subjects to write about in your poetry? what has the Asian American communities' response been to your works? Do you consider yourself an Asian American activist?
I have always considered myself an Asian American Feminist activist! My poetry and fiction have always been written with a rigorous “yellow” lens. I keep myself active and cutting edge. REVENGE OF THE MOONCAKE VIXEN is written for young Asian American readers, third wave feminists and readers in the midst of dealing with powerful struggles and contradictions. My Asian American audience has given me solid support throughout the years and I am eternally grateful for this.
Who are some of your influences and favorite authors? What Asian American authors have been inspirational to you?
I am a total lit geek! I read far and wide—everything from Shakespeare to Tang dynasty poets in the original.
RE: Asian American writers...
Of course all roads begin with Maxine Hong Kingston. I carried “Woman Warrior” with me for years. I see myself as part of a powerful lineage of Asian American Woman writers. I am coming to novel-writing as a poet/cross dresser. I am also kind of a rebel,so I add my postmodern bad girl wildness to the tradition!
When you are not writing poems or novels, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time? What is one of your guilty pleasures?
I like bad Kung Fu films, the Shaw Bro variety. I love standup comics! A real Margaret Cho/Dave Chapelle/Monique fan, the raunchier the better. Love to travel and eat creepy crawly food. Black bean eel in Hong Kong...Giant lobster in the Chinatown of Sydney...Seaweed/eggdrop soup! If I were rich I would eat blow fish sushi wrapped in gold foil...I am a true Chinese in this way. I quell all kinds of spiritual hunger by literally devouring rich and exotic food!
Which mooncake fillings are your favorite?
Red bean and salty duck yolks, of course! Yum, I can taste it now!
And finally, do you have any advice to others who aspire to write?
Keep writing and keep learning! Read everything! Don’t give up and become lawyers!
Would you like to be featured on this site? Click here for more info.
This issue of A-Profiler is brought to you by Nelson Wong.
Special thanks to Marilyn Chin.
Photos used with permission.
Copyright retained by original copyright holder(s).
| 
