A conversation with Janice Y.K. Lee, author of THE PIANO TEACHER

Q. THE PIANO TEACHER is a beautiful novel. What is it about?

A. It’s a historical novel set in WWII Hong Kong about two women, Claire and Trudy, who are in love with the same man but at different times in his life. Their stories are told in alternating sections, and as the book progresses, the reader finds out more about events that happened during the war, events that affected and will affect their lives enormously.

Q. The book is set in Hong Kong just as World War II is hitting. How did this storyline come about?

A. The book started as a short story about a young Chinese girl and her English piano teacher. It was always set in Hong Kong because that is where I had grown up. In the beginning, it was set in the 70s but as I wrote more about the characters, I came to understand that things had happened to them that weren’t fitting in the time period and it became clear to me that their stories had been born in a time of war—a time when great things are at stake.

Q.You were born in Hong Kong, when it was under British rule and you moved to the United States when you were fifteen. Now you are back living in Hong Kong and it has reverted to Chinese rule. Has it changed? What is different for you and what has remained the same?

A. As a child in the 70s, I definitely felt the British influence. For a short time, I went to English schools and got a glimpse of that world, but I soon switched to an American school. I am Korean, so I was never a local in a strict sense of the word, but Hong Kong is so international that it never really mattered. People wash up in Hong Kong and stay, and create new lives for themselves. It’s that type of place.

I was there for the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. It was an odd time. People were afraid but putting the best face on it. They didn’t know what would happen.

I moved back to Hong Kong in 2005 and it is a part of China now—the currency looks different, all the “Royals” have been stripped off the Postal Service, the clubs, etc (many institutions used to have the “Royal” in front of their names)—although there’s no part of China that looks or feels like Hong Kong. I love the English provenance of the street names: Gloucester, Pottinger, Connaught, and I do love that there are remnants of its history in hidden corners, although they are fast disappearing.

Q. Is the Hong Kong you write about different from the Hong Kong you know?

A. Very! The Hong Kong in the book is entirely imagined by me although I hope it is a true version of a Hong Kong that once existed. Being neither English nor Chinese, I really had to create a world out of what I could glean through books and movies. My Hong Kong now is very much an expatriate American world and as a child, it was an immigrant’s Hong Kong and the world I wrote about was in the past, and about people in a different sphere.

Q. THE PIANO TEACHER is set during a major piece of world history—World War II. How much research did you do for the book? How historically accurate is it?

A. I read a lot of memoirs by English speakers, obviously, who were here during the war and the occupation, some novels about the 50s like Love is a Many Splendored Thing, watched movies about the time, like Lust, Caution or The World of Suzie Wong, just to see what it looked like and how people dressed. And it is as historically accurate as I could make it. For the most part, the dates are real. Hong Kong did fall on Boxing Day, 1941. They did call people to Murray Parade Ground on January 5, 1942. So those things are real, and as I read, I found a lot of the detail fascinating. But I believe the obligation of the novelist is to the story, not to the truth. I was trying to tell a story about Will and Trudy and Claire, people who found themselves in a desperate situation, and the background is there to anchor them in this period.

Q. Did your research shape the plot or just add detail to the story?

A. For me, research really is mostly for that amazing detail that anchors any story set in another time or place. It was just there to provide a wonderful, evocative background to Will, Trudy and Claire’s stories.

Q. You have created an eclectic mix of characters who are such individuals, each with a unique identity and role. Are they based on anyone? Did you create the characters and then the story came to you or did you create the characters to fit into your story?

The characters led the story. I didn’t have a plot in mind when I began and I wrote about what they did and what they said and where they did it and the story emerged from that.

Q.Did the story change at all as you wrote or did you map it out ahead of time?

A. There was no story at all when I started. I just had an idea in my head about an English woman who becomes the piano teacher to a young Chinese girl. I never had a map, which I find amazing now, having finished a book that relies quite a bit on plot turns.

Q. The novel goes back-and-forth between Hong Kong around New Years of 1941 / 1942 and 1952, each was a war time (WWII and the Korean War respectively), which was an interesting time in world history and many weren’t aware of the atrocities that took place in Hong Kong during WWII. What surprised you about the era that you tried to incorporate into the novel?

A. I’m always surprised when I read about the past, at how similar it is to the present. Although the outfits are different, the substance is the same—that people loved each other, that they betrayed each other, that people were petty, or grand, or irritating. Hong Kong in the 1940s and 1950s was a real mix of modern and old-fashioned, depending on whose memoir you are reading.

Q. What character do you feel most attached to?

A. Trudy. Just because she was so immediately apparent to me, and so easy for me to write. She was born fully-formed and a real person. I knew exactly what she would say, what she would wear when she was saying it, how she looked, how she smelled. Any scene with her just flowed so easily, so I do like her the most.

Q. Who are your literary influences?

A. I don’t know that I can say who my influences are but I can say who my favorite writers are. Funnily enough, they are quite different from me in writing style. I love Lorrie Moore, Mona Simpson, Shirley Hazzard, Michael Cunningham, Amy Hempel. I think Dana Spiotta is amazingly talented. There are so many good writers!

Q. What is your writing routine?

A. THE PIANO TEACHER was at least five years of work. When I started the book, I had no children. By the end of it, I had four. So it was challenging. I’m not a very disciplined writer but once I had more responsibilities, I definitely took advantage of the times when I knew I could work for a stretch. And when a line comes into my head and I know it’s a good one, I will always write it down right away. I’ve forgotten too many good lines to not do that. Those lines will open up a new chapter for you, or direct you in a significant way and I’ve learned to pay attention when they come.

Q. You were a magazine editor and THE PIANO TEACHER is your first novel. How is it for you to be on the other side of the process?

A. I loved my job as an editor. I was lucky enough to work with people who really valued words and writing and who loved books. It’s invaluable perspective for me as well to know how the editorial side works as I start thinking about getting the book out into the world.

Q. What do you want people to take away from reading THE PIANO TEACHER?

A. I hope they’re taken away from their lives into a different world. Transported is an overused word, but I love the feeling of being transported, being drawn into a book so furiously and intensely that when I come up for air, everything seems different. I hope that people can really sink themselves into the world that is portrayed in the book.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. I’m working on a few ideas, seeing which of them stick and might be worth the long stretch. It’s very preliminary at this point.