Post by Deleted on Jan 16, 2016 11:31:20 GMT 7
“The Expatriates,” by New York-based author Janice Y.K. Lee, is purely fictional. And yet the book offers both a commentary on the rarified life of the Hong Kong expat and an exploration of female lives.
Ms. Lee, the best-selling author of “The Piano Teacher,” a historical novel also based in Hong Kong, describes in the novel what it’s like to be an expat newbie: “When she first arrived in Hong Kong, she went through that rite of tribe forming, the social ritual she hadn’t engaged in since high school or college … A new crop, a new class—you met one another at coffees and gym classes and school meetings, and you sized one another up. The signifiers were so important: Are you wearing Dansko clogs or Jimmy Choo mules, are you a salon blonde or do you leave your hair in a ponytail, do you live in jeans or gym clothes or are you always in a suit? Do you want to talk about nannies or Rwanda?”
WSJ Expat talked with Ms. Lee about the novel, expat life, and life in general. Edited excerpts follow.
blogs.wsj.com/expat/2016/01/14/new-novel-puts-hong-kong-expats-under-the-microscope/?mod=e2fb
Ms. Lee, the best-selling author of “The Piano Teacher,” a historical novel also based in Hong Kong, describes in the novel what it’s like to be an expat newbie: “When she first arrived in Hong Kong, she went through that rite of tribe forming, the social ritual she hadn’t engaged in since high school or college … A new crop, a new class—you met one another at coffees and gym classes and school meetings, and you sized one another up. The signifiers were so important: Are you wearing Dansko clogs or Jimmy Choo mules, are you a salon blonde or do you leave your hair in a ponytail, do you live in jeans or gym clothes or are you always in a suit? Do you want to talk about nannies or Rwanda?”
WSJ Expat talked with Ms. Lee about the novel, expat life, and life in general. Edited excerpts follow.
blogs.wsj.com/expat/2016/01/14/new-novel-puts-hong-kong-expats-under-the-microscope/?mod=e2fb
