R.F. Kuang joins Brian for an intimate conversation about Taipei Story, her shortest and perhaps most personal novel yet. She shares how the death of her grandfather and a disorienting summer in Taipei first inspired a collection of private notes, written during a period when grief had left her feeling incapable of writing, and how those fragments eventually became Lily Chen’s story.
Rebecca discusses writing an intelligent but imperfect Gen Z protagonist without condescension, the shame that can surround losing a heritage language, and why language is not something inherited through blood, but a connection that can be rebuilt. She and Brian also explore the ways different languages shape our understanding of time, memory, identity, and belonging; Taipei’s complicated meaning as a place of cultural homecoming; generational trauma and family silence; and the responsibility writers assume when portraying communities beyond their own experiences.
The conversation also turns to the decline of sustained reading, Rebecca’s embrace of digital minimalism, and what educators can do to help students rediscover the pleasure of sitting with a challenging book. Finally, Rebecca shares the music she listened to while writing Taipei Story, her favorite Chinese idioms, the books she recommends for escaping a reading slump, and an early glimpse at the historical and artistic questions driving her next fantasy novel.
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