The people of northern'China'have to deal with being ruled by invaders. The Chinese government has fallen and the barbarians are in control. In' Blood Brothers, the political landscape has changed dramatically. She takes everyone ' her countrymen, the Xiong Nu and dragons ' as she finds them. Ping, an ex-slave who was not treated well by her masters, has no prejudices.
Their tales depict dragons as cruel, vicious beasts, and though their leader is hospitable to Kai, the rest of his people are suspicious of the strange creature. The Xiong Nu in turn have their own prejudices about dragons. My young dragon, Kai, decides that the barbarians deserve a better name and he calls them Ma Ren or Horse People. But these particular barbarians save Ping and Kai from their (Chinese) enemies, and treat them well. The Chinese called them Xiong Nu, which means fierce slaves. The people who Ping and Kai come across are from a nomadic tribe who ride and breed horses. They built the Great Wall to keep them out. Barbarians is what English-speaking historians call a collection of tribes that lived on'Chinas borders. In the third book,'Dragon Moon, I introduce the barbarians. In the first two books of the Dragonkeeper trilogy, every single character is Chinese. In the Han Dynasty,'China'was a monoculture. I dont write issues books, but that doesnt mean that I dont address certain issues as they arise within the story. I am conscious that I am writing about someone elses culture, but my books are not like contemporary stories where there are people from different cultures interacting. I have to imagine what it would have been like to be living at that time in'China, just as I have to imagine what its like to be a 15-year-old boy or a 1037-year-old dragon. There are no guidelines to what people were like in'China'thousands of years ago. I gathered together what information I could glean, and did what all authors do ' I used my imagination.īut when it comes to the people in my book, thats a different matter again. Information about how ordinary people managed to get by was even thinner. There could be stacks of books written in Chinese.) focus on the political situation and the wars. Facts about that period are thin on the ground, the few books that have been written about the period (Im talking about English language resources. This book is set in a time of chaos and warfare known as the Sixteen Kingdoms. But for the recently released fourth book in the series,' Blood Brothers, it was even more difficult. Finding out detail about the landscape, the buildings and the way of life in Han Dynasty'China, 2000 years ago was challenging enough. Fortunately, thats the part of writing I love most. To imagine ancient'China'I had to do some research. I have been to'China'more than once, but that gave me an insight into modern'China. My Dragonkeeper series is set in ancient'China. Perhaps writing stories set in other places and in the past is my way of armchair travelling.
I have written novels set in'China,'Egypt, and the'Middle East. Thanks to Read in a single sitting for hosting it, and for suggesting a challenging topic ' writing outside ones culture.Ī common piece of advice for new writers is write about what you know. The fourth book in the series, Blood Brothers, has recently been released by Walker Books, and as part of her blog tour to promote the book, Carole was kind enough to visit RIASS to share her thoughts on writing about a foreign culture. Carole Wilkinson is an award-winning author of books for children, and is perhaps best known for her acclaimed Dragonkeeper series.
0 kommentar(er)
