Xiaolu Guo, a Chinese author and filmmaker, releases two books this month: her memoir My Battle of Hastings and a novel Call Me Ishmaelle, a retelling of Moby-Dick. Guo's adaptation reflects her philosophical inquiries about cultural dialogue, particularly how a non-Western perspective, enriched by Asian philosophies, can engage with Western literature. She creatively incorporates the narratives of impoverished Victorian girls who disguised themselves as boys to seek opportunities at sea, linking them to the complexities of solidarity across cultures and histories within the story.
I wondered: what if people never knew what that is? If it said Taoism instead, would you still listen to the story?
I wanted the whole world on that ship. I spent so much time figuring out how to get a black captain from the civil war period into dialogue with a Chinese Taoist sailmaker.
Those girls just wanted more life: they put on cabin boys' clothes, shaved their hair and went on the ships. A lot of them were discovered only when they were pregnant.
Most people are Asiatic... and with each novel I write, I ask myself... how a non-westerner from a non-biblical background can engage in dialogue with the western literary canon.
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