An elaborate narrative focuses upon the Tang family, who have settled in Hong Kong back in 1941 after fleeing Shanghai, with ‘First Wife’ Mingzhu haunted by her traumatic life as a child, which is hinted at in flashbacks throughout.
Constantly belittled, and even terrorised, by traditional husband Wei, Mingzhu’s main responsibilities involve looking after her beloved daughter Qiang and Jun (Wei’s son with Cai, his concubine), keeping the house in order, and endlessly trying to save face. Her longtime friendship with servant Biyu continually angers Wei, but these two women grow ever closer regardless.
As the threat of invasion by Japanese forces grows and grows, Mingzhu finds herself powerfully attracted to Qiang’s tutor, the oh-so-charming Englishman Henry Beaumont, which inspires several swoony sequences that feel a little familiar, and yet prove pretty raunchy anyway. When the invaders finally turn up, the sharp, multilingual Mingzhu is dangerously enlisted by the enemy, while Qiang and Biyu eventually wind up in the resistance. As we very much knew they would.
Naturally, this then concerns how Mingzhu, Qiang, and Biyu fight (and fight) to be reunited somehow, somewhere, and while Yin’s lengthily-researched tale follows the war that drives them apart, as well as the love that will (hopefully) bring the trio back together, it’s also heavily concerned with history, of course.
And especially the sort of history that keeps on repeating itself, over and over again.
When Sleeping Women Wake
Emma Pei Yin
Hachette Australia,
RRP $32.99 (paperback); $16.99 (e-Book); $34.99 (audiobook)
