Weina Dai Randel's Blog
May 8, 2024
Night Angels longlisted for 2024 Massachusetts Book Awards
Massachusetts Center for the Book has just announced the longlists for the 24th Annual Massachusetts Book Awards. Thrilled to see Night Angels on the Fiction list! Thank you thank you!
https://www.massbook.org/mass-book-aw...
https://www.massbook.org/mass-book-aw...
January 25, 2022
Thank you so much to Jewish Book Council for the honor!
National Jewish Book Council has named The Last Rose of Shanghai a finalist. Thank you!
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-...
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-...
July 6, 2021
Cover Reveal of The Last Rose of Shanghai
In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music…
Image available on www.weinarandel.com
Pre-order:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Rose-Shan...
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/the-last-r...
Indie Bound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/97815...
If you’re outside the US:
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Last-R...
Image available on www.weinarandel.com
Pre-order:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Rose-Shan...
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/the-last-r...
Indie Bound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/97815...
If you’re outside the US:
Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Last-R...
July 30, 2017
Winner! RWA RITA®
I'm so thrilled to share the news -- The Moon in the Palace just won the RITA® award. I was so honored to receive the award at the elegant ceremony!
See pictures on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/weinadairandel
Or watch the speech:
https://youtu.be/Zn6Zijyke5g
See pictures on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/weinadairandel
Or watch the speech:
https://youtu.be/Zn6Zijyke5g
February 28, 2017
Texas Library Association's Lariat List recommends The Moon in the Palace!
Texas Library Association just announced The Moon in the Palace was on the 2017 Lariat list! So excited. Check out the full list to see the wonderful books published in 2016!
http://www.txla.org/news/2017/02/the-...
Thank you so much to the librarians who read and chose my book, and thank you so much to all the librarians who read my book. You're the true stars!
Weina
http://www.txla.org/news/2017/02/the-...
Thank you so much to the librarians who read and chose my book, and thank you so much to all the librarians who read my book. You're the true stars!
Weina
November 2, 2016
GoodReads nominates The Moon in the Palace for Best Historical Fiction!
I was never nominated for anything, not even my parent's favorite child. But because of you, readers, reviewers, my friends, and your love for The Moon in the Palace, I have the first nomination in my life.
Thank you so much!
Weina
Thank you so much!
Weina
August 28, 2016
My first television appearance!
Want to see what happened?
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7W9L...
To be honest though, I was very nervous. Afterwards, I lay on the floor for hours. And I had a cold.
Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7W9L...
To be honest though, I was very nervous. Afterwards, I lay on the floor for hours. And I had a cold.
July 2, 2016
Born in China, Writing in English
My interview on Books By Women.org
http://booksbywomen.org/born-in-china...
When I told my friends in China that I wrote two novels about Empress Wu, their favorite empress, the first thing they asked was, “Is it in Chinese?”
It’s a legitimate question, I understand, since I was born and grew up in China. I went to school in China, too, and learned the basics of the English language in college, so it’s fair to say I was educated in China as well, although how much I retain the knowledge is questionable.
It’s also true that I didn’t start to speak English on a daily basis until I came to Texas, when I was twenty four years old.
So it was surprising for my friends with whom I grew up that I actually wrote two novels in English, and for my friends in the U.S. they were surprised as well, that I could write in English, which is my second language.
“How did you write in English when it’s your second language?” they often asked me. “Do you think in Chinese and translate it into English when you write?
Well, I wrote the two novels, The Moon in the Palace and The Empress of Bright Moon, in the same old fashion that many fiction writers followed – by writing persistently, and I’m not the first Chinese who wrote novels in English either. I know there are many talented people who wrote in second language, and I’m sure they all have interesting insights to share.
For me, when I write, I don’t think about Chinese. I keep the two languages separate and store them in two different chambers in my head as I dive into the creative world. As I write, I follow the English grammar, immerse myself in the fictional world, thinking about the characters, plot, and the setting, and write in a style that I feel authentic to the characters. When I’m taking a break from writing, I also think, speak, and dream about my characters in English.
English is very different from Chinese, we all know that, and the two languages have their own grammatical rules and their own expressive power and beauty. I love the English grammar, the basic subject, verb, and object structure. To me, it makes a logical sense and simplifies the thinking process. The Chinese language has this structure, too, but it’s not required. For example, in English, a sentence usually goes, “Where would you like to go?” In Chinese, it’s perfectly acceptable to say “Go where?” The omission in subject is also accepted in formal Chinese writing, whereas in English academic writing, even a sentence fragment is discouraged.
There are other differences between Chinese and English, too, but this would be the major one between them, I think, that in English, it is important to use a subject; in Chinese you don’t have to.
But the Chinese language is rich, drenched in imagery – it is often called a pictographic language, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and this pictographic feature tends to evoke a vivid sense of imagery in a sentence or even in a single word. I love this feature in Chinese. I love to spend hours reading classical Chinese poetry, just to savor a kaleidescope of images sparkling before my eyes, and when I write, I prefer to have a visual scene before me.
If I try to think in Chinese and translate it into English, this is when everything messes up. The grammatical rules of Chinese and English fight in my head. I have to dig deep into the vocabulary cell to find the equivalent for each language, and sometimes I have trouble finding them, and organizing the sentences correctly takes hours. Consequently, writing in a consistent, compelling flow, creating a mood that’s essential to fiction, employing a voice that the character speaks becomes even more challenging. Also the process of characterization and plot slows down. It gets very frustrating.
I’ve been living in the U.S. for almost fifteen years now, and I’ve been speaking and writing in English for almost that long. Most of the time, the two languages mark their own colonies and reign my head peacefully: when I speak to my husband and kids, I use English, and when I speak to my friends and family in China, I switch to Chinese. When I email them, typing in Chinese, it’s fine too since it’s only for a short moment and as long as I stop thinking about Chinese after I hang up the phone, my brain reverses to English.
The problem arises when I try to interpret sentences using two, or three, languages. When I went to visit my family in China in December, 2015, I communicated as an interpretor for my husband and kids, who only speak English, my friends, who only speak Chinese, and my parents, who only speak the local dialect of my home town – different from Chinese, and also my true mother tongue. I interpreted from Chinese to English to my husband and kids, English to Chinese to my friends, and English to the local dialect to my parents. It was such an interesting experience! I paused many times, and I kept stuttering, jumbling all the languages together, and I even had trouble articulating my thoughts.
I have no doubt that living in the U.S. and speaking and writing in English daily have an immerse effect on my brain, and maybe, if I relocate to China, I would be compelled to write in Chinese as well. Jhumpa Lahiri has done that. Deciding to write in Italian, she relocated to Italy and wrote the memoir called In Other Words.
—
Weina Dai Randel is the debut author of The Moon in the Palace and The Empress of Bright Moon, historical novel series of Empress Wu, known as the Chinese Cleopatra. Weina was born and raised in China. She has worked as a journalist, a magazine editor, and an adjunct professor. She received an M.A. in English from Texas Woman’s University and now lives in Texas.
Read more about her on her website www.weinarandel.com
Like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weinadairandel
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeinaRandel
http://booksbywomen.org/born-in-china...
When I told my friends in China that I wrote two novels about Empress Wu, their favorite empress, the first thing they asked was, “Is it in Chinese?”
It’s a legitimate question, I understand, since I was born and grew up in China. I went to school in China, too, and learned the basics of the English language in college, so it’s fair to say I was educated in China as well, although how much I retain the knowledge is questionable.
It’s also true that I didn’t start to speak English on a daily basis until I came to Texas, when I was twenty four years old.
So it was surprising for my friends with whom I grew up that I actually wrote two novels in English, and for my friends in the U.S. they were surprised as well, that I could write in English, which is my second language.
“How did you write in English when it’s your second language?” they often asked me. “Do you think in Chinese and translate it into English when you write?
Well, I wrote the two novels, The Moon in the Palace and The Empress of Bright Moon, in the same old fashion that many fiction writers followed – by writing persistently, and I’m not the first Chinese who wrote novels in English either. I know there are many talented people who wrote in second language, and I’m sure they all have interesting insights to share.
For me, when I write, I don’t think about Chinese. I keep the two languages separate and store them in two different chambers in my head as I dive into the creative world. As I write, I follow the English grammar, immerse myself in the fictional world, thinking about the characters, plot, and the setting, and write in a style that I feel authentic to the characters. When I’m taking a break from writing, I also think, speak, and dream about my characters in English.
English is very different from Chinese, we all know that, and the two languages have their own grammatical rules and their own expressive power and beauty. I love the English grammar, the basic subject, verb, and object structure. To me, it makes a logical sense and simplifies the thinking process. The Chinese language has this structure, too, but it’s not required. For example, in English, a sentence usually goes, “Where would you like to go?” In Chinese, it’s perfectly acceptable to say “Go where?” The omission in subject is also accepted in formal Chinese writing, whereas in English academic writing, even a sentence fragment is discouraged.
There are other differences between Chinese and English, too, but this would be the major one between them, I think, that in English, it is important to use a subject; in Chinese you don’t have to.
But the Chinese language is rich, drenched in imagery – it is often called a pictographic language, like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and this pictographic feature tends to evoke a vivid sense of imagery in a sentence or even in a single word. I love this feature in Chinese. I love to spend hours reading classical Chinese poetry, just to savor a kaleidescope of images sparkling before my eyes, and when I write, I prefer to have a visual scene before me.
If I try to think in Chinese and translate it into English, this is when everything messes up. The grammatical rules of Chinese and English fight in my head. I have to dig deep into the vocabulary cell to find the equivalent for each language, and sometimes I have trouble finding them, and organizing the sentences correctly takes hours. Consequently, writing in a consistent, compelling flow, creating a mood that’s essential to fiction, employing a voice that the character speaks becomes even more challenging. Also the process of characterization and plot slows down. It gets very frustrating.
I’ve been living in the U.S. for almost fifteen years now, and I’ve been speaking and writing in English for almost that long. Most of the time, the two languages mark their own colonies and reign my head peacefully: when I speak to my husband and kids, I use English, and when I speak to my friends and family in China, I switch to Chinese. When I email them, typing in Chinese, it’s fine too since it’s only for a short moment and as long as I stop thinking about Chinese after I hang up the phone, my brain reverses to English.
The problem arises when I try to interpret sentences using two, or three, languages. When I went to visit my family in China in December, 2015, I communicated as an interpretor for my husband and kids, who only speak English, my friends, who only speak Chinese, and my parents, who only speak the local dialect of my home town – different from Chinese, and also my true mother tongue. I interpreted from Chinese to English to my husband and kids, English to Chinese to my friends, and English to the local dialect to my parents. It was such an interesting experience! I paused many times, and I kept stuttering, jumbling all the languages together, and I even had trouble articulating my thoughts.
I have no doubt that living in the U.S. and speaking and writing in English daily have an immerse effect on my brain, and maybe, if I relocate to China, I would be compelled to write in Chinese as well. Jhumpa Lahiri has done that. Deciding to write in Italian, she relocated to Italy and wrote the memoir called In Other Words.
—
Weina Dai Randel is the debut author of The Moon in the Palace and The Empress of Bright Moon, historical novel series of Empress Wu, known as the Chinese Cleopatra. Weina was born and raised in China. She has worked as a journalist, a magazine editor, and an adjunct professor. She received an M.A. in English from Texas Woman’s University and now lives in Texas.
Read more about her on her website www.weinarandel.com
Like her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weinadairandel
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WeinaRandel
June 8, 2016
Feature on RT Book Reviews!
I had the honor to meet the mighty and kind RT founder Kathryn Falk, who asked me about my life as an author, how I came to the U.S. from China, why I wrote about Empress Wu, and finally what romance market was like in China.
If you'd like to read the article, go to this link where you can read the .pdf article for free:
http://www.weinarandel.com/?page_id=86
If you'd like to read the article, go to this link where you can read the .pdf article for free:
http://www.weinarandel.com/?page_id=86
March 29, 2016
Wall Street Journal China Real Time interview
The Wall Street Journal China Real Time published an interview of me today.
The journalist and I had fun talking about the fact that why growing up in China gives me a different perspective in writing women in China, some astonishing discoveries found during my research, and what scenes will be chopped if The Moon in the Palace is translated into Chinese.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/20...
The journalist and I had fun talking about the fact that why growing up in China gives me a different perspective in writing women in China, some astonishing discoveries found during my research, and what scenes will be chopped if The Moon in the Palace is translated into Chinese.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/20...
