{"id":6114,"date":"2000-10-01T07:22:47","date_gmt":"2000-10-01T11:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookdragon.si.edu\/?p=6114"},"modified":"2015-12-15T22:54:48","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T03:54:48","slug":"the-moon-pearl-by-ruthanne-lum-mccunn-author-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-moon-pearl-by-ruthanne-lum-mccunn-author-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn + Author Interview [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Moon<\/a>Modern Girls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in a large, extended family in Hong Kong, Ruthanne Lum McCunn<\/a> was surrounded by strong, independent women. So it’s no surprise that she has made a career writing about spirited heroes of Asian descent. The 54-year-old author of Chinese-Scottish ancestry is perhaps\u00a0best known for her debut novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold <\/em>(1981), based on the life of a Chinese American woman pioneer, and Pie-Biter<\/em> (1983), a children\u2019s tale about a young Chinese immigrant who helped to build the great railroads.<\/p>\n

Her latest book.\u00a0The Moon Pearl<\/em>, is a fictionalized account of the brave, young women in\u00a01830s China who refused to accept arranged marriages and vowed to live independent lives as spinsters. They were called sze-saw<\/em>, or “self-combers,” because they symbolically put up their own hair in tight buns, a hairstyle traditionally combed into place by family members of a girl upon marriage. For self-combers, the matronly hairstyle symbolized a life of chosen self-reliance.<\/p>\n

What was it about the <\/strong>sze-saw<\/strong><\/em> that inspired you?<\/strong>
\nI was inspired by their independence. In fact, to declare my own, and I left home for America and became self-supporting when I was 16. So I\u2019d wanted to write about them for a long time. The story really came to a head for me five to 10years ago, when the media started writing about single-women adoptions and same-sex marriage, as if these desires were something very new and Western. Yet there were women in 1830s China who had successfully achieved such lives through independent spinsterhood, a tradition that continued for over a hundred years. That\u2019s what got me to start The Moon Pearl<\/em>. …[click here for more<\/a>]\n

Author interview<\/strong>:\u00a0“Modern Girls,” <\/span>a<\/span><\/strong>Magazine: Inside Asian America<\/em>, October\/November 2000<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Tidbits<\/strong>: You might say that McCunn is the whole reason that this blog ever got started! See \u201cAbout this blog<\/a> \u2026\u201d for more on that! Additionally, McCunn was a delightful guest, together with Jeannie Pfaelzer and Jack Tchen, for the Smithsonian APA Program\u2019s literary event, \u201cThe Chinese American Experience \u2013 and Those Who Survived and Thrived to Tell the Tales<\/a>,\u201d on October 12, 2007.<\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"MoonModern Girls<\/strong><\/p>\n

Growing up in a large, extended family in Hong Kong, Ruthanne Lum McCunn<\/a> was surrounded by strong, independent women. So it’s no surprise that she has made a career writing about spirited heroes of Asian descent. The 54-year-old author of Chinese-Scottish ancestry is perhaps best known for her debut novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold <\/em>(1981), based on the life of a Chinese American woman pioneer, and Pie-Biter<\/em> (1983), a children\u2019s tale about a young Chinese immigrant who helped to build the great railroads.<\/p>\n

Her latest book. The Moon Pearl<\/em>, is a fictionalized account of the brave, young women in 1830s China who refused to accept arranged marriages and vowed to live independent lives as spinsters. They were called sze-saw<\/em>, or “self-combers,” because they symbolically put up their own hair in tight buns, a hairstyle traditionally combed into place by family members of a girl upon marriage. For self-combers, the matronly hairstyle symbolized a life of chosen self-reliance.<\/p>\n

What was it about the <\/strong>sze-saw<\/strong><\/em> that inspired you?<\/strong>
\nI was inspired by their independence. In fact, to declare my own, and I left home for America and became self-supporting when I was 16. So I\u2019d wanted to write about them for a long time. The story really came to a head for me five to 10years ago, when the media started writing about single-women adoptions and same-sex marriage, as if these desires were something very new and Western. Yet there were women in 1830s China who had successfully achieved such lives through independent spinsterhood, a tradition that continued for over a hundred years. That\u2019s what got me to start The Moon Pearl<\/em>. …[click here for more<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Author interview<\/strong>: “Modern Girls,” <\/span>a<\/span><\/strong>Magazine: Inside Asian America<\/em>, October\/November 2000<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Young Adult, Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4,67,21,6,6781,6535,31],"tags":[4822,6608,58,59,10,11,36,51,50,5492,2896],"class_list":["post-6114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-author-interview-profile","category-chinese","category-chinese-american","category-fiction","category-hong-kongese","category-repost","category-young-adult-readers","tag-amagazine-inside-asian-america","tag-bookdragon","tag-coming-of-age","tag-cultural-exploration","tag-family","tag-friendship","tag-girl-power","tag-identity","tag-lgbtqia","tag-moon-pearl","tag-ruthanne-lum-mccunn"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn + Author Interview [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-moon-pearl-by-ruthanne-lum-mccunn-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn + Author Interview [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Modern Girls Growing up in a large, extended family in Hong Kong, Ruthanne Lum McCunn was surrounded by strong, independent women. So it's no surprise that she has made a career writing about spirited heroes of Asian descent. The 54-year-old author of Chinese-Scottish ancestry is perhaps best known for her debut novel, Thousand Pieces of Gold (1981), based on the life of a Chinese American woman pioneer, and Pie-Biter (1983), a children\u2019s tale about a young Chinese immigrant who helped to build the great railroads. Her latest book. The Moon Pearl, is a fictionalized account of the brave, young women in 1830s China who refused to accept arranged marriages and vowed to live independent lives as spinsters. They were called sze-saw, or "self-combers," because they symbolically put up their own hair in tight buns, a hairstyle traditionally combed into place by family members of a girl upon marriage. For self-combers, the matronly hairstyle symbolized a life of chosen self-reliance. What was it about the sze-saw that inspired you? I was inspired by their independence. In fact, to declare my own, and I left home for America and became self-supporting when I was 16. So I\u2019d wanted to write about them for a long time. The story really came to a head for me five to 10years ago, when the media started writing about single-women adoptions and same-sex marriage, as if these desires were something very new and Western. Yet there were women in 1830s China who had successfully achieved such lives through independent spinsterhood, a tradition that continued for over a hundred years. That\u2019s what got me to start The Moon Pearl. ...[click here for more] Author interview: "Modern Girls," aMagazine: Inside Asian America, October\/November 2000 Readers: Young Adult, Adult Published: 2000\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-moon-pearl-by-ruthanne-lum-mccunn-author-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2000-10-01T11:22:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-16T03:54:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2000\/10\/Moon-Pearl.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"586\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SmithsonianAPA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn + Author Interview [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America] - BookDragon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-moon-pearl-by-ruthanne-lum-mccunn-author-interview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn + Author Interview [in aMagazine: Inside Asian America] - BookDragon","og_description":"Modern Girls Growing up in a large, extended family in Hong Kong, Ruthanne Lum McCunn was surrounded by strong, independent women. 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