The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford
Sound the trumpets and ready the fireworks to light the sky in a dazzling display honoring the debut of Jamie Ford’s eagerly awaited new novel The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Atria). He has ambitiously reached for the stars and caught the tail of a transcendent, iridescent and fast-moving comet. This masterful storyteller has made a departure from his more traditional storytelling into the dizzying world of magical realism. There are two major elements to this novel: the Moy family and epigenetics, a field that examines the inheritance of stress trauma along with ancestral or genetic memories passed down through families without affecting DNA structure.
TRAVEL ACROSS GENERATIONS AND WORLDS
This vast, multi-generational tale centers on the titular character, Afong Moy, who was the first Chinese woman to set her tiny bound feet down on the docks in Baltimore in 1834. Better known by her stage name, “The Chinese Lady,” little is known about the real Afong Moy who quickly became a stage sensation in the U.S. and England before she stopped performing and vanished from written history around 1850. Here, Ford has vividly imagined her biography and created, for his fully fictional characters, a sweeping matrilineal line of descent through daughters, all only children, in an epic saga that spans over 250 years.
We travel in time from the pre-industrial revolution (early 19th century) and then far into a technologically dependent, dark dystopian 21st century, concluding in 2086 with writer Annabel’s story. Like the many daughters, readers experience the well-documented, significant events of the eras, including wars, plagues, natural disasters and technological advancements as well as social upheavals, cultural shifts and the chaos of an ever-darkening world.
The seven women depicted in The Many Daughters of Afong Moy endure shocking losses, abuse, deaths (including murder), deceit, abandonment and loneliness, along with drastic changes in fortune. The women of each generation make courageous decisions to seize opportunities to save themselves and their children, at times fearlessly leaving security and their pasts behind. Each character narrates her own story, which takes place on three continents with a fluidity and swiftness that may challenge the reader to stay apace.
The novel is non-linear and the plot is not laid out in chronological order but it is riveting and tempting to read in one long sitting. Ford helpfully begins chapter headings with the character’s name and year of sequence. His impeccable research provides insights into the customs and history of each era and offers a painter’s eye for details, including clothing, décor and historic landmarks such as the Baltimore Athenaeum Club and Seattle’s oldest skyscraper, The Smith Tower, situated at the edge of the International District populated by the city’s Asian community.
ANCESTRAL TRAUMA REMEMBERED
In 2045, readers meet Dorothy Moy who is second only to Afong Moy in importance to the storyline. She is independently wealthy thanks to a wildly successful app invented by her mother. Dorothy is obsessively researching and participating in unorthodox methods in epigenetic studies, desperate to find the key to identifying and controlling ancestral memories and/or transgenerational epigenetic inherited traits, which she and her cherished five-year-old daughter, Annabel, share. Her verbally abusive, self-centered partner seems to regard this as a manifestation of mental illness and is bent on beginning some reprogramming on their child.
INSPIRED BY THE REAL AFONG MOY
Afong Moy chastely loved Yao Han, a poor but gifted scholarship student, but had been promised to marry an old rich man with wives and children older than she. Days before the wedding, her husband-to-be died in an accident, yet the wedding would proceed bizarrely making her a widow before she could be a wife. Only 14, her husband’s family, unconcerned for her welfare, sell her to a trader who smuggles her to America. (It was illegal for Chinese women to enter the United States and nearly impossible to return to their homeland after leaving.)
Her dubious good fortune, having been bought by the Hannigans, lead to a successful career in the theater, although she made little money. When the novelty had worn off, the Hannigans planned to sell her to a traveling circus to become a sideshow freak. She endured loneliness and heartbreak calmly with a steadfast refusal to believe any of the lies fed to her. Afong Moy watched, waited and learned, and when the chance arose, she didn’t let her crippled feet hold her back. What then were the obstacles that may have hampered her daughters and granddaughters from living their lives fully?
Afong Moy is the crux of the novel, and Ford has artfully blended his fertile imagination with the barest trace of facts known about the real woman. Were solitude, sorrow and loneliness passed down genetically along with keen intelligence, dark brown eyes and straight black hair? Resiliency, self-reliance and hope are there as well.
A FAMILIAL LOVE STORY
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is serendipitously published in the Chinese Lunar Year of the Tiger. It is written those born this year are confident, enthusiastic, family oriented with great interpersonal relationships and a commitment to helping others.
This matrilineal multi-generational magic carpet ride will render the reader breathless, a bit dizzy and eager to revisit each character. Ford is already a seasoned veteran of book tours and a favorite of book discussion groups. I predict he will be swamped with invitations when the dreamlike The Many Daughters of Afong Moy is read.
About Jamie Ford:
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name “Ford,” thus confusing countless generations.
Jamie’s debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two and a half years on the New York Times bestseller list and won the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. It was also named the #1 Book Club pick in 2010 by the American Bookseller Association and is now read widely in schools all across the country. This multi-cultural tale was adapted by Book-It Repertory Theatre and has been optioned for a stage musical in NYC, and for film, with George Takei serving as Executive Producer.
An award-winning short-story writer, his work has been published in multiple anthologies, from Asian-themed steampunk set in Seattle in the Apocalypse Triptych to stories exploring the universe of masked marvels and caped crusaders from an Asian American perspective in Secret Identities: The first Asian American Superhero Anthology, and Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology. He’s also written in other genres: speculative, dystopian, crime noir, and middle-grade horror.
He currently lives in Montana with his wife, a one-eyed pug, and his imaginary friends.
