Janie Chang is the author of The Fourth Princess, which is out now.
Janie Chang is a Globe and Mail bestselling author of historical fiction. Born in Taiwan, Chang has lived in the Philippines, Iran, Thailand, New Zealand, and Canada. Her novels often draw from family history and ancestral stories. She has a degree in computer science and is a graduate of the Writer’s Studio Program at Simon Fraser University.
She is the author of Three Souls, Dragon Springs Road, The Library of Legends, and The Porcelain Moon; and co-author of the USA Today bestseller The Phoenix Crown, with Kate Quinn.
The Fourth Princess is a haunting Gothic novel set in 1911 China. Two young women living in a crumbling, once-grand Shanghai mansion face danger as secrets of their pasts come to light, even as the mansion’s own secret threatens the present.
Let’s get to know Janie as she talks favorite books, inspiration behind The Fourth Princess, her TBR and more!
What are some of your favorite books?
More recently, my faves are Claire North’s works of speculative fiction. Her imagination is amazing. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is wonderful. I also love her trilogy about Penelope and the women of Ithaca – what happened while the men were off with Odysseus fighting the Trojan War. It’s geopolitics disguised under the “feminist retelling of ancient myths” wrapping. The books are: Ithaca, House of Odysseus, The Last Song of Penelope. For longtime favorites, The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart is amazing, a fantasy legend set in an ancient China that never was. I’ve read it over and over and wish I’d written him a fan letter before he died. Then there’s The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston, and Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
Apparently 90% of the population believe they have a story worth telling. Yes, that was me. However, a bit of reading and research made it clear how difficult it would be to (a) actually write something coherent and (b) of interest to a publisher. But that daydream never quite went away so I made the commitment in 2011 to do something about that daydream and applied to The Writers Studio, a one-year creative writing program at Simon Fraser University. I wanted to see whether I could write something that a publisher considered worthwhile – and if it didn’t work out at least I wouldn’t be sitting in my rocking chair in 30 years regretting that I hadn’t tried harder!
What inspired you to write The Fourth Princess?
I’ve always enjoyed Gothic novels. Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights are favorites. It was the challenge of setting one in China, which is not the usual location for a Gothic story. I wanted to see whether I could create a blend of East and West, because that’s what Shanghai was back in those days, while still maintaining the classic tropes: an innocent young woman, a mysterious mansion that comes with dark secrets and potentially dangerous occupants.
What type of research went into the novel?
Tons of reading about pre-war Shanghai. There were contemporary accounts by people who lived there at the time, as well as academic papers. I watched Chinese movies set in pre-war Shanghai to get a feel for the atmosphere – the city was famously decadent – and looked through online photo collections of Shanghai. Memoirs were the most interesting and useful because sometimes you need to write about ordinary moments in a character’s day and mundane details are more useful than grand historic moments.
What was your favorite chapter or part to write?
I enjoyed writing the last chapter, when all is revealed. It felt so satisfying to explain how all the pieces fall into place. I also like writing the descriptive language that gives the novel its atmosphere of gloom and oppressiveness. Moody lets you get creative with prose.
What are you currently reading and what’s on your TBR (to be read) list?
The non-fiction book I’m reading is Kingmaker by Sonia Purnell, the biography of Pamela Harriman who was Winston Churchill’s daughter-in-law. The novel I’m reading is In Winter I Get Up at Night by Jane Urquhart. My TBR list is embarrassingly long but the top three on the stack are:
- The Black Wolf by Louise Penny
- Black Cherokee by Antonio Michael Downing
- Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
