Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Meingmei Yip now has eight books to her credit, five in Chinese and three in English. Most recent are Song of The Silk Road, Peach Blossom Pavilion (Kensington) and Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories (Tuttle). Her books in Chinese include The Art of Qin Music, Guqin Music and Chinese Culture, World of Music, Never Poles Apart (collection of essays), and Good Time on Earth, a book on Zen Buddhism. All have been well received in Hong Kong and three have had Taiwan editions. She even had the ultimate compliment for an Asian writer – one of my books was pirated in China! Click here to see my other books.;)

As a writer and qin musician, Mingmei has appeared on 40 TV and radio in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the US, as well as many newspaper interviews. In Hong Kong, she co-hosted with Miss Hong Kong a major English language TV documentary on Chinese opera. In the US, she was featured in a full hour special program on CHN in New Jersey. Mingmei has been a columnist for seven major Hong Kong newspapers. Her poems have been published and set to music; they have been performed in the Hong Kong Arts Festival and universities in the US.

She received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, on a full academic scholarship from the French Government. Upon returning to Hong Kong, she held faculty positions at two universities. In 2005, Yip spent two months in the Netherlands as an International Institute of Asian Studies research fellow. Read more…

In the seventies, her descriptions of her adventures with her husband in the Sahara Desert captivated many readers, including myself. One episode – I won’t give it away here – is based on something that happened to her husband.

Inspired by her, I always wanted to write about a young woman’s adventures in the desert. I had thought of drawing on Echo’s life for my desert novel, but then found my imagination led me in a different direction. A lifelong fascination with the romantic history of the Silk Road was brought to life when I traveled there a few years ago with my husband, going through ruined cities and venturing up sheer cliffs into now abandoned caves that once housed thriving spiritual communities.

Then I had a dream.

*Publisher’s Weekly says is “at once modern and traditional… Surprising and often funny. Yip’s modern heroine’s quest is filled with unique companions, unforeseen dangers, unexpected joys, and bitter sorrows. Part epic, part coming-of-age story, part modern fairy tale….”

Visit Mingmei at http://www.mingmeiyip.com/

Paperback Dolls is made up of women from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds, different tastes and beliefs that were brought together through a love of reading. We like to think of ourselves as a cyber version of "The View" that focuses on books, authors, and reading. We are proof positive that one common love can unite the most opposite of people and form lasting friendships that introduce other ways of life and perspectives to each other.

Paperback Dolls

View all posts by Paperback Dolls
s website