A Side of Rice: Volume 1, Issue 02 by A Side of Rice

VOLUME 1: ISSUE 02

Volume 2: Issue 01

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Earlier last month, I attended a talk and celebration for Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior––she spoke about additions she’d made to subsequent editions, about accuracies and inaccuracies, about the “real” story of Mulan. And I sat there in the space carved out by NYU’s APIA studies & SCA programs, feeling intensely conflicted. Because there is no “real” story of Hua Mulan, and any attempt to realise it and render it more concrete than it is, is an ahistorical one. Perhaps in history, at some point during the Northern Wei dynasty there was a girl named Mulan who went to battle in her father’s place, but we don’t know this for a fact––she was never listed among the virtuous ranks, and the only record we have of her possible existence is a Song dynasty copy of a Northern Wei dynasty poem––only secondary sources. The story of Hua Mulan is erected on artistic license and oral retellings. She’s not so much herself as she is the projected imaginations of more than 1600 years’ worth of people who heard the story and embellished. What troubled me more, though, than her claim to the reality of Mulan (again, none exists), was my own reaction to her claims. When Kingston said that Mulan had actually died, committed suicide, and she wished she’d addressed it, and mental health, more fully, my heart was immediately in uproar. Because no, actually, in the earliest source we have for the story, she doesn’t commit suicide. She takes off her armour and goes out to meet her troops, who are shocked they never realised she was a woman. It was another retelling––Qing dynasty this time––that has her committing suicide after she is commanded to marry the Heshana Khagan. These two were written at completely different historical junctures, set the story in completely different dynasties, and the stories vary wildly––save for the point of her being named Mulan, dressing in men’s armour, and serving in the army in her father’s place. All adaptations of Mulan are derivative––some may be less culturally accurate than others, like Disney’s Mulan(s), but they are all ultimately derivative, and even the original source material is itself not the original source material. Do I have more claim to authority because I’m cognizant of this? But aren’t we ultimately in the same positions as two Chinese Americans negotiating Chinese America through the story of a girl named Hua Mulan? I haven’t yet unknotted my tangled thoughts about The Woman Warrior or Maxine Hong Kingston––and I’m not likely to, either. And that’s okay, because it’s a productive dissonance that raises some of the key questions that I wanted to keep in mind for this issue––what is a retelling, and who gets to retell? Tentatively, Alyza Liu

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BOOK RECS 1-7

FICTION 8-17

ARTWORK 18-26

EXTRA 27-28

CREDITS 29

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BOOK RECS

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The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo

Hunting Monsters by SL Huang

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The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Vishakanyaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice by Roshani Chokshi

Tithe

by Holly Black

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The Wrath & Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

Ash

by Malinda Lo

The Terracotta Bride by Zen Cho

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Re: Jane

by Patricia Park

A True Novel

by Minae Mizumara

Thorn

by Intisar Khanani

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The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

Huntress

by Malinda Lo

The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan

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The Sigh

by Marjane Satrapi

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

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FICTION

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ARTWORK

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In-Between Home by Janice Liu In-Between Home is a comic that tries to describe the diasporic experience through analogy. It’s about an unlikely encounter between two figures from Chinese mythology: Chang E, the moon goddess, and Jingwei, the girl-turned bird. By my interpretation, both of these are characters whose identities or actions have changed the way they fit in. This short story conveys a simple idea: That for those who don’t have a clear-cut identity tying them to a specific place, belonging is often found in the space where they’re able to connect with others who feel torn between two realms.

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Bonds from the Past by Tangmo Cecchini The epic tale of Manora and Prince Suthon relies deeply upon the Buddhist belief of past lives and fate. In my illustrations of Manora and Prince Suthon, their love for each other overrides the deterministic tone of the tale.

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EXTRA

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MUSIC RECOMMENDATIONS Moon River, Vincent by Joanna Wang Green Island Serenade by Vienna Teng Tayf (Ghost) by Mashrouâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Leila Hua Tian Cuo by Wang Leehom Wukong by Khalil Fong Jogi by Panjabi MC Lying Beast by Run River North Cambodian Child by Tiffany Lytle (listen here)

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CREDITS Alyza Liu - Editor in Chief

THE TEAM

Alyza is a Chinese American, first-gen immigrant, bilingual, artist/writer (aren’t we all) and a proud aficionado of 狗血剧 and 武侠剧. Her current five year plan includes: crying, drinking tea, adopting a cat, writing a novel, and hopefully breaking into the publishing industry via her [obviously superb] #editorialskills.

Jessica Man - Submissions Coordinator Jessica is an American-born Chinese studying at the graduate program in Asian American Studies at UCLA. She writes lots of things and hopes that some of them will be good. SDG

Tangmo Cecchini - Visual Director Tangmo is an illustrator and owner of the fluffiest bunny. She dabbles in sewing, divination, and baking as well. You can find her artwork at tumblr and instagram at artoftangmo or on her website www.artoftangmo.com.

GUEST CONTRIBUTER

I’m a children’s illustrator and teaching artist living in Vancouver, BC. I draw the webcomic Chicken Soup & Goji Berries 中药鸡汤 (chickensoupcomic.com), which is a slightly fantastical slice-of-life about a Chinese-Canadian immigrant family. You can find me on instagram or tumblr at flutterdoodle!