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| Who is Peter Ho Davies? |
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| Tuesday, 08 January 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New Year’s Resolutions: Happy New Year! I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year and ready for the challenges and joys of 2008. The New Year and January is traditionally a time for resolutions. This year is no different for me; one of my urgent resolutions is to go to the gym and exercise because the ugly truth is I’ve indulged during the festive season and feel like one of those over-inflated balloons, ready to pop. After a certain age gravity takes over! One of my other resolutions is to make time to read some grown-up books. When you have two young children, it’s hard to find time to read anything other than the exploits of “Thomas the Tank Engine” or “Dora the Explorer” (two favourite children’s characters in the United States). My Reading Wish List: Among my list of books to purchase and read is “The Welsh Girl”, the critically acclaimed debut novel of Peter Ho Davies, published by Sceptre in 2007. The novel is set in a Welsh village during the Second World War and explores the bonds of love and duty that tie people to family and country. “The Welsh Girl” has just been selected for “The Richard and Judy Book Club” on Channel 4 TV. I came across Peter Ho Davies’s name in a Guardian Unlimited article by Liz Hoggard and was excited to read about not only a fellow Brit, but one of Chinese and Welsh descent, who lives on my side of the Pond and has achieved considerable success as a writer. ‘Best of Young British Novelists’: Peter Ho Davies didn’t set out to be a writer; in fact, he studied physics at Cambridge as an undergraduate because he thought he’d heed his parents and pursue something more practical. Then he surprised everyone by studying for a second degree in English at Manchester University and, later, he went to Boston in America to do an MA in creative writing. I was interested to read about his career choices and can relate to his decisions, which many of the second-generation British Chinese have to make – pursuing a line of work we want to do as opposed to a vocation our parents think is a good career path for us; it’s almost a rite of passage for British-born or raised Chinese (BBC). Over the years, Peter has won a number of awards for his writing including the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award and The Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for his first published collection of short stories, “The Ugliest House in the World” (1998). His second collection, “Equal Love” (2000), received the New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (Fiction). In 2003, he made Granta magazine’s prestigious list of the 20 ‘Best of Young British Novelists’. Memories of the 1970s and 1980s: Peter Ho Davies is a contemporary of my era and grew up in Coventry in Warwickshire. I was struck by his reflections of his youth in the Guardian Unlimited article where he describes a sinking feeling because he felt his life was on hold as ‘Growing up in the Midlands, you can feel a long way from anywhere’. I immediately connected to his sentiments. I grew up in Birmingham (about 30 miles from Coventry) in the 70s and 80s, and my recollections of the region were of a depressed economy, dreariness and run down inner city areas. Living in a city so inland, I longed to see different places, the ocean or the bright lights of London. My hometown felt parochial and not the cosmopolitan city it is now, due to a better economy and urban regeneration. Standing Out: From my background reading, Peter Ho Davies strikes me as someone who understands the feeling of being different. Different in his mixed heritage, with a Welsh father and a Chinese mother (who was raised in Malaysia). He was one of a few Asian children in his school and you can certainly relate to that as a BBC. Different as a Brit in the US; someone who understands how looking Chinese and sounding British causes much surprise and confusion for Americans. I wrote about this in an earlier article about my reflections on how things have changed in the UK after living in the States for eight years. http://www.dimsum.co.uk/features/the-view-from-across-the-pond.html In the Guardian Unlimited article, Peter is quoted as saying, ‘To look Asian but to speak with a British accent completely threw people. I liked that; it felt as if I was just under the radar. You couldn’t place me through accent or class or ethnic things’. Critics have said that there’s something of the outsider to Peter Ho Davies’s work; his short stories examine the ways in which people deal with being outside of their relationships. Perhaps, this is a reflection of his unique background – mixed parentage, English-born and living in America. An American Adventure: I’m always interested to find out how fellow Brits end up living in the US as someone who’s made the journey herself. Peter’s motivation to come to the States initially was mostly to study – this was in the early 90's and there were very few creative writing programmes in the UK, then. He’d never been to the US before, so some part of his decision was an interest in visiting the country. He’d planned to return to the UK after his studies, but a combination of factors – meeting his future wife and winning a couple of fellowships – encouraged him to stay. He now lives in Michigan with his wife, author Lynne Raughley, and their young son, Owen, and is an Associate Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan. He is the director of the university’s Master of Fine Arts programme in creative writing. The Guardian Unlimited article made me want to find out more and that’s what I did. I contacted Peter and asked him some interesting questions and, in his answers, you’ll get some insights into his upbringing in the UK, his identity, his career choices, his relationship with his wife, his work as a professor, his thoughts about the UK, his writing and future projects. British-born of part-Chinese descent, Peter Ho Davies is certainly making waves in his field. He’s someone you can’t put into a box; someone who has overcome rejections of his writing through hard work and well deserves his present success. If, like me, your New Year’s resolution is to read more, then check out Peter’s writing and, if not, remember his name as someone to inspire you. A Conversation with Peter Ho Davies: What were two or three key memories of growing up with Welsh and Chinese parents in the UK? Watching the great Welsh rugby teams of the 70's with my father. Feeling like family at our local Chinese restaurant. My parents forbidding me to go out and play football on the afternoon of a National Front march through town. Who were your role models growing up? When I was a kid, probably Mr. Spock from Star Trek, largely because of his emotional control (kids tend to lack that), but perhaps also because he was of mixed ancestry himself (not too many of those characters on TV back then). How did you identify yourself when you were young? I was never easy calling myself English (despite being born and living in England) or Welsh or Chinese (despite my heritage; I spoke neither of my parents’ native languages after all), so I was aware from early on of being this mixture of identities, and at least in my early experience a pretty unique mixture. That was lonely at times, but also liberating in the sense that you’re hard to pigeon-hole as one thing or another (and it’s that sense of being labelled that I think lies at the root of racism) and you’re also not beholden to all the norms of a larger community. What conflicts did you experience with your identity within your family and with the wider society? The conflicts were mostly internal and related to how I felt perceived by others – or misperceived, perhaps. I was acutely aware as a child that I stood out as Chinese in a largely white community and carried as a result a bit of the burden of being a representative. When I worked for a time in Singapore in my early 20’s, by contrast, I felt (pleasantly) invisible…and yet as I’ve learned we’re often not the best judges of how we appear to others. As one Singaporean taxi driver pointed out to me, I didn’t look like I was Singaporean (I was too short). He thought I was from Taiwan. That experience and several others like it in the US and UK released me from this concern about how others perceived me (that’s probably also just an aspect of growing up). Now, I rather revel in the sense that it’s (of course!) impossible for anyone to tell your whole story at a glance; that the kinds of prejudices and first impressions we all trade in are inevitably off base. You’ve changed your studies from physics to English and creative writing. Why did you make the change and when did you decide to become a writer? I wrote a story, not my first, but the first where I think I sensed the power of fiction, shortly after starting my physics degree, and although I finished the degree that story and the possibilities it suggested made me feel I had some unfinished business with writing. That nagging instinct lead me to take a second degree in English and later a Masters in creative writing. What drove those decisions I think in retrospect was a fear of regret. I didn't want to be saying in 30 years, "If only I'd tried X..." How did your parents react to your decision? They were anxious about it, I'd say, but supportive none the less. In fact, the fact that they had real doubts about what I was doing with my life makes their support all the more precious to me. How did you feel when you first arrived in America? Excited (I thought girls would throw themselves at my accent) and superior (that lingering British attitude to all things American). I was mistaken on both scores, of course. Your wife, Lynne Raughley, is also a novelist. Does that make for a supportive or competitive relationship? You should probably ask her, but from my point of view it’s been immeasurably supportive. Lynne’s my first and best reader, a really smart editor and of course understands the selfish, anti-social aspects of being a writer. How long have you been married? Where did you meet? Did you have any qualms about marrying an American? We got married in 1994, having met a couple of years earlier (we were both doing the Masters in creative writing at Boston University) and no, no qualms about marrying an American. It probably helped that Lynne was open to living in Britain (we spent a year in Cambridge in 99-00 while I was on sabbatical). How old is your son, Owen? What do you tell him about his mixed heritage? He’s only three so the question hasn’t much come up, but he’s visited the UK a couple of times already. You work at the University of Michigan and you’re now on sabbatical. How does the teaching and writing tailor together? Do you have a preference for one or the other? Most writers who teach (and this includes my own grad students) struggle to balance the two activities, and I like many probably err on the side of giving up some writing time for their teaching. It’s not always a competition. Being in the company of dedicated young writers is often exciting and inspiring, for instance. I should say too that I’m not the kind of writer who can write all day, for days on end. I miss the human interaction. There’s also a basic selfishness in writing that teaching moderates a little. Last, but not least, teaching pays the bills on a regular basis. How do you feel now after living in the US for so long? Relieved to have married an American who liked me for more than my accent! And amazed at how many countries the US is, how many ways – good and bad – there are of thinking about America. How do you feel about your identity now? Do you feel Welsh-Chinese, British or American? British now, I think, in part because that term seems – or has come to seem in the last 15-20 years – much more inclusive than when I was younger. In what ways do you still feel British? I still occasionally feel overwhelmed and a little panicked by all the choices in sandwich shops and coffee bars! I'm also apt to feel very British whenever I see George Bush on TV. What do you miss about UK? So much of what I've missed over the years is now easily available here – from UK newspapers (via the web) to football to Christmas pudding and even Christmas crackers. Perhaps, what I miss most at this point is the English countryside. What has changed for you about the UK? A great deal, though it's hard to judge if the UK has changed all that much or just my perspective on it. Much of that seems to be for the good. I recall being struck in the late 90's by how multiracial the culture had become for instance. But some changes seem more worrying. Lately, when I visit there seems a widespread dissatisfaction not far below the surface. That's most obviously visible in the media, I think, which seems much shriller than I recall, but it also reflects (or perhaps creates) the feeling in the streets, too. The country at times also seems small to me now – geographically, of course, but also somehow socially or even culturally – to the point of claustrophobia, almost. What would you beam up from the UK if you could do that like in Star Trek? Family and friends. What encouragement or advice would you give to someone who has a dream of doing something that isn't necessarily condoned by their family? Well, it would depend on the ‘something’ in question! But if the choice is between writing and some other career – the law, accountancy, medicine, etc. – I try to suggest it isn’t necessarily an either/or. When I was choosing between physics and English at 18 when I went to university in the UK it felt like I was deciding for life and of course that put a lot of pressure on the decision. My own experience now though is that for a while at least (one’s 20’s at least) it’s possible to make a few choices, to try and fail at something, to become one thing and then change your mind and become something else. I suspect I think of this as a pretty American outlook, certainly I felt a freedom to reinvent myself here that I don’t think I’d have felt at home, but I’d like to think that 15 years after I left the UK that attitudes there have also moved on. How do you feel about the success of your career? I'm not sure it's really for writers to reflect on their success or otherwise – that's for readers to decide. But certainly I feel happy, and lucky, to be doing something I love to do. What plans do you have for the future? I'm working on some short stories now, with a new novel starting to come into focus. Read more about Peter Ho Davies in his Waterstones.com interview: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=200000344 Let us know your thoughts by posting your comments below. You can also email Susan directly here: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it Peter Ho Davies photo courtesy of Bering Photography
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