Tell Me Your Story

New York resident and author, Flora Qian was born and raised in Shanghai but has lived in Singapore and Hong Kong, where her ancestors had lived, and in Washington D.C. before settling in New York. This cross cultural and multilingual experience influenced her debut novel, “South of the Yangtze.” At once a coming-of-age story and a meditation on language itself, South of the Yangtze is Flora Qian’s award-winning debut novel that follows Yinan Qian, a girl growing up in Shanghai at the turn of the century. Set against China’s rapidly changing political, economic, and social environment from the 1980s to current day, South of the Yangtze is a thoughtful reflection on both physical migration and migration between languages. Layered with history, it provides a moving portrait of China’s only child generation and the meaning of identity. In an interview, Qian could discuss: WRITING: · South of the Yangtze is fiction but draws from Flora’s life experiences. Did this make it easier or more difficult