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About Ancient China
How research became a novel or two
Tom Hanratty
In a fit of creative arrogance, I decided to write a novel involving ancient China.
Not all that ancient, really, the Quin Dynasty in 1868.
Not really China, in fact, but Chinatown in San Francisco in 1868, where ninety percent of the inhabitants were Cantonese (Southern China).
The novel has to do with a locked-room murder for which the Chinese are blamed, and I felt I needed to know something about the 20,000 inhabitants jammed into the twelve square blocks that made up Chinatown, since a lot of the story takes place there.
And, because I’m fond of college, I returned to my alma mater and audited a semester course in Chinese history. That, I felt, was a good way to start — get at least some idea of the culture and mores of the people who left their homeland and came to America in vast numbers.
My first question was: Why flee China?
The Taipei Rebellion
The Taipei Rebellion. A young, failed scholar, Hong Xiuquan, hallucinated that he was Jesus’ younger brother, and the demons had taken over the country. He became a prophet, got a group together, and, in 1850, the Taipei rebellion was born.
