The Dragon and the Stars

by Derwin Mak

  Crystal Gail Shangkuan Koo was born in Manila, Philippines, and graduated with a BA in English literature from the University of the Philippines and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of New South Wales. She is currently an English lecturer at the College of International Education of Hong Kong Baptist University.

  Crystal’s stories have been published in The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories, Unsweetened Literary Journal, RUBRIC: Creative Writing Journal of the University of New South Wales, Short Stories at East of the Web, Salu-Salo: An Anthology of Philippine-Australian Writings, and Philippine Speculative Fiction IV. In 2007, her story “Benito Salazar’s Last Creation” won the Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature, and in 2009, her play The Foundling was performed at the Fringe Theatre in Hong Kong. She maintains a blog at sword skill. wordpress. com.

  “The Man on the Moon” turns the myth of Yue Lao on its head and explores the places of a mortal man and a deity in a universe of circumstances, choices, and destiny. It is her first story published in North America.

  Born in Manila, Philippines, Gabriela Lee received her bachelor’s degree in creative writing from the University of the Philippines and completed her master’s degree in literary studies at the National University of Singapore under an ASEAN scholarship. She has been a fellow for poetry in English at the Dumaguete National Writers Workshop, and her stories have been published in a number of magazines and anthologies including By Blood We Live, Philippine Speculative Fiction Volume 1, A Different Voice: Filipino Fiction from Young Writers, and Crowns and Oranges: New Philippine Poetry. Gabriela currently lives in Singapore with her boyfriend, where she develops online content. Gabriela’s website is sundialgirl.multiply.com.

  Her first story published in North America, “Bargains” was inspired by the author’s own experience with writer’s block. Inspiration, unfortunately, cannot be bought from a Chinese shop—a painful lesson that both Gabriela and her fictional counterpart Amelia have now learned.

  Shelly Li is a writer in Omaha, Nebraska. Her work has appeared in several publications including Nature, Cosmos Online, and Italy’s Robot Magazine. Her website is www.shelly-li.com.

  The inspiration for “Intelligent Truth” came from her stepfather, who recalled reading an article about recent advancements in artificial intelligence. A plot began to develop around the idea that robots might one day understand human emotions better than their makers. As Shelly wrote, she also decided to include some of her experiences with the joys and frustrations of life as an American-born Chinese.

  Born in Lanzhou, China, Ken Liu grew up on both coasts of the United States. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he worked as a software engineer before becoming a lawyer. His fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Science Fiction World, Writers of the Future, and David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s The Year’s Best SF. Ken lives in the Boston area with his wife Lisa and their two cats. His website is kenliu.name.

  A popular genre of Chinese science fiction is an analog for steampunk, which Ken has dubbed “silkpunk.” These stories are set in a classical or medieval East Asian setting, and instead of steam, the fictional inventions tend to be powered by wind, water, animals, or uniquely Chinese concepts like qi, ox sinew, and jiguan (a type of mechanical engineering associated with Mohist philosophers of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods).

  Ken was inspired by a discussion with his aunt on the aesthetics of calligraphy and Chinese painting to write “Běidŏu.” The Seven Years War (1592-98) provided the silkpunk setting for the debate between the Emperor and Tan Yuansi about our ambivalence toward the interplay among art, technology, war, and reason.

  Emily Mah was born in California but grew up in New Mexico. She currently resides in London, England, while her husband attends grad school. Emily is a graduate of Oxford University and UCLA School of Law, and she practiced law for six years. During her attorney years, she attended the Clarion West and Viable Paradise writers’ workshops and has since sold to several publications including Polaris: A Celebration of Polar Science, The Black Gate, and Shiny. A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she also writes LDS fiction under the name E.M. Tippetts and has published a novel, Time and Eternity. Her speculative fiction website is www.emilymah.com and her LDS fiction website is www.emtippetts.com.

  The inspiration for “Across the Sea” came from listening to her friend Char Peery, a linguistic anthropologist and science fiction fan, talk about lost languages and cultural assimilation.

  Derwin Mak was born in Peterborough, grew up in Kitchener, and lives in Toronto, all cities in Ontario, Canada. He is a chartered accountant with master’s degrees in accounting and military studies. In 2006, his story “Transubstantiation” won Canada’s national science fiction award, the Prix Aurora Award, in the category of Best Short Form Work in English. His novel The Moon Under Her Feet was a finalist for a 2008 Prix Aurora Award. He has also written articles about East Asian pop culture and anime for the magazines Parsec and Rice Paper. His website is www.derwinmczksf.com.

  “The Polar Bear Carries the Mail” was inspired by Derwin’s interests in aerophilately and buildings. Derwin collects space covers, including one that flew aboard a 1983 Space Shuttle mission. He also likes the work of Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, who designed the Pyramid at the Louvre and the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, which is alleged to have bad feng shui.

  Wen Y. Phua was born in Singapore and graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with double bachelor of science degrees in food science and food industry. After several years working in the food industry, she turned to her first love, books and writing. Currently a freelance writer and editor, she has written three nonfiction books and numerous articles.

  A graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop, Wen found her initial inspiration for “Papa and Mama” during her grandfather’s funeral. Her family, although not Buddhist, was told to go vegetarian during the funeral proceedings. Shortly afterward, she learned that some Buddhists refrain from consuming meat for a hundred days after the passing of their relative, for fear their deceased kin might be reincarnated as an animal and land on their dining table. Aside from this theme of Buddhist reincarnation, the rest of “Papa and Mama” is, of course, pure imagination.

  Tony Pi was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and first encountered an army of Chinese characters on cast metal type, thanks to his grandfather, who operated an in-home printing press. At age eight, he emigrated to Toronto, Canada. His love of words and languages ultimately led him to complete a PhD in linguistics from McGill University. Tony has taught at Queen’s University, the University of Waterloo and Simon Fraser University and is currently administering the graduate program at the Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto. His website is www.eyrie.org/~pi/.

  A finalist for the 2009 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a Second Place winner in the Writers of the Future Contest (Volume XXIII), Tony also had a novelette on the ballot for the 2008 Prix Aurora Award. His work has appeared in Ages of Wonder, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, On Spec, Abyss & Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Tales of the Unanticipated.

  For “The Character of the Hound,” Tony took his idea that tattoos prime the body for spirit possession and combined it with his fascination with General Yue Fei to divert the history of Song Dynasty China onto a unique and magical course.

  Charles Tan is a writer from the Philippines. He graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in creative writing and currently works as editorial assistant for The Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook. His fiction has been published in Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 4 and The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories. His blog is charles-tan.blogspot.com, and he has a sampler of speculative fiction at philippinespeculativefiction .com.

  “The Fortunes of Mrs. Yu” is his first story published in Nor
th America. Growing up in a Chinese family, they would eat out in a restaurant and order the same menu (the eight-course lauriat) whenever there was an occasion to celebrate. Fortune cookies, however, are not authentically Chinese and are actually rarities in the Philippines.

  William F. Wu is the author of thirteen novels, sixty short stories, and a book of literary criticism. His story “Wong’s Lost and Found Emporium” was adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1985. A six-time nominee for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, Wu is also the author of the young adult series Isaac Asimov’s Robots in Time.

  Wu was born and raised in the Kansas City area and attended the University of Michigan. He has a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies and a master’s degree and PhD in American culture. His doctoral dissertation was published as The Yellow Peril: Chinese Americans in American Fiction, 1850-1940. He lives in Palmdale, California, with his wife, Fulian, and their son, Alan. His website is www.williamfwu.com.

  “Goin’ Down to Anglotown” is an alternate world story based on old tales about Chinatowns, from nineteenth century fiction to movies like Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson. In these depictions, Chinatown is often a weird, scary place, with beautiful but treacherous Chinese women and threatening Chinese men. “Anglotown” turns these racial stereotypes on their head.

  Melissa Yuan-Innes is a full-fledged emergency doctor now, but when she toiled as a family medicine resident she fantasized about a hospital for wizards where magical beings came to be healed. She wrote four stories, one for each season. “Dancers with Red Shoes,” the summer story, is her favorite.

  Melissa was the winner of several contests, including Writers of the Future and the 2008 InnermoonLit Award for Best First Chapter of a Novel. Her work can be found in Nature, Weird Tales, Island Dreams: Montréal Writers of the Fantastic, and other publications. Melissa’s website is www.melissayuaninnes.net.