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A review by emergencily
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
medium-paced
5.0
UPDATE: re-read Oct 2024
I enjoyed this book even more on my re-read. First of all, SPC's prose is stunning - it's lyrical, richly descriptive and emotionally evocative. I love that the prose reads so incredibly Chinese - it often refers back to Chinese literary traditions, history, and Chinese idioms and expressions. Despite being written originally in English, It's a book that feels incredibly bilingual, with the rhythms and cadences of Chinese language present in the prose (e.g. the self-referential third person as a marker of respect and social position).
This is a historical epic full of war, tragedy and political machinations. An unnamed peasant girl born into a famine has her fortune revealed by the village fortuneteller: as a girl in historical China under Mongol occupation and rule, a future of nothingness is all that is afforded to her. Her brother however, is destined for a fate of greatness and to have his name remembered through history - but when they run out of food, he loses the will to live, lays down and dies. She takes on his name and identity, and wrests control of his fate for herself. This starts her on a path towards seeking ever-greater power as she joins the ranks of the Han rebellion against Mongol rule, daring even to aim for the Mandate of Heaven and to sit on the imperial throne - no matter the cost.
The deuteragonist, Ouyang, is the Han Chinese son of a traitor, whose entire bloodline was wiped out for his father's attempted rebellion against the occupying Mongol rulers. As the sole survivor, he is made into a eunuch slave serving in the noble house of the man who executed his family. Through his closeness with Esen, first son of his family's executor, he works his way up to servant, soldier and army general. He bears the dehumanization of being a eunuch servant - considered an inferior object - and bides his time until he can take revenge for his family. This is complicated by the fact that he is desperately and privately in love with Esen, knowing his fate is to kill him and topple the empire that Esen dedicates his life to.
The two protagonists are irrevocably drawn to each other, as two like things - as two outsiders on the fringes of society. They are both dehumanized and considered less-than-human, with complex relationships to their gender and sexuality. This is an extremely queer, trans book, and the protagonists' relationships to their gender is a big part of their stories and shapes their actions and goals. Zhu is a woman in disguise as her brother, yet her relationship to her gender over the course of the book becomes increasingly complex. She is ambivalent about her identity as either a man or a woman, interested only in what serves her goals. She later engages in a lesbian relationship with Ma, where she's essentially a stone top (lesbian fisting scene YAY!). On the other hand, Ouyang, as a eunuch, is also considered non-human - to have the body your parents gave you mutilated, and, as a man, be unable to carry on your family bloodline is unthinkably shameful. In Chinese and Mongol society, he occupies a subaltern gendered status, as Zhu does.
The push and pull, cat and mouse game between the two protagonists as they are drawn to and repulsed by their likeness and their opposed goals is one of the most fascinating parts of the book. Like we've had enough heartwarming queer found family stories, it's time for problematic morally gray queer found enemies. The book is literally a nonbinary masc lesbian and a misogynistic closeted gay twink with internalized homophobia beefing in historical China. The beef is legendary levels of juicy like they could have never come up with beef like this even in Tumblr's heyday.
In the most complimentary possible, the plot reminds me of a really good court politics C-drama. I found it thrilling all the way through, especially once Zhu leaves the monastery and joins the rebellion. This is a historical wartime epic with back stabbings, revenge, betrayals, schemes, and every kind of juicy drama you could ever ask for. I loved the incorporation of elements of Chinese culture & spirituality through a fantasy lens, such as Ouyang being haunted by his ancestral ghosts to fulfill his revenge, the Mandate of Heaven manifesting physically as a flame and representation of power, the presence of one's fate as a metaphysical push and pull towards one's path, and the question of how much of our fate is inherited and pre-determined (Ouyang being haunted by his ancestors pushing him towards revenge) and how much self-agency we have (embodied by Zhu taking control of her fate), samsara cycle of rebirth that Chinese Buddhists believe in. This isn't a book about heroes. Ouyang and Zhu are both incredibly complex and morally gray characters, driven forward by their single-minded focus on their ambitions, regardless of ethics and morals, as they pursue their own fates.
I enjoyed this book even more on my re-read. First of all, SPC's prose is stunning - it's lyrical, richly descriptive and emotionally evocative. I love that the prose reads so incredibly Chinese - it often refers back to Chinese literary traditions, history, and Chinese idioms and expressions. Despite being written originally in English, It's a book that feels incredibly bilingual, with the rhythms and cadences of Chinese language present in the prose (e.g. the self-referential third person as a marker of respect and social position).
This is a historical epic full of war, tragedy and political machinations. An unnamed peasant girl born into a famine has her fortune revealed by the village fortuneteller: as a girl in historical China under Mongol occupation and rule, a future of nothingness is all that is afforded to her. Her brother however, is destined for a fate of greatness and to have his name remembered through history - but when they run out of food, he loses the will to live, lays down and dies. She takes on his name and identity, and wrests control of his fate for herself. This starts her on a path towards seeking ever-greater power as she joins the ranks of the Han rebellion against Mongol rule, daring even to aim for the Mandate of Heaven and to sit on the imperial throne - no matter the cost.
The deuteragonist, Ouyang, is the Han Chinese son of a traitor, whose entire bloodline was wiped out for his father's attempted rebellion against the occupying Mongol rulers. As the sole survivor, he is made into a eunuch slave serving in the noble house of the man who executed his family. Through his closeness with Esen, first son of his family's executor, he works his way up to servant, soldier and army general. He bears the dehumanization of being a eunuch servant - considered an inferior object - and bides his time until he can take revenge for his family. This is complicated by the fact that he is desperately and privately in love with Esen, knowing his fate is to kill him and topple the empire that Esen dedicates his life to.
The two protagonists are irrevocably drawn to each other, as two like things - as two outsiders on the fringes of society. They are both dehumanized and considered less-than-human, with complex relationships to their gender and sexuality. This is an extremely queer, trans book, and the protagonists' relationships to their gender is a big part of their stories and shapes their actions and goals. Zhu is a woman in disguise as her brother, yet her relationship to her gender over the course of the book becomes increasingly complex. She is ambivalent about her identity as either a man or a woman, interested only in what serves her goals. She later engages in a lesbian relationship with Ma, where she's essentially a stone top (lesbian fisting scene YAY!). On the other hand, Ouyang, as a eunuch, is also considered non-human - to have the body your parents gave you mutilated, and, as a man, be unable to carry on your family bloodline is unthinkably shameful. In Chinese and Mongol society, he occupies a subaltern gendered status, as Zhu does.
The push and pull, cat and mouse game between the two protagonists as they are drawn to and repulsed by their likeness and their opposed goals is one of the most fascinating parts of the book. Like we've had enough heartwarming queer found family stories, it's time for problematic morally gray queer found enemies. The book is literally a nonbinary masc lesbian and a misogynistic closeted gay twink with internalized homophobia beefing in historical China. The beef is legendary levels of juicy like they could have never come up with beef like this even in Tumblr's heyday.
In the most complimentary possible, the plot reminds me of a really good court politics C-drama. I found it thrilling all the way through, especially once Zhu leaves the monastery and joins the rebellion. This is a historical wartime epic with back stabbings, revenge, betrayals, schemes, and every kind of juicy drama you could ever ask for. I loved the incorporation of elements of Chinese culture & spirituality through a fantasy lens, such as Ouyang being haunted by his ancestral ghosts to fulfill his revenge, the Mandate of Heaven manifesting physically as a flame and representation of power, the presence of one's fate as a metaphysical push and pull towards one's path, and the question of how much of our fate is inherited and pre-determined (Ouyang being haunted by his ancestors pushing him towards revenge) and how much self-agency we have (embodied by Zhu taking control of her fate), samsara cycle of rebirth that Chinese Buddhists believe in. This isn't a book about heroes. Ouyang and Zhu are both incredibly complex and morally gray characters, driven forward by their single-minded focus on their ambitions, regardless of ethics and morals, as they pursue their own fates.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Transphobia