Hong Kong and Xiamen in fiction: Jane Lo on the settings of A Summer Like That
Jane Lo is a Chinese-Canadian writer and English teacher born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver. Her work explores cultural identity, family, and relationships, drawing from her experiences living between Hong Kong and Canada.
We previously interviewed Lo about her novel All I Ever Wanted. Her latest book, A Summer Like That (Earnshaw Books), follows Pearl and Leo as they navigate personal and cultural conflicts between Hong Kong and mainland China. The book will be released on March 18th. Lo incorporates personal observations and reflections on memory, loss, and parenthood. She is currently working on a mystery novel featuring a secondary school teacher nearing retirement.
What motivated you to choose Xiamen and Hong Kong as the primary settings for Pearl and Leo’s story?
When I was a teenager, my parents and I went on a holiday to Xiamen, at my request. I had heard from somewhere – maybe at school or on television? – that Xiamen was the cleanest and greenest city in China. Of all the tourist sites we visited, Gulangyu made the greatest impact on me. I remember the piano museum most vividly – a stout little building just overflowing with pianos!
As for Hong Kong, this vibrant melting pot of a city is my home. I love it so very much and am always excited to bring it to life in my stories.
Pearl’s work as a freelance tour guide reflects larger societal and economic themes. Was this aspect inspired by real-life observations or experiences?
I observed this in action about twenty years ago when my parents and I were traveling in Xiamen. When we visited Gulangyu, we were approached by a tour guide who did not seem to be affiliated with any agency, but was clearly an expert on the sites!
She turned out to be a university student who was as proud of her city as Pearl is in A Summer Like That.
Cross-cultural relationships, particularly between Hong Kong and mainland China, play a significant role in the narrative. What drew you to explore this theme?
Cross-cultural tension and conflicts between people from Hong Kong and from mainland China were quite common when I was growing up, perhaps often because there are so many misunderstandings on both sides.
But sometimes people do fall deeply in love despite these differences, and there are many such couples both in Hong Kong and in mainland China. I wanted to write a story where this happens.
Did you conduct any specific research about Xiamen’s tourism industry, or did you rely more on personal observation?
My husband’s family is originally from Fujian province, and although they aren’t from Xiamen specifically, they were able to help me with some of the details. I also did some of my own research, and the memories I had of that trip I took with my parents two decades ago helped as well.
How did the contrasting parenting approaches of Pearl and her mother shape the emotional core of the novel?
I have always felt that Hong Kong is a place where success is measured in very specific ways: academic excellence from the time one enters school at age 2, a lucrative professional career, marriage to a ‘suitable’ partner and well-behaved, well-educated children, ownership of a sizable private property, luxurious holidays in exotic far-flung locations…
But not everybody follows the same path. I believe most parents do want their children to enjoy the good things in life – but while Pearl’s mom hopes that her daughter and grandchild can have them with as little difficulty as possible, Pearl feels that she must earn them for her son, fair and square. But their love for their children is the same.
What drew you to use the motif of photographs as a way to explore memory and loss?
This aspect of the story is inspired by my own experiences. When my husband and I were dating, we often took pictures of sunsets together in different locations. It seemed very romantic at the time, and the photos are still so precious to me.
But in an alternative universe, if things hadn’t worked out, what would I have done with all those photos, those memories? Would I, like Leo, have struggled to face the sunset each day?
How did you approach depicting Pearl’s internal conflicts about her son’s future without making the narrative feel didactic?
Being a mother myself, I have so many hopes and worries about my own children’s future. Like Pearl, I have certainly felt guilty and uncertain over some of our decisions. I tried to made Pearl’s internal struggles relatable to any mother trying their best.
What aspects of the novel changed most significantly between your initial drafts and the final manuscript?
The beginning section has remained pretty much unchanged from the start, but so much of the rest of the story is different from my initial drafts. I have written so many scenes that never made it into the final version.
What kinds of stories are you interested in exploring in your future projects?
I love reading mysteries and thrillers and am so excited to be working on my current work-in-progress, a mystery which features an amateur sleuth in the form of a secondary school teacher on the cusp of retirement.
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