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| K. X. Song (photo: Ruan Yunong) |
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K. X. Song is a diaspora writer with roots in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Raised between cultures and languages, she enjoys telling stories that explore the shifting nature of memory, translation, and history. She is the author of the YA novel An Echo in the City and The Night Ends with Fire (Ace, July 24, 2024), her adult fantasy debut. This reimagining of "The Ballad of Mulan" and Romance of the Three Kingdoms thrusts readers into the chaos of war in an alternate historical China, a world ruled by men... and magic.
The "Ballad of Mulan" dates back more than 1,500 years and has been adapted, translated, and retold countless times. You must have read or watched many while researching this book. Did any stand out to you? Where does The Night Ends with Fire fit into the greater story of Mulan?
I found it fascinating to learn how the many variations of Mulan differed, yet also shared similarities across time and space. For example, in the 1998 Disney version, upon saving the kingdom, Mulan is praised by the emperor for her brave deeds, welcomed home by her father, and even courted by her army captain and true love. In comparison, in the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, written in 1695 by Chu Renhuo, Mulan is summoned by the emperor to become a concubine after the war. Forced to choose between duty and honor, she commits suicide on her father's grave, thereby preserving her unyielding virtue. What ties these disparate versions together is a commitment to the status quo.
Although Mulan is generally considered a progressive symbol of gender equality, in many of these versions she does not defy existing structures of power because she is ultimately motivated by her filial piety and duty to her country. Critically, when the war is over and her duties to her father and emperor are fulfilled, she returns home, content to resume life in the conventional roles expected of women.
In The Night Ends with Fire, I sought to explore what would happen to Mulan if she were no longer content. What if, upon experiencing independence and freedom disguised as a man, she no longer wished to confine herself to the restrictive gender boundaries of her society? Would society accept her as she was, or, by transgressing the norm, would they punish her for daring to aspire for more?
You blend history with fantasy and folklore elements. How did you decide which events to alter, and how does your timeline differ from reality?
I decided which events to alter and how to set up the timeline based on my main characters' personalities and narrative arcs. At the very beginning, I first crafted the characters, then chose plot arcs based on what would exploit their unique insecurities and weaknesses--essentially, the questions they are asking themselves over the course of the novel. From there, I developed the plot around these character arcs and consequential character decisions. Most of these plot choices involved fantasy elements and some folklore elements. As for the events that resembled history, often the connection is very indirect. This is because The Night Ends with Fire is inspired by both the Ballad of Mulan and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is a 14th-century Chinese classic written by Luo Guanzhong, about the Three Kingdoms period in China (220-280 AD). Through Night, I hoped to explore some of the themes also touched on in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such as the question of what makes a hero.
Meilin is not Mulan. She isn't fighting for honor, but to escape an abusive father and fiancé. The original poem and many adaptations place honor and duty at the center of her story. What role does her gender and the rigid patriarchal structure she grows up with play in her actions in the war?
There is a quote in the novel that illustrates Meilin's patriarchal culture: "The Tian word for slave is made of two characters: girl and hand. For the girl is the slave, and the hand is the means with which she serves." Because of this specific upbringing, Meilin learns from a young age that her ambition is a depravity, something not meant to exist in the hearts of women, who are born and raised to serve. As such, Meilin treats her desire for power like a sign of corruption, and tries to smother it, to hide it even from herself. Of course, she isn't quite successful, and many of her actions in the war are driven by this inner hunger or "greed," as she calls it. Through the character of Meilin, I wanted to explore the strained relationship women can have with ambition, and the resulting cost of acquiring power.
The Azure Dragon spirit, Qinglong, encourages that ambition, and Meilin eventually embraces her desire for power. What does this mean for her as a character?
Through the magic system, I wanted to explore the costs of acquiring power. In the book, while spirits can imbue humans with incredible strength and power, their magic does not come without a cost. In Meilin's case, because her desire for power grows over the course of the novel, so too does the cost she will have to pay. And yet, although the costs are great, this desire that Meilin possesses is what differentiates her from the crowd--what allows her to escape her terrible fate and survive in the first place. Rather than depict these themes in a binary, black-and-white way, I hoped to explore them through character arcs, and pose questions around them for the reader, leaving room for nuance and ambiguity.
The Night Ends with Fire is clearly different from Disney's 1998 adaptation Mulan, but it was difficult for this '90s kid not to imagine Prince Liu Sky as the handsome, kind, honor-driven Li Shang. Was this intentional?
Actually, Liu Sky is based on Liu Bei, one of the heroes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The character of Liu Bei is an upstanding, noble man who goes to great lengths to always do the right thing. I appreciated the juxtaposition in Romance of the Three Kingdoms between Liu Bei, this virtuous, classic hero archetype, and Cao Cao, who is Liu Bei's rival warlord and nemesis. Cao Cao is an antihero type; while Liu Bei is noble, Cao Cao is self-serving, pragmatic, and cunning. Cao Cao acts for his own gain, but his sharp intelligence and personal moral code earn him the respect of even his rivals and enemies. After reading the novel, you may find another character that reminds you of Cao Cao.
What are you reading?
I'm currently reading and loving The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon. I also just reread the Green Bone Saga by Fonda Lee, which is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. --Suzanne Krohn