Love Can't Save You: Spiral Structure and the Lasting Wounds of Colonialism
One of the things I love most in a book is complicated female characters who make impossibly hard choices out of their own moral convictions even as the world turns on them for doing so. More favorite things? Books with structures that reflect the theme. Precise, evocative language. A keen eye for the details that matter. Thoughtful and insightful political and social commentary that goes beyond replaying war games.
The Witch Who Chases the Sun by Dawn Chen is going straight to my favorites shelf once my print copy arrives, and I'm delighted to have Dawn join me for the first Writers Chat Deep Craft interview.
LZ: The Witch Who Chases the Sun makes excellent use of symbolism and reference without overwhelming the story or the characters' journey. I think we could write an entire essay on the use of the barberry in this novel–it's such a small detail, but it becomes a major through-line and symbol. It's tricky to discuss without revealing spoilers, but I see it as a key piece of the anti-colonialism theme. How did you choose the plant? And how did it root itself in the story?
DC: I choose barberry for a simple and petty reason. It sounds almost like "barbarian", and that's what I want to give Anne as a last name because her family, without spoilers, are wolves who hide behind sheep's clothing. The word barbarian is used to describe and dehumanize the colonized, compared to the "civilized" society of the colonizer. But after I looked into the plant, it actually is just really fascinating as well. It is also aesthetically similar to like other plants with long branches and red fruit Chinese ppl put in jars during Chinese New Year festival, although those are not barberries but a variety of different plants. But I wanted to have a plant that has a name that sounds aggressive to imply its almost invasive nature. Again no spoilers but since you read the story you know the significance of the barberry plant.
LZ: One of the things I particularly loved about the book was its structure–TWWCTS develops in spirals, with certain events and eras of the characters' lives revealed in ever-widening ripples. It's such a wise choice for a book about healing generational trauma and anti-colonialism as characters struggle to avoid repeating the past as they find ways through it. I'm curious how you developed this, if it was a conscious decision early on or if it grew out of the writing process?
DC: I think the most important thing to talk about is that TWWCTS is not a story about healing generational trauma, it is very much the opposite, about the impossibility of healing for the colonized and survivors of colonization through generations even after the colonization has ended. The way it develops in spirals is always part of the story because the story is about diving into the past to inform the present. It also has a lot to do with Anne as an Oracle, someone who sees the past/present/future all at once. It is also a way to showcase how the trauma of the colonial war messes with one's decision making process, even after there is peace and the potential of healing, and even if there is true love with someone you survived the war with, it still isn't enough–because love isn't always going to heal everything that is the damage done by colonial wars.
The way it develops in spirals is always part of the story because the story is about diving into the past to inform the present.
LZ: TWWCTS uses Chinese and Western European storytelling techniques, blending them to great effect–were there parts of the story where this was easier or harder to do? Elements where you favored one approach over the other? Are there works that influenced the way you told this story specifically?
DC: I think the easiest part is to kind of establish a dynamic between the difference of how the type of magic is seen in Chinese and Western European society and history and myth. Anne's Oracle power is said to be blessed by a Creator that is akin to God. Cai-Li is, on the other hand, a Chinese alchemist who in Chinese myth is also a descendant of the flaming raven that is the sun. Her magic which takes the form of alchemy is something rooted in Chinese history, her family name 赢 Ying is from Ying Zheng, the Qin founding Emperor who is closely linked to the pursuit of alchemy. There is also Cole, who is the embodiment of the idea in Chinese myth and belief that all things possess a spirit and possibility of cultivating into human level of consciousness (aka no matter if it's trees, rocks or animals), and Cole is half from the Yamalan clan that are a clan of people who were mountain snow that after thousands of years of cultivation gained human level of consciousness.
What is the hardest part is reckoning how much I am going to actually mix in both magic system and belief system to make them co-exist but also interact. I think this again relates back to this being an anti-colonial text because yes there is a mix of Western European inspiration as well as Chinese ones. But because this is told by me, a Chinese person, the Western European magic system inherently showcased in light of how it is used like Christianity is used by colonizers like the British Empire as almost a Divine Justification for their brutal colonization of half of the world.
You can actually see this most in the character of Ark Li, the Aixauhan pirate captain who is also an alchemist who plays a crucial role. Her inspiration comes from Zheng Yi Sao, someone who existed during a time of western colonization of China in around Guangdong/Canton. Without spoiling much, but like in history how the British empire colonized China because they wanted tea and porcelain for trade but China did not need anything from them. To justify the opium war, the British at Canton printed a lot of press saying they are freeing the Chinese people from the tyranny of…Chinese people, in the name of Christianity. And Ark Li, as someone who is older than the main cast, grew up before the colonization started and in her narrative there is a hint of her almost being attracted to the idea of Christianity (also implied by the nickname Ark as in Noah's Ark) where she thought it could be her religion before it was used by the colonizer to absolutely devastate her country.
So I guess that is something that is the hardest to write and pitch because people love to hear about Chinese inspired myth mix with West European inspired myth but they seldom feel comfortable when I point out that to have the two magic system meet, there will necessarily come a dynamic that mirrors how the relationship between colonizer and the colonized at play. And it isn't just going to be aesthetics, it is reflecting historical context of colonization.
LZ: This is a really important point: it is incredibly difficult to get white/Western European readers to recognize that colonialism and its horrors are so deeply embedded in our lives at all scales–individual, communal, societal–and that we are still harmed *and causing further harm* under that system.
TWWCTS is relentless in reflecting this, in showing the rage and despair and agony characters are faced with as they struggle against the impossibility of healing for themselves and each other. There are twists in the story, but they are twists in what the reader knows, and they grow out of the spiral nature of the story structure; the characters already know so much more than the reader does.
True love can't solve anything, and the queer found family the characters build splits apart and reunites in cycles. They do tremendous harm to one another, but also continue to try to honor their bonds. The love between them isn't bigger than the challenges they face or the heartbreak or the damage done on either personal or societal scales. And yet, the book is not without hope. They are no less devoted to one another. Found family doesn't mean you win; it means you have loved ones to lose with. And that matters.
As a reader, I could see the larger scope of the story and the impossibility of success, but also I was invested in Cai-Li and Anne as people and as powerful magicians. It adds a tension for the reader that reflects the tensions between characters; we know they can't win, but we desperately want them to.
I think TWWCTS uses that to great effect.
This makes me think about managing reader expectations as an author, and how we often have to decide what story we want to tell even if it clashes with preconceived ideas that readers will bring to it. Were there other elements of the book where this came up for you?
DC: I think the most interesting part is actually what I anticipated would be challenging for the reader vs. what ended up being challenging. This is from the feedback I have gotten from ARC readers who shared their reviews with me and what seems to be the most difficult part is either the length of the story, or the spiral structure of the story (aka the way that flashbacks intertwine with current timeline). For me, I am telling the story from the perspective of the characters who are in the current timeline where I know all the answers, while the nature (esp Part 1 of the story), is essentially building character motivation while also maintaining the mystery aspect of the story.
This makes the story more character focused but also takes longer for readers who get into the story with a considerable period of confusion. I try to make the confusion to be rewarding as the storyteller who unveils the story as the major twists happen that puts the story into perspective, but whether or not it is worth the confusion depends on the reader, as in that in the end it is the reader's experience of a book that I think reflects the true effectiveness of a story, which is to say if the reader feels like the story I am telling using this format is rewarding enough that the book does not just satisfy them emotionally, but maybe even have re-reading value as one understands the story hidden underneath the storytelling is one that they embrace to engage with the material repeatedly.
And I cannot say if I succeeded or not as again, the feedback is mixed. But I feel like I have done what I intended to do, and after the book is published then there will be more readers who can testify to if it works or not. I don't want to pretend I can speak for them, so I can only recite what I was told by them. Because I think a story that is told by an author stops being the author's story and begins to be that of the reader once it is put into the world.
About THE WITCH WHO CHASES THE SUN:
Sometimes, true love is not the answer.
A decade after the Second War, Aixauhan Alchemist Ying Cai-Li seeks to rekindle her relationship with her ex-lover, the Inabrian Oracle Anne Barberry.
However, the war changed them both. Estranged by their losses, Cai-Li has gained a notorious reputation as the dark magic-wielding Blood Hawk and Anne barricades herself in a castle on a hill where her family’s dark secrets lie. Rumors in the village say Anne is a monster, responsible for the disappearance of innocent visitors.
But when the two witches reunite and begin unraveling the mysteries of the village, it becomes clear that scars left by the war do not easily fade. Things are not as they seem. Old ghosts come back to haunt them. Past truths are revealed. Can the witches be each other’s salvations or are they doomed to repeat the past that tore them apart?
Fans of The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon will fall in love with Dawn Chen’s sapphic high fantasy epic about anti-colonialism, grief, generational trauma, and the cycles of war.
The book releases September 30; preorders are open through publisher Contrarian Press.