My new work is here! You’re welcome to read it on Tomato Novel. I hope you enjoy it. Your support inspires me to write, and I’ll do my best to tell every story well!
Genre: History · Maritime Silk Road
Setting: Late Tang
The story in a nutshell: Against the broad historical backdrop of the late Tang, the daughter of a Guangzhou porcelain merchant and an Arab youth living in Guangzhou’s foreign quarter are drawn together by porcelain in a tragic love story.
Locations: Guangzhou, Tanzhou (the Tongguan Kiln in Changsha), and Xingzhou (the home of Xing white porcelain)
Inspiration: The 60,000 pieces of Tang dynasty porcelain recovered off Belitung Island, Indonesia, in 1998.
Bringing together the artistry of porcelain, the charms of Lingnan, the ups and downs of trade, and a love bound by life and death, the novel presents the broad context of Guangzhou as a major eastern port trading porcelain with foreign merchants from many lands, especially Arab traders, during the Tang dynasty. The marriage between two families, one Chinese and one foreign, unfolds into a richly layered story of commerce, porcelain, love, the sea, and eternity, imbued with regional character and an appreciation for craftsmanship. The title, Porcelain Love, hints at how porcelain reflects the changing times, the rise and fall of families, and the emotional lives of ordinary people. As the novel’s final passage puts it: “Porcelain endures a thousand trials in the kiln. Matter does not perish: it has survived in this world for fifteen hundred years. Yet the captain, sailors, and merchants who sailed on that ship, along with the clever, handsome young painter, have all turned to dust. Let these words serve as a record of the Arab merchants who traveled thousands of miles to China in search of wealth; the Chinese artisans devoted to porcelain; and the Chinese and foreign men and women devoted to love. Porcelain love means passionate love!”
