I just happened into the 228 Memorial Museum in Taipei one day and I could not forget what I learned there. SYR: The novel started with my discovery of the 228 Massacre, because I didn’t hear of it until I was twenty-one, when I was living in Taiwan after graduating from Cal. Why were you drawn to this particular time and place? Did you always know that it was going to be from the perspective of a girl who was born on 228? I try to envision the people as if I’ve encountered them and heard them and watched them breathe.Īmanda Su: I’m also curious about how the idea for the novel occurred to you, which pieces of it fell into place first for you. I can’t write a scene until it’s fixed in my mind like a memory, so I imagine I’m recounting what I’ve seen and experienced. Do you look at what you’ve done and add touches to bring the character alive, or does it not work in that self-conscious way? Robert Hass: The characters in Green Island, even the minor ones, are intensely vivid, a quality I associate with Tolstoy.

Recently, Professor Robert Hass and graduate student Amanda Su sat down with Ryan to discuss her writing process, her time at Cal, and the mentors and authors that have shaped her craft. Earlier last year, alumni and author Shawna Yang Ryan (’98) published her second novel, Green Island, an exploration of immigration and 1940’s authoritarian rule in China through the narrative of one girl force to flee with her family to California after the The February 28 Incident in Taiwan.

Water Ghosts by Shawna Yang Ryan