Reading Diary: Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amelie Wen Zhao

Here is a synopsis from the author's website:

In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to discovering the secrets of her nation’s past – and unleashing the demons that sleep at its heart. An epic fantasy series inspired by the mythology and folklore of ancient China.


Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic.


She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died.


No one can see the mysterious mark – an untranslatable Hin character – except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse and saves her life.


Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumored to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.


When Zen comes across Lan’s unusual qi, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it – but he knows: if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.


Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.

Okay, I tore through this book in about a week. The plot and pacing were engaging. Shelley Parker-Chan blurbed the book as perfect for fans of The Untamed, and I agree. The story is set in an alternate history version of China, one that has been brutally colonized by a European-analogous people called Elantians. At first, I got a bit distracted as I tried to figure out what bits of Zhao's story corresponded to what bits of the real, historical China. The book opens in the city of Haak'gong, the counterpart to Hong Kong; the Hin people are the counterparts of the Han Chinese. There are two larger conflicts framing the story. First is the conflict between the Hin and the Elantians. Under that, there is a conflict of the apparent eradication of the Ninety Nine Clans, meant to represent the ethnic minorities in China. Through Lan's point of view, we learn that the Hin Emperors rewrote history to present themselves and Hin culture as the best culture, the uniform force bringing peace and prosperity to the country. Lan has no reason to really question this narrative in the beginning of the story, partly because she was only six when the Elantians invaded and killed her mother, so her formal education stopped, and partly because she is really just focused on surviving after having lost everything. However, as she escapes Haak'gong and flees from Elantian magicians, she also meets people from various clans, including Zen, the other protagonist, whose clan reminded me of Mongolians. (Here I admit that my knowledge of Chinese history is VERY limited, and though it's growing, it is still VERY weak, so I could be wrong about Zen's intended counterpoint.)

As I read, I was reminded of discussions I've seen about racism in popular Chinese media, particularly doctorskuld 's informative and interesting post on Ethnonationalism in Mysterious Lotus Casebook. I also came across a very negative review of the book by Goodreads user Moon Reads, which criticized the racism and ethnonationalism in the book (as well as racism in Zhao's other books, although I can't speak to that as I've not read them). The reviewer writes, "[Zhao’s] moved into discriminating the indigenous people of her continent and disabled people (see other reviews for her terrible language against a character born with a cleft palate)."

I disagree with the review with regards to assigning intent to discriminate or uphold stereotypes to Zhao. While there is discriminatory language in the book, including derogatory language to the character with the cleft palate, within the context of the story, Lan (and through her, the reader) begins to interrogate this worldview. Lan acknowledges the way that people with disabilities have been treated and that she believes it to be wrong. I didn't see the inclusion of this character and the way he was described as upholding the negative stereotype and view. Admittedly, the narrative's nascent interrogation of ethnonationalism and racism is not particularly deep, but Lan's also literally trying to survive being slaughtered by the invading Elantian armies. However, by the end of the book, she has two goals: to eradicate the Elantians and to then find a way to begin healing the wrongs perpetrated by the Hins. Lan understands that the way forward for the country, after ousting the Elantians, is to avoid the mistakes of the Hin emperors and instead embrace the diversity represented by the various clans and schools of "magic."

The main supporting characters in the book are practitioners from various clans who managed to survive by hiding, but never forgetting their clan heritage. They live in the last school of magic study, in a group that sort of reminded me of the way the tribes in Avatar: The Last Airbender tried to come together. The various masters of the arts taught in the school represent some of the clans of the country. Under the Hin emperors, the practitioners were cut down and brought under their control before the Elantians invaded, and Lan comes to see this as the grave injustice that it is. But this also doesn't mean the Hins deserved to be slaughtered by the Elantians, so first, Lan and the practitioners who survive the book must deal with them before they can rebuild their home, and I never got the impression that that meant simply reinstating the Hin emperors and a homogeneous way of life.

Now, this book has a sequel, Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White, which was just published. I have a few other books I need to read before I can read this sequel, so I can't say yet whether Zhao sticks the landing. I do think it's worth critiquing the language and the presentation of ethnic stereotypes, but I didn't find it to be as egregious as some of the negative reviews that I read made it out to be. But I'd be interested to know what you, my friends, think if you read this.