8.2 /10 1 Votes8.2
Publication date January 2012 Originally published January 2012 Genre Literary fiction | 4.1/5 Goodreads Pages 448 pages ISBN 1905802498 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tan twan eng on the garden of evening mists
The Garden of Evening Mists, published in January 2012, is the second novel by Malaysian novelist Tan Twan Eng. (The first was The Gift of Rain (2007).) The protagonist of The Garden is the judge Teoh Yun Ling, who was a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II and later served as an apprentice to a Japanese gardener. As the story begins, she is trying to make sense of her life and experiences. The novel takes place during three different time periods: the late 1980s, when the main character writes down her story; the early 1950s, when the main action takes place; and World War II, which provides the backdrop for the story. Critical reception for the book was generally favourable. It was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize (2012) and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
Contents
- Tan twan eng on the garden of evening mists
- Synopsis
- Main characters
- Themes
- Critical reception
- Film adaptation
- References
Tan twan eng on the garden of evening mists
Synopsis
Newly retired Supreme Court Judge Teoh Yun Ling returns to the Cameron Highlands of Malaya, where she had spent a few months several years earlier. Oncoming aphasia is forcing her to deal with unsettled business from her youth while she is still able to remember. She starts writing her memoir and agrees to meet with Japanese professor Yoshikawa Tatsuji. Tatsuji is interested in the life and works of artist Nakamura Aritomo, who used to be the Japanese Emperor's gardener but moved to this area to build his own garden.
During the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Yun Ling was in a Japanese civilian internment camp with her sister, Yun Hong. Yun Hong did not make it out alive, and after the war was over, Yun Ling decided to fulfil a promise made to her sister: to build a Japanese garden in their home in Kuala Lumpur. She travelled to the highlands to visit family friend Magnus Pretorius, an ex-patriate South African tea farmer who knew Aritomo. Aritomo refused to work for Yun Ling but agreed to take her on as an apprentice, so she could later build her own garden. Despite her resentment against the Japanese, Yun Ling agreed to work for Aritomo and later became his lover.
During the conversations with Tatsuji, it comes out that Aritomo was involved in a covert Japanese program during the war, to hide looted treasures from occupied territories. The rumours of this so-called "Golden Lily" program were widespread, and Magnus was killed trying to save his family from the Communist guerillas who came looking for the gold.
Aritomo never talked about the treasure to Yun Ling, but gradually it becomes clear that he might have left a clue to its location. Before he disappeared into the jungle, he made a horimono tattoo on her back. It now appears this tattoo might contain a map to the location of the treasure. Yun Ling decides that, before she dies, she must ensure that no one will be able to get their hands on her body or the map. In the meantime, she sets out to restore Aritomo's dilapidated garden.
Main characters
Themes
Taking place over three different periods of time, the novel deals with a number of historical issues. The Japanese occupation of Malaya is the backdrop for the earlier story, while the central narrative of Yun Ling and Aritomo's relationship plays out against the backdrop of the post-war Malayan Emergency. Finally, as Yun Ling narrates the story, we are in the age of independent Malaysia. The various characters represent different attitudes towards colonialism; Yun Ling – a Straits Chinese – downplays the importance of nationality: "Old countries are dying...and new ones being born. It doesn't matter where one's ancestors came from." (ch. 5) Magnus, meanwhile, carries memories from South Africa under British rule. His sister died in a concentration camp, where he suspects she was murdered by the British. (ch. 4) Tatsuji carries post-colonial guilt for the actions of his nation during the war, and tries to apologise to Yun Ling, but she replies that "[y]our apology is meaningless." (ch. 13)
A central theme in the novel is the role of memory in human existence, and the relationship between memory and forgetting. The book opens with a quote from historian Richard Holmes: while the ancient Greek had a goddess for memory, Mnemosyne, there was none for forgetting. "Yet there should be, as they are twin sisters..." (ch. 1) One reviewer highlighted the role of the dead sister in the story: "Yun Ling's independent spirit and her anger seep like ink-stains into the narrative, but its distilled essence is a quieter appraisal of the dichotomy of memory, its treacherous failures, its cruel conveniences, its fadeout and deliverance." Memory is also strongly tied to guilt, particularly survivor guilt, Yun Ling wonders "[w]hy did she survive and her sister perish?".
Critical reception
Critical reviews of The Garden of Evening Mists were mostly favourable. The Independent's Boyd Tonkin wrote that "Tan writes with breath-catching poise and grace." He appreciated the combination of "action-packed, end-of-empire storytelling" and Tan's effort to "capture stillness on paper". Meanwhile, Dominique Browning, writing for The Daily Telegraph, described Aritomo as "a fascinating character", and found the book "a strong, quiet novel". Manasi Subramaniam of the Asian Review of Books found the ending "incredibly satisfying", and commented on the writing's "lush beauty and artistry of a Japanese garden". Among the novel's few negative reviews, The Guardian's Kapka Kassabova wrote that "[i]t is impossible to resist the opening sentence" of the novel: "On a mountain above the clouds once lived a man who had been the gardener of the Emperor of Japan." Yet Kassabova "found [the novel] impossible to love" because of "the quality of the writing." She found "no discernible personality in the dutiful, dull voice of Yun Ling", and the novel's overall effect "one of surprising blandness".
On 25 July 2012, the book was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and on 11 September it was shortlisted.
On 14 March 2013, it won the Man Asian Literary Prize.
On 14 June 2013, it won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.
It was one of eight finalists for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (2014).
Film adaptation
In October 2014, it was announced that The Garden of Evening Mists would be adapted into a feature-length film by Malaysian film production company Astro Shaw in collaboration with HBO Asia. There were rumours that Michelle Yeoh had been tipped to play protagonist Teoh Yun Ling in its early stages due to her interest in the book, according to an interview with Yeoh in Vogue Italia. The screenplay was written by playwright Huzir Sulaiman, who had been known for his work in Dain Iskandar Said's yet-to-be-released controversial film Dukun.