Strangers - Bibliography
and some (but not all) of the references...
My book is out now! You can buy it! And when you’re done buying, reading, absorbing, doing whatever you need or want to do with that good good paperback, come back and read this bibliography! There are annotations, asides, there’s improper use of MLA, there’s barely contained opinions, admissions that I messed up the timeline, and of course there’s more links than you can shake a stick at.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Works Cited
Bellis, David. “Old Hong Kong.” Gwulo, https://gwulo.com. Accessed 2021.
This website is devoted to Old Hong Kong, mainly via over 30,000 photographs. Helpful for details on Yukying's Hong Kong. Had very helpful advertisements that helped me glean things about the era like that there were daily direct flights from Hong Kong to Europe via Air France.
Chan, Chris. “Strike! A Reminder of Past Labour Militancy in Hong Kong.” Harbour Times, 14 June 2013, https://archive.ph/20131013122201/http://harbourtimes.com/openpublish/article/strike-reminder-past-labour-militancy-hong-kong. Accessed 2021.
Cole, Matthew. “‘The Greatest Cause on Earth’ The Historical Formation of Veganism as an Ethical Practice.” The Rise of Critical Animal Studies: From the Margins to the Centre, Routledge, 2015.
Used to help inform Mei Jinzhao's veganism and general values system. From 1948 on, The Vegan Society’s quarterly publication The Vegan' s front page read: "Advocating living without exploitation", and in 1951, the Vegan Society published its definition of veganism as "the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals." Mei Jinzhao 100% subscribes to this publication, pays extra to have it mailed to Hong Kong once he moves there, and lets all his students borrow his back issues since access is very limited outside Europe.
Another fire quote from Donald Watson, co-founder of The Vegan Society: “The vegan considers the abolition of the slaughter-house as a reform of the first importance in the reconstruction of human society, for so long as it remains society has no morality. [...] Once [we] accept that the strong have the right to exploit the weak, [...then] the basis upon which decent society can be built is destroyed.”
Confucius, et al. The Ethics of Confucius. 1915, Sacred Texts, https://sacred-texts.com/cfu/eoc/eoc12.htm, Accessed 2021.
Cooke, Julia. “The Seaside Portuguese Town That Inspired James Bond.” Saveur, 11 Apr. 2016, www.saveur.com/from-estoril-with-love/.
Evans, Sam. “Hong Kong in the 1960s: A Look Back in Time through Photographs.” Time Out Hong Kong, 26 Apr. 2020, https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/big-smog/the-1960s-a-decade-that-changed-hong-kong.
Foster-Simons, Frances. “The Development of Inheritance Law in the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.” The American Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 33, no. 1, winter 1985, pp. 33–62.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique ; Introd. by Anna Quindlen. W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
I was incredibly pleased to discover this was published in February of 1963, and would have been a sensation on this cruise in June '63.
Goodden, Joe. “John Lennon and Brian Epstein Holiday in Barcelona, Spain.” The Beatles Bible, 2011, https://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/04/28/john-lennon-and-brian-epstein-holiday-in-barcelona-spain/. Accessed 2021.
A quote from John Lennon: "It was my first experience with a homosexual that I was conscious was homosexual. He had admitted it to me. We had this holiday together because Cyn was pregnant, and I went to Spain and there were lots of funny stories. We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I’d say, ‘Do you like that one, do you like this one?’"
“Guns (with Silencers) of the Cold War Era of the 1960’s.” The High Road, The High Road, 18 Jan. 2008, www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads%2Fguns-with-silencers-of-the-cold-war-era-of-the-1960s.327192%2F.
Most guns were already illegal in Europe at this time. The exception was hunting rifles. In America, buying a silencer even for hunting is perceived as very suspicious (like, why are you buying them? why do you need this? sus), but in Europe their hunting culture loves silencers and it isn't sus at all. Criminals and spies took advantage of this cultural difference.
Horgan, Rob. “How La Nogalera Came to Be Torremolinos’ Gay Hot-Spot.” Olive Press News, 27 July 2015, https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2015/07/27/how-la-nogalera-came-to-be-torremolinos-gay-hot-spot/
Jones, Meghan. “8 Things You’ll Never See in Hotels Again.” Reader’s Digest, 12 Feb. 2020, www.rd.com/list/things-youll-never-see-in-hotels-again/.
Knusel, Ariane. “Swiss Counterintelligence and Chinese Espionage during the Cold War.” Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 22, no. 3, summer 2020.
One of the top most influential sources for this book. Almost all Wu Tinseng's spycraft is taken from this article.
Maitan, Livio. “Problems And Prospects Of Our Time In the Mirror of the Sino-Soviet Polemics.” Fourth International, vol. 11, 1960, pp. 11–20.
This article heavily influenced Li Xifeng's entire plotline. I pulled Khrushchev's quote from here too. I wish I could have worked this quote in: “The Chinese Communists did not reject the theses of the XXth Congress on war and peaceful coexistence. But they laid the stress in a completely different way. They insisted on the idea that war is part of capitalism’s nature, that imperialism has not changed and cannot change its nature, and that, as long as capitalism exists, war remains possible.” [jim halpert stare]
Mao, Zedong. “On Practice.” 1937.
A lecture/essay that highly influenced this work, especially chapter 13: "Whoever wants to know a thing has no way of doing so except by coming into contact with it, that is, by living (practicing) in its environment. [...] If you want to know a certain thing or a certain class of things directly, you must personally participate in the practical struggle to change reality, to change that thing or class of things, for only thus can you come into contact with them as phenomena; only through personal participation in the practical struggle to change reality can you uncover the essence of that thing or class of things and comprehend them. This is the path to knowledge which every man actually travels, though some people, deliberately distorting matters, argue to the contrary."
Mao, Zedong. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung. Library of Congress, NLS/BPH, 1980.
This is more commonly known as "The Little Red Book." It wasn't technically produced until 1964, but I chose quotes from 1963 or earlier. These quotes are sprinkled liberally throughout the book.
Mather, Richard. Shih-Shuo Hsin-Yü: A New Account of Tales of the World. Second Edition ed., University of Michigan Press, 2002.
The name Shan Dao comes from this book. In this English translation, it's spelled Shan T'ao, and probably also would have been spelled that way in the West during the time this takes place, but my beta editor thought that Dao was better for the modern reader. The book itself is a collection of anecdotes and sayings from China's 2nd-4th centuries, which influenced this entire work.
Nagatomi, Hirayama. “‘Young China’ in Europe: the lives and politics of the May Fourth youth in France, 1919–23.” Historical Research, vol. 91, no. 252, May 2018, pp. 353–374, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12223.
Cai Hesen's reasons for traveling to France (“to understand the ultimate goals of human beings, to break apart the numerous constraints of the world, and to realize the nature, status, and responsibilities of freedom”) came from this article, as did Tinseng's musings about how he fit into the legacy of Chinese men traveling to France.
O’Shea, Siobhan. “During WWII, Women Drew on Nylon Stockings with Gravy Juice.” Interesly, 15 May 2018, www.interesly.com/nylon-stockings-gravy-juice/.
I actually already knew this fact from Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear books, but I wanted a source for it. (A joke from the WWII era: what's a wife more afraid of finding on her man than lipstick on his collar? Leg paint on his back.)
Stevens, Peter. “RMS Caronia Timeline.” RMS Caronia, www.caronia2.info/home.php. Accessed 10 Feb. 2021.
This website is devoted to a single cruise ship's entire history. God, I love the internet. I took so many ship details from this site: the food served, the decor, the activities aboard, the tourist sites recommended at each port. Above all, this site helped me craft my timeline. I wrote a thank you to Mr. Stevens, but truly this work would be much poorer without his passion for the RMS Caronia.
Vittachi, Nury. “HSBC’s Rainbow Lions: Can We Have Our Homophobia Back Please?” Hong Kong Free Press, 7 Dec. 2016, https://hongkongfp.com/2016/12/07/hsbcs-rainbow-lions-can-homophobia-back-please/. Accessed 2021.
A very helpful article from a Hong Konger in understanding the history of homophobia in Asia, both home-grown and imported from Western Christianity.
Vogue Knitting, Fall-Winter 1961.
My editor left me a note saying "did you mean she's sewing a dress?" No, ma'am, I meant she was knitting one. This time capsule was instrumental in getting into Yukying’s mindset as a 60s socialite.
Wan, Marco. “The Invention of Tradition: Same-sex Marriage and Its Discontents in Hong Kong.” International Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 18, no. 2, July 2020, pp. 539–562.
The Workbasket: Home and Needlecraft for Pleasure and Profit, Oct. 1963.
I found this at my husband's father's house while we were cleaning out his papers. It was kismet. This magazine published letters from readers and helped invaluably in the sewing circle conversations.
Xu, Guoqi. Strangers on the Western Front: Chinese Workers in the Great War. Harvard University Press, 2011.
This book was invaluable for multiple reasons: how the French viewed Chinese immigrants, how classism and intellectualism played out within the Chinese ranks during WWII (the echoes of which play out in Laurence's classism), and giving me some incredible quotes from workers of the era, some of which sadly didn't make the final cut.
A Non-Exhaustive List Of Poems/Songs/Stories/History Referenced
All the music references found here
Marissa’s plot is a deliberate homage to The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverson
Ode to the Plum Blossom, the poem Tinseng and Jinzhao argued about
“They should send you to Saigon. The Buddhists and Catholics would have come to an agreement weeks ago…”
“Did the Rosenbergs get justice? Given the death sentence by their country without a second thought, even with their own citizens protesting in the streets.”
“There is no such thing as the State and no one exists alone. We must love one another or die.”
“Like Gorky says,” the friend proclaimed at dinner, “exterminate all the homosexuals, and fascism will vanish.”
“The crew is trying to keep it from getting out, it reflects poorly on them of course, but isn’t it exciting? Like ‘The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle!’”
He was on his own side with Jinzhao, whose voice whispered in his mind: He who attains to sincerity chooses the good and firmly holds it fast.
"I’m composed of Eros and dust, and show an affirming flame."
Oh no, Tinseng thought, but there is Heaven—it knows me!
By nature men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.
Have you ever seen Fu Baoshi’s Goddess of the Xiang River? There’s this fan . . . well, it isn’t important.
“Hey, Jinzhao, if I threw green plums at you from my toy horse and
then left for years, would you wait for me?”
“No sitting in these empty woods, silent mind sounding the borders
of idleness? Okay, okay, no agrarian idyll for us.”
“The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”
From his jacket, Tinseng pulled Journal meiner Reise im Jahr 1769.
And Finally…
Cheuk-Kwan rolled his eyes. “Fine. Okay. The Mei who came in from the cold, is that it?”
This line is an explicit reference to John le Carré's The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, the novel that changed spy fiction forever. Not only did it introduce spy language we still use today, but it dared to say that the West and East were more similar than different. It had a defeatist attitude towards the Cold War, was an indictment of espionage as morally compromised, and its unhappy ending was a slap in the face to Fleming's Bond romps. This realism earned the book bad reviews and earned le Carré extreme animosity from his fellows (former spies, government officials, and the British busybody public would confront him about it for years after).
It’s the book that most influenced this work. le Carré had the bravery to say that the Cold War was not a simple morality play of Good vs. Evil, because at the time few popular writers were saying such (Fourth International was, but who read that?). Now, in a time where we’re overexposed to bleak defeatism, where every villain is exhaustingly pardoned through “shades of gray” and whataboutism, I wanted to have the bravery to say… whatever the hell I’m saying here. That hope matters. That love changes the story. That there is good, and there is evil, and that we know it when we see it. And we fight for the good. Or, we should, anyway.
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold was technically released in September 1963. But I wanted this reference too much for reality's timeline. So I ignored that reality and substituted my own. I’m sure you understand.