Mingmei Yip - The Nine Fold Heaven

Looking around at my little family, I remembered something else the fortune-teller told me, that beauty always fades, but:

But my favorite of all was the line from Chinese Classic of Poetry :

I steal a secret look at my husband and catch him looking at me.

The questions and discussion topics that follow are intended to enhance your group’s reading of this book.

1.Why did Camilla risk her life to go back to Shanghai, the city she’d just escaped from?

2.What is the significance of the episode of the falling toddler?

3.Why did Camilla start an affair with the American Consul General Edward Miller?

4.At first, Camilla tries to ignore the little blind girl Peiling, but later desperately tries to find her. Why?

5.There are many journeys, both external and internal, in Camilla’s life. Which are most important?

6.What is the role of fortune-telling in this novel?

7.What do you think about Camilla’s multiple relationships with men—General Edward Miller, the gangster head’s son Lung Jinying, and the bodyguard Gao?

8.What would it be like to have a husband like Gao the bodyguard?

9.Is it possible for a woman to love more than one man at the same time?

10.Are Camilla and her magician partner Shadow friends, enemies, or both?

11.How does Camilla use her charm and cunning to escape from the many dangers she faces?

12.Do you think that the staff at Compassionate Grace Orphanage are compassionate?

Mingmei Yipwas born in China, Hong Kong, received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and held faculty appointments at the Chinese University and Baptist University in Hong Kong. She’s published five books in Chinese, written several columns for seven major Hong Kong newspapers, and has appeared on over sixty TV and radio programs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, and the United States. She immigrated to the United States in 1992, where she now lives in New York City. Mingmei is also a children’s book author and illustrator. Her two children’s books are Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories and Grandma Panda’s China Storybook .

Please visit her on the Web at mingmeiyip.com

Once upon a time in China, the most beautiful and gifted women were known as “skeleton women”—the ultimate femme fatales who could bring a man to his knees, or to his doom….

When Camilla, a young orphan girl in Shanghai, is adopted and brought to live in luxury, it seems like a stroke of luck. But as Camilla grows to womanhood, she realizes that her “rescue” was part of gang leader Big Brother Wang’s scheme. Camilla is trained in singing, dancing, knife-throwing, and contortion—all to attract the attention of Wang’s enemy, the ruthless Master Lung.

Forced to become Master Lung’s mistress, Camilla meets two other intriguing women. Shadow is a magician and rival for Master Lung’s affections, while Rainbow Chang dresses like a man and wields power through her incendiary gossip column. Both pose risks to Camilla’s safety and status. But an even greater danger comes in the form of Master Lung’s eldest son, Jinying, who despises his father’s violent lifestyle—but loves Camilla. Only by plotting to eliminate Lung can she make her escape, but at what cost?

Mingmei Yip, author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Song of the Silk Road, has created a captivating story filled with intrigue and opulence, peopled with extraordinary characters impossible to forget.

In a sunny California apartment, a young woman and her fiancé arrive to record her great-grandmother’s story. The story that unfolds of Precious Orchid’s life in China, where she rises from a childhood of shame to become one of the most successful courtesans in the land, is unlike any they’ve heard before….

When Precious Orchid’s father is falsely accused of a crime and found guilty, he is executed, leaving his family a legacy of dishonor. Her mother’s only option is to enter a Buddhist nunnery, so she gives her daughter over to the care of her sister in Shanghai.

At first, life at Peach Blossom Pavilion feels like a dream. Surrounded by exotic flowers, murmuring fountains, colorful fishponds, and bamboo groves, Precious Orchid sees herself thriving. She is schooled in music, literature, painting, calligraphy, and to her innocent surprise, the art of pleasuring men. For the beautiful Pavilion hides its darker purpose as an elite house of prostitution. And even as she commands the devotion of China’s most powerful men, Precious Orchid never gives up on her dream to escape the Pavilion, be reunited with her mother, avenge her father’s death, and find true love. And as the richest, most celebrated Ming Ji or “prestigious courtesan” in all of China, she just might have her way even if it comes with a devastating price….

Sweeping in scope and stunning in its evocation of China, Peach Blossom Pavilion is a remarkable novel with an unforgettable heroine at the heart of its powerful story….

From the acclaimed author of Peach Blossom Pavilion comes a lush and lyrical novel of East and West—and of one young woman’s search for her heart’s true calling…

When twenty-year-old Meng Ning declares that she wants to be a Buddhist nun, her mother is aghast. In her eyes, a nun’s life means only deprivation—“no freedom, no love, no meat.” But to Meng Ning, it means the chance to control her own destiny, and to live in an oasis of music, art, and poetry far from her parents’ unhappy union.

With an enigmatic nun known as Yi Kong, “Depending on Emptiness,” as her mentor, Meng Ning spends the next ten years studying abroad, disdaining men, and preparing to enter the nunnery. Then a fire breaks out at her Buddhist retreat, and Meng Ning is carried to safety by Michael Fuller, a young American doctor. The unprecedented physical contact stirs her curiosity. And as their tentative friendship grows intimate, Meng Ning realizes she must choose between the sensual and the spiritual life.

From the austere beauty of China’s Buddhist temples to the whirlwind of Manhattan’s social elite, and the brilliant bustle of Paris and Hong Kong, here is a novel of joy and heartbreak—and of the surprising paths that lead us where we most need to be.

In this richly imaginative novel, Mingmei Yip—author of Peach Blossom Pavilion and Petals from the Sky —follows one woman’s daunting journey along China’s fabled Silk Road.