Mingmei Yip will talk about her own travels on the Silk Road, read from her new novel, Song of the Silk Road (Kensington Books), and demonstrate special Silk Road calligraphy.
The Silk Road was the ancient trading route connecting China to the Middle East and Europe all the way to Rome. As many academic books are written on this subject, there is very little in fiction. Its harsh deserts, immense distances, and exotic travelers have give rise to many romantic legends.
Mingmei Yip’s Song of the Silk Road is a contemporary love and adventure story set along this fabled route. With the prospect of a three million dollar reward, Lily Lin travels thousands of miles, even passing over the much-feared Taklamakan (Go-In-But-Never-Come-Out) Desert. Pursued by her young would-be lover, she also meets a blind fortune teller, a fake Buddhist monk, a Uyghurs herbalist, and even beings from the world of the dead, though her yin ghost-seeing eyes.
Mingmei Yip received her PhD in musicology from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) on a scholarship from the French Government. A master performer on the qin, she has given lectures and recitals at venues such as Columbia University, Oxford University, Beijing University, the University of Paris, Amsterdam University, Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the China Institute in New York.
Mingmei is also a writer, her literary career began at fourteen when her essay about art was published in a literary magazine. She has published fourteen books, with two on the qin. Her latest being her 7th novel The Witch’s Market (Kensington Books) which received a glowing review from the ew York Times and her 2nd children’s book Grandma Panda’s China Storybook (Tuttle Publishing, 2014) which she both wrote and illustrated. She wrote columns for seven major newspapers and has appeared on over 40 TV and radio programs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and the United States. Her poems were published and performed in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the U.S.
Mingmei is also accomplished as a painter and calligrapher. A one-person show of her paintings of Guan Yin (the Chinese Goddess of Compassion) and calligraphy was held at the New York Open Center Gallery in SoHo in 2002. This exhibit was the subject of a full hour special program on CHN cable in New Jersey
Mingmei was a professor of music in Hong Kong, and in 2005, an International Institute of Asian Studies fellow in Holland. She has taught qin playing and calligraphy at two major Hong Kong Universities.
