Secret of a Thousand Beauties: A Novel

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Mingmei Yip will discuss her new novel, Secret of a Thousand Beauties, illustrated with slides showing masterpieces of Chinese embroidery rarely seen outside Chinese museums. Set against the vibrant and intrigue-laden backdrop of 1930s China, Mingmei Yip’s enthralling novel explores one woman’s defiant pursuit of independence. Dr. Yip will also discuss what women’s crafts reveal about the lives of women in traditional China. Readings and book signings will be included.

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Book Description

Spring Swallow was promised in marriage while still in her mother’s belly. When the groom dies before a wedding can take place, seventeen-year-old Spring Swallow is ordered to become a ghost bride to appease his spirit. Under her in-laws’ protection, she will be little more than a servant, unable to know real love or bear children. Refusing to accept her fate as a “bad-luck woman,” Spring Swallow flees on her wedding day.

In the city of Soochow, Spring Swallow joins a community of renowned embroiderers. The women work for Aunty Peony, whose exquisite stitching once earned her the Emperor’s love. But when Aunty Peony agrees to replicate a famous painting–a lucrative assignment that will take a year to complete–betrayal and jealousy emerges within the group. Spring Swallow becomes entangled in each woman’s story of heartbreak, even while she embarks on a dangerous affair with a young revolutionary. On a journey that leads from the remote hillsides around Soochow to cosmopolitan Peking, Spring Swallow draws on the secret techniques learned from Aunty Peony and her own indomitable strength, determined to forge a life that is truly her own.

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Author Bio

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.