Kinta has a long history, having been settled since Neolithic times. As far back as the 1500s, the Portuguese noted that Perak paid its annual tributes in tin. During the 1700s, it was famous for its wild elephants, which were trapped and sold for the elephant armies of the Moghul emperors. The landscape is dominated by beautiful limestone hills, many of which are riddled with natural caves and underground rivers.
Ipoh, the largest city in Perak, was once known as the cleanest, neatest town in Malaysia. The center of commerce and prosperity that resulted from the tin boom, it’s famous for good food and many historic buildings. As this book is set in a fictionalized Ipoh, I’ve taken liberties with certain landmarks, like the Celestial Hotel, whose construction began in 1931 but opened later. Likewise, although Ipoh had several dance halls, the May Flower is a figment of my imagination, inspired by Bruce Lockhart’s account of a Chinese dance hall in Singapore in his memoir.1
BATU GAJAH DISTRICT HOSPITAL
Founded in 1884 on fifty-five hectares of land, the hospital is built in colonial style and laid out in a low gardenlike setting. The buildings have modernized since then, but a few of the original structures can still be seen. I took liberties with the layout of the hospital to add steps down the hill, a pathology storeroom, a cafeteria, etc., as well as the entirely fictitious hospital staff, imagining what it might have been like in 1931 based on old photographs of similar colonial hospitals and wards.
CHINESE NUMBER SUPERSTITIONS
Chinese have a great love of puns and homonyms. This fondness for wordplay, coupled with feng shui, has led to many superstitions around lucky numbers, lucky directions, and the orientation of buildings. There is the sense that by naming something, you imbue it with both positive and negative powers, and this is particularly true of numbers.
During the Hungry Ghost Festival, you’ll see quantities of paper goods fashioned for the dead, which are meant to be burned as offerings. Every detail is considered in these replicas, including the appropriate license plates and house numbers. A model of a car, for example, made of paper stretched over bamboo or reeds and intended to be burned, will likely have a license plate with a lot of fours in it to signify that it’s for the dead.
For the living, numbers that sound like lucky words are in great demand. Some people are willing to go to great lengths to secure lucky house numbers, license plates, and cell-phone numbers. The reverse is true, and sometimes a certain house number, like twenty-four or forty-two (which sounds like “you die” in both Chinese and Japanese), is worth avoiding in Asia simply because you may have a hard time reselling the property!
Interestingly, the number five is both lucky and unlucky, as it is a homophone for “negative/not.” So a lucky number eight, which sounds like “fortune” becomes less desirable in combination with five as fifty-eight sounds like “no fortune.” Similarly, an unlucky number can be flipped, so fifty-four sounds like “won’t die.”
ROMANIZATION OF NAMES
In keeping with the colonial era, I’ve used older variants of place names, for example, “Korinchi” and “Tientsin” rather than modern-day Kerinci and Tianjin. Chinese personal names at the time were phonetically spelled, often at the discretion of whoever the registry clerk was, and also varied by dialect. Cantonese was and still is the dominant Chinese dialect in the Ipoh area, though Hokkien, Hakka, Teochew, Hainanese, etc., are also spoken. Since Malaysia is a multicultural society, most people can speak a few languages, including Malay, English, and Tamil or a Chinese dialect. I have kept to a Straits Chinese spelling of personal names, such as Ji Lin and Shin, which would be Zhilian and Xin in modern-day pinyin. Traditionally, Chinese family names are given first, as in Chan Yew Cheung and Lee Shin.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of many people. Many, many thanks to:
Jenny Bent, my wonderful agent, who believed in this book (despite its getting longer and longer as I continued to write!), and championed it all the way to finding a home. Amy Einhorn and Caroline Bleeke, my amazing editors whose insight and support made this book blossom. Many thanks as well to Conor Mintzer, Liz Catalano, Vincent Stanley, Devan Norman, Helen Chin, Keith Hayes, Amelia Possanza, Nancy Trypuc, Molly Fonseca, and the rest of the Flatiron team.
Dear friends Sue and Danny Yee and Li Lian Tan, who have been with this book and all its characters since the beginning, were forced to read multiple iterations, and spent many long hours discussing alternate endings with me.
Readers Carmen Cham, Suelika Chial, Chuinru Choo, Beti Cung, Angela Martin, and Michelle Aileen Salazar whose thoughtful insights were invaluable. Kathy and Dr. Larry Kwan, for your steadfast friendship and medical input on the treatment of tropical wounds. Dato’ Goon Heng Wah, for his advice about shotguns used in British Malaya, as well as for estimating historic railway distances. I’m so very grateful for all of you!
My dear family who has supported me in all my writing endeavors, especially my parents whose reminiscences helped build the world of The Night Tiger. Also my children, who inspire me every day and help me see the world through a child’s eyes.
And to James. First reader and best critic. Without you, beloved, I would not write.
Ps: 50:10
Recommend
THE NIGHT TIGER
for your next book club!
Reading Group Guide available at
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Also by Yangsze Choo
The Ghost Bride
About the Author
Yangsze Choo is a Malaysian writer of Chinese descent. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Harvard, she worked as a management consultant before writing her New York Times bestselling debut novel, The Ghost Bride. She lives in California with her family and several chickens, and loves to eat and read (often at the same time). The Night Tiger would not have been possible without large quantities of dark chocolate.
Visit her online at yschoo.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE NIGHT TIGER. Copyright © 2019 by Yangsze Choo. All rights reserved. For information, address Flatiron Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.flatironbooks.com
Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa
Cover photograph © Shui Lun Chan / Qeelin Limited
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Names: Choo, Yangsze, author.
Title: The night tiger: a novel / Yangsze Choo.
Description: First Edition. | New York: Flatiron Books, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030163 | ISBN 9781250175458 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781250229175 (international, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability) | ISBN 9781250175441 (ebook)
Subjects: | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3603.H664 N54 2019 | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030163
eISBN 9781250175441
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First Edition: February 2019
First International Edition: February 2019
1 Bruce Lockhart, Return to Malaya (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1936).
Contents
Title Page
Copyright Not
ice
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Notes
Acknowledgments
Also by Yangsze Choo
About the Author
Copyright