As a foreign correspondent for Time magazine, Tim McGirk spent many years based in Asia. Among his postings was Hong Kong, where he lived in a harbor-side Chinese junk, so it’s not surprising that his first novel has a maritime flavor. His The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers opens with a shocking archeological discovery in Mexico; the tombs of two notable Chinese figures from more than 2000 years ago are uncovered, proving that the famed Taoist priest Xu Fu crossed the Pacific on his quest for the elixir of life.
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How did you get started in journalism?
In my early twenties, I was waiting in a Madrid bar for a girl who stood me up. I befriended two American guys at the table next to me who happened to be journalists. That same night, the man from the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper and I set off to cover a war in the Sahara. It might have helped that we were in a bar where Hemingway used to hang out and we were quite drunk.
What first drew you to the story of Xu Fu and the First Emperor’s search for the elixir of immortality?
I was living in Hong Kong, working for Time magazine. I happened to come across the story of a Taoist priest, Xu Fu, who was sent by the First Emperor of China around 219 BC on a sea voyage to find the island of the Immortals. The Taoist was ordered by the emperor to bring back the elixir of eternal life.
I couldn’t shake this. What if, I wondered, this Taoist had a more subtle concept of immortality – not that flesh and bone would live forever. The emperor would put him to death if he refused, so Xu Fu had to go sailing off on this mad, dangerous quest that he didn’t believe in. It all kind of flowed from the monk’s predicament. While I was reading everything I could about Xu Fu’s voyages, I was living on a Chinese junk in Hong Kong, and that inspired me.
There I was, watching the big freighters heading out into the Pacific and trying to imagine what that journey would’ve been like on a small raft over 2,000 years ago, especially if you believed you might be sailing off into a giant whirlpool at the edge of the world.
Elixir connects ancient China and pre-Columbian Mexico, in particular the Maya. Where did that idea come from?
Tests of faith have always fascinated me. What better situation could there be – a Taoist priest thinking that he’s reached the fabled Isle of the Immortals, when in reality it turns out to be the land of the Maya with its own complex system of beliefs.
How much of this story came from legend, and how much from your own speculation or research?
I’d say about half borrows from legend. The rest was fantasy embroidered out of some tantalizing pieces of evidence suggesting that there may have been trans-oceanic contact between China and the Maya. For example, a stela was found in a Mexican ruin with inscriptions in ancient Chinese. Of course it didn’t point directly to Xu Fu ever landing in Mexico, but that did it for me!
Where in modern-day Mexico do you have Xu Fu’s expedition landing? Have you been there?
I placed Xu Fu’s arrival on the southwestern coast of Mexico, near a town called Tonala, not far from some impressive Mayan ruins.
Who do you identify with more, the ancient monk Xu Fu or the modern-day archeologist Ned Sheehan?
Sheehan, I suppose. He liked bringing secrets to light, and as a former muckraking journalist I could sympathize.
When I was a schoolkid I dreamed of searching for lost cities in South America. Did you ever get touched with that kind of daydream?
I grew up in Colombia, and one day we visited a cattle ranch out in the countryside where I was given a squat terracotta figurine that a bull had scratched out of the earth with the tip of its horn. For me this was magical. I still have it.
What kind of historical and archaeological sources did you rely on to build the ancient world in your novel?
The historian Joseph Needham’s volumes on Chinese science, specifically where he writes about ancient maritime technology. Also, Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, the source material for so much about the First Emperor’s reign. Those two were invaluable.
While researching the ancient Chinese and Mayan cultures, what are some things that surprised or fascinated you the most?
I became entranced by the real-life character of the emperor’s widowed mother, a great and scandalous beauty. The emperor was talked out of having her executed for giving birth to two bastard sons. After all, she was supposedly a grieving widow given over to vows of celibacy. In my story – again, the fantasy part – she’s banished by the emperor to go with Xu Fu and use her seductive charms on the Immortals. Xu Fu falls for her, bigtime.
How do you interpret Qin Shi Huang’s obsession with immortality? Was it mostly megalomaniacal madness?
I think we’ve seen that obsession throughout the ages and in practically all cultures. It still persists. Megalomaniacal madness? Perhaps. Many conquerors and kings certainly think they deserve immortality, and they’ve had the means to explore the possibilities, bringing in alchemists and shamans and scientists. Hasn’t worked out terribly well, but that doesn’t stop today’s billionaires and despots thinking they can cheat death.
The novel moves between two timelines – one ancient, one modern. Why did you decide to tell the story this way?
I wrote a first draft based solely on Xu Fu’s adventures. But it felt too distanced, I was too much at a remove from the material. So I decided it was crucial to let Xu Fu tell the tale in his own voice. But it still wasn’t right. The story needed a more modern coating. So once I decided it would be the monk’s memoir, it was an easy leap to have an archeologist discover Xu Fu’s writings inside a tomb thousands of miles away from where it should be.
The title The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers is both memorable and mysterious. How did you come up with that?
The title was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It’s a nod to the media frenzy that takes place when Ned unearths the old monk’s tomb. It seems like everybody but Ned believes that the secret to longevity might be hidden there, and they want to cash in on it. So, I wanted a title that was a bit snake-oily, and I gave “The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers” as the name of a roadside stand selling a fruit juice concoction with supposedly miraculous powers.
If Xu Fu did arrive in the Americas, what do you think that encounter would have looked like?
Wary curiosity at first. Then they’d probably come to blows, as it happens in the novel.
Elixir is basically a fun story, a fast-paced thriller. But do you think there’s a moral in Xu Fu’s story (or Elixir more generally) for the modern world?
Yes, I think I share Xu Fu’s view that life is ever-changing, impermanent, and a realization of that is the closest you’ll get to immortality.
What is some of the feedback you’ve had from early readers?
A woman’s book club, after reading a few chapters, decided that this was ‘a man’s book.’ Not sure what that means. Rough, rude, too violent? But after reading a bit deeper they came away rooting for the two leading women characters, Li Siqin, the Chinese scholar working with Ned, and of course the indomitable Empress Dowager.
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The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers is published by Plum Rain Press and is available from Amazon (from Nov 4). You can learn more about Tim and his writing at his website.
