Tim McGirk is the author of the new novel The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers. A former Time magazine correspondent, he lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Q: What inspired you to write The Wondrous Elixir of the Two Chinese Lovers, and how did you create your character Ned Sheehan?
A: 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 225 BC on a sea voyage to find the island where the Immortals were living. 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.
As for the main character, Ned Sheehan, I wanted a guy who is bright, resourceful but down on his luck. Through bad choices, he was sliding down the greasy pole of academia.
Then he discovers these two Chinese tombs in Mexico – one of them Xu Fu’s - and he thinks it’s going to turn him into a rock star of archeology. Then there’s a murder on the excavation site. A stack of clay tablets is stolen from the tomb, and Ned has to fight to keep it from all slipping away. There’s a lot at stake for him. Including his life.
Q: Did you need to do much research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?
A: Yes, a lot. Both on China during the First Emperor’s reign and on the Maya, too.
What excited me was finding out that there are a few tantalizing pieces of evidence to suggest there was trans-oceanic contact between China and the Maya. One of them was a stella found in a Maya 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! This was a thread I could use to spin the tale.
Also, I was 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, 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.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: 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 and finds the writings inside. 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 that sprang up near the excavation site selling a fruit juice concoction with supposedly miraculous powers.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Yes and no. I had a rough map of the terrain I wanted to cover, but no clear idea of the destination other than wanting to end with a true historical event, the emperor pacing the ocean shore waiting for Xu Fu to sail back with the life-giving elixir. Xu Fu never appears over the horizon, and the emperor dies waiting for him.
Even today, narcissistic rulers haven’t given up on becoming immortal. Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping were overheard on a hot mic discussing ways of prolonging their lives by harvesting organs from young people! Yikes.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: A novel that is based on something true that happened to me: I went searching along the Afghan border for a missing American hostage. I wasn’t alone. I was traveling with a woman psychic.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: At the time that I was reading everything I could about Xu Fu’s voyages, I was living on a Chinese junk in Hong Kong, 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 there was a strong chance you were sailing off the edge of the world.
Check my website for updates, review links, and information on possible events: www.timmcgirk.com.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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