Curated by Andre Haynes and Dreylan Johnson
Red Hibiscus, Scott Ting-A-Kee’s debut novella, is a fantasy historical tale set in ancient China. It follows three diviners—two high priestesses of Chinese descent and a Japanese high priest—who, through their gifts of foresight, see centuries forward to the time of Chinese indentureship. In their journey to making sense of their visions, the characters battle gods, demons and monsters.
In this work of fantasy, which straddles China’s ancient past and its colonial history, Ting-A-Kee, 25, takes the daring approach to recreate a particular place in time that is for the most part unfamiliar to him; he has explored China in text though never in person. “I have never visited China or travelled to Asia. These places were all researched using the internet, reading books and seeing how this era and these places were rejuvenated in the form of films and animations. It is largely my imaginative visioning of these places which created the magical air about them since for some of them, urbanisation has robbed them of their mystical allure,” he related.
A descendant of Chinese immigrants and a son of the Caribbean, Ting-A-Kee saw the gap in Chinese-Caribbean literature and was encouraged to fill it by writing his own stories. He began exploring eastern mythology and story writing in his bid to create his own “revisioning of an imagined/real history”.
“I appreciate West Indian literature. However, there are very few books which have explored the Chinese experience in the Caribbean. I could not find a Guyanese novel which delved into such. As a result, I was encouraged to write it,” he explained.
The University of Guyana graduate, who holds a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in English Literature, says he is more inclined to to writing poems than short stories, and though he usually looks to the east for inspiration, he does have one story set in Guyana.
Poinsettia centres around romance and explores the experiences of Guyanese Portuguese young woman Laura and a Japanese sailor named Kyouhei. It is set during the time of Burnham and captures places in Guyana. “Poinsettia is the name of a once popular night club in Guyana and is a main setting in the story,” he related.
Aside from Red Hibiscus, which was published by UK-based indie publishing company Way Wive Wordz and will be promoted at CARIFESTA XIV, Ting-A-Kee is currently working on two novels—Chen and Claire, which is set in the Caribbean and explores a connection between witchcraft, rape and indentureship, and My Name is Alice Chan, which explores the clash between magic and science and the liminality of identity. He is also in the middle of his poetry book, White Tiger and Black Panther, which will feature a collection of poems exploring various themes, myths and issues in the Caribbean, East Asia and Africa.
Ting-A-Kee was last year’s winner of The Guyana Annual’s 2018 Open Poetry competition for his entry, “The Scandal of O Tye Kim,” based on Chinese-Guyanese history. His winning entry in the Guyana Annual’s 2019 Mahadai Das Open Poetry competition, “Her Feat” also explores the discourse of Chinese indentureship.
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