TheAriesAtlas
asked
Rin Chupeco:
I see that you answered another user's question indicating that both Japanese and Middle Eastern culture and philosophy are the resounding influence behind The Bone Witch, but are the terms that you used in TBW (e.g. hua, asha-ka, cha-khana - pretty much all of the ones that are italicized) made up or did you pull those from one of the influencing cultures that you mentioned?
Rin Chupeco
A little of both! I'm Chinese and also studied Japanese culture, so I took a lot of influence from those. There's also a bit of Zoroastrianism involved because the whole Legend of Blade that Soars and Dancing Wind is that with a Chinese naming aesthetic. Using the examples you gave:
hua - "flower" in Chinese
asha-ka - "asha" is "truth" in Zoroastrianism, and "-ka" usually is attached to female names and means "scent" or "perfume"
cha-khana - "cha" means tea in Chinese, "khana" is my invention
(I was never taught the pinyin / English phonetic spellings of Chinese words though - that happened long after I graduated school- so with these I usually just went for what looked natural to me when writing it down!)
hua - "flower" in Chinese
asha-ka - "asha" is "truth" in Zoroastrianism, and "-ka" usually is attached to female names and means "scent" or "perfume"
cha-khana - "cha" means tea in Chinese, "khana" is my invention
(I was never taught the pinyin / English phonetic spellings of Chinese words though - that happened long after I graduated school- so with these I usually just went for what looked natural to me when writing it down!)
More Answered Questions
Sara Gonzales
asked
Rin Chupeco:
Love love loved the girl from the well as well as the suffering. The attention to Japanese culture as well as Japanese horror (which I am a sucker for) made me so so happy. As an aspiring writer, I'm wondering if you have any advice on how you can create action, suspense, or romance without making it seem too cliché? I'm sorry for all of the questions but as a Filipina, I babble. Salamat!
Maddy
asked
Rin Chupeco:
Nearly all the reviews I read, both positive and negative, cited the (potential?) love triangle in The Bone Witch as one of the novel's negative aspects, and it had me wondering: do you find it peculiar that YA authors are increasingly writing love triangles because it sells, while the apparent critical response in the community regarding love triangles become even more vocal?
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