Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 2) Malaya maps

1989 Malaysia

I am absolutely loving this month's book, The Garden of Evening Mists.  Yugiri.                        

As my history and geography background is scattered, had to look up some context. Here's a map of current southeast Asia, with Malaysia in teal acting as bookends to the south South China Sea. Singapore and Brunei are carved out.

 I always wondered where the Sultan of Brunei hailed from. Now I know.

BUT BUT BUT they talk about Malaya as well as Malaysia.. notice the deleted "si". We start off  in 1989 in Malaysia,  but we dive back to 1940-45. Teoh Yun Ling might be telling us about her life in other years also, but this is as far as I have gotten in the story.

In 1989, the map of Malaysia looked like above. From 1946 to 1965 the British territories on the Malayan Peninsular, along with several islands and part of Borneo all did 19 years of a Scottish reel of joining, separating, joining, changing formal names .... which ended in the above map. A bumpy road. So the above map is the Malaysia of Teoh Yun Ling's present. 

1940 British Malaya

Now we have the time of 1940-45, Yun Ling's past.  British Malaya initially was three parts, all having to do with how they were governed by the British. On the map to the left are the Straits Settlements (red), the Unfederated States (blue) and the Federated Malay States (yellow.)          

From 1942-45 the Japanese occupied all of British Malaya. 

In 1945 at the end of World War II, the British took over rule again.  Here's when Yun Ling journeyed  to the Cameroon Highlands, to meet with Arimoto. And stay with Magnus Pretorius.  Below you will find the Cameroon Highlands, Tanah Rata, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh. 

Current Malaysian Peninsula

The Garden of Evening Mists (Entry 1)

 Our book for March is The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twang Eng.




 


Shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize, here's their description:

Set during the Japanese occupation, The Garden of Evening Mists follows young law graduate, Yun Ling Teoh, as she seeks solace among the plantations of the Cameron Highlands. Here she discovers Yugiri, the only Japanese garden in Malaya, and its owner and creator, the secretive Aritomo. Aritomo agrees to accept Yun Ling as his apprentice “until the monsoon” so that she can design a garden in memorial to her sister. But over time the jungle starts to reveal secrets of its own…

Interview with the author

New York Times Review