Dominique
Wilson is an Australian historical novelist. She here gives an
in-depth account of how she researched her novel The Yellow Papers, and also offers advice to
others on how to research historical novels set, or partly set, in Asia.
The story
The Yellow Papers is a novel set between Australia and China, from just after the
two Opium Wars to the time of the Cultural Revolution. It is a story of love,
obsession and friendship set against a backdrop of war and racial
prejudice.
It begins in 1872 when China – still bruised from its defeat in the two Opium Wars – sends a group of boys, including seven-year-old Chen Mu, to America to study and bring back the secrets of the West. But nine years on Chen Mu becomes a fugitive and flees to Umberumberka, a mining town in outback Australia. He eventually finds peace working for Matthew Dawson, a rich pastoralist.
