The best writers are able to paint a picture with words and transport us to places we have never been before. Mingmei Yip’s novel, Petals from the Sky, accomplishes that and more. We travel along with the protagonist, Meng Ning, on her physical, spiritual, and emotional journey from inside the world of Buddhist nuns in Hong Kong and China to the apartments and cafes of Paris. The grandest compliment one can pay to Mingmei’s work is that after reading Petals from the Sky, one longs to visit the places she has so beautifully detailed in her book.
Mingmei’s writing, however, never reads like a travel brochure. Her words, whether she is describing the landscape of Hong Kong or the ritual of preparing tea, are crafted with great care. And she manages to get inside the heads of her characters so we understand their feelings, reactions, and motivations. Mingmei’s skill is even more impressive since English is not her native language and the first books she wrote, academic ones, were written in Chinese. “I started to write at a very young age, fifteen,” she says. “In Hong Kong I did a lot of academic writing, a completely different kind of writing because you have to have a reference and an index.” She also published a collection of her essays as well as poems, all in Chinese. “They’re very romantic,” she says of her poems.
There is much romance in her novel, too. And if the story rings true that’s because Mingmei drew on her own personal experiences. “It’s my story, though I added a lot,” says Mingmei. Like Meng Ning, Mingmei grew up with a fascination for Buddhist nuns, met her American husband during a Buddhist retreat, and studied for her PhD in Paris.
In Petals, Meng Ning, adversely affected by her parents’ unhappy marriage, sets out to find for herself a much different life, one of prayer and solitude without men. Arriving at a Buddhist retreat—where the Buddhist nun she admires, Yi Kong, will play a prominent role—she soon falls in with an American doctor who rescues her from a fast moving fire inside the temple.
Unlike Buddhist monks, less is known about the insular world of Buddhist nuns. “I did grow up with the Buddhist nuns,” Mingmei says, explaining that there are two different kinds of Buddhist nuns. “One is what people have in mind—the hermits in a mountain meditating, living a life of solitude, and celibacy,” she says. “But actually all the nuns I know are what I call business nuns. They are very powerful people. They mingle with socialites, celebrities, and politicians because they get huge donations. They are very rich themselves because they need money for the temple. But they are so powerful! They’re millionaires—I’m not kidding. But they use the money. They’re not going around wearing 10-carat diamond rings.”
In Petals, Meng Ning is torn between two worlds—the secular one represented by the doctor, Michael Fuller, and the religious one embodied by Yi Kong, who regards Meng Ning as her protégé. Even when Meng Ning agrees to marry Michael, she second guesses her decision. No matter where she turns, she seems to find herself unable to fit in, whether with Michael’s superficial friends in Paris or the purpose-driven nuns in China.
Mingmei, however, had less trouble defining her route. “I came from Hong Kong and I had a very good job as a professor for the university,” Mingmei says. After meeting her husband, Geoffrey Redmond, an endocrinologist, they soon moved to the U.S. and she began to write novels. Petals is actually her first novel, although her second novel, Peach Blossom Pavilion, about a geisha prostitute, was published first. Her third novel features a female adventurer. “She’s very daring and falls in love all the time,” Mingmei says with a laugh. She also has written children’s books including Chinese Children’s Favorite Stories.
Mingmei may be living in America now, but her exotic looks and dress show that she has not left her previous life behind. Her black blouse is embellished with colorful embroidery typical of fine garments from China and delicate jade earrings dangle from her ears. She laughs easily and her enthusiasm for her work and the process of writing is infectious. While her favorite writers are Chinese, she has praise for Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s book, Highest Duty. “It was very touching,” she says of the book by the U.S. Airways pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River saving all aboard.
While Mingmei calls the Buddhist philosophy “profound,” she practices less now than in the past. Copying verses in calligraphy is now her form of meditation.
For more information and to order Mingmei’s books, go to her website, www..mingmeiyip.com
Kati and her family escaped the “Communist Terror State” and came to America in the late Fifties, settling in Bethesda, Maryland and suburban American life. After graduating from high school there, Kati attended Wells College, which had “too many girls” and where she missed “city life.” She went on to study at the Sorbonne and the Institute des Etudes de Science Politique in Paris, graduating with a B.A. in Romance languages and a M.A. in international relations from George Washington University.
On the personal front, Kati and Peter Jennings divorced in 1994 (Jennings died in 2005) and the following year she married Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Kati and her husband travel extensively given his role and her interests. Holbrooke is now serving as the Obama Administration’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Kati is the former Chair of the International Women’s Health Coalition, a non-governmental organization that promotes and protects the rights and health of girls and women worldwide, as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Other well known jewelers represented include Fahrenheit, Avant Garde, Patrice, and Bat-Ami. Ever in search of the wonderful and intriguing, she also sees new designers at the store with a view towards informing them of her aesthetic.
While her family has shied away from speaking to the media, Margaret has become a part of it. She’s a cultural and political commentator on the Fox Network and has co-hosted ABC’s “The View.” She brands her political philosophy as part Barry Goldwater and part William F. Buckley with an emphasis on individual freedom, small government, and civil liberties. She points to Meg Whitman, eBay founder and likely 2010 California gubernatorial candidate as a great role model.
Hoover came to New York circuitously. She was born in Pittsburgh, raised in Colorado, and traveled the world extensively before settling in New York. She studied abroad in Bolivia and China and her first job after college was working for a law firm in Taiwan. This was followed by time in Washington where she worked for a Florida Congressman, with a heavily Hispanic constituency, followed by a stint in the White House Office of Inter-Governmental Affairs. In 2006, she moved to New York to work for Rudolph Giuliani’s PAC, “Solutions America,” and then worked on his Presidential exploratory effort before joining Fox. Since 2007, she has been a commentator on all things cultural on issues ranging from gay marriage (which she supports) to parental rights.
