By Erin Chew
A novel centralized on the theme of interconnected past lives, The Emperor and the Endless Palace, written by Justinian Huang, blends narratives that champions Asian/Asian American and LGBTIQ identities that span over different lifetimes. As the former Vice President of Creative at Sony Pictures Animation and the head of development at DreamWorks Pearl in Shanghai, Huang has transitioned from an executive to a novelist.
A reset of his previous life and the start of a new and second life, Huang is now living the life of dreams and telling the stories which need to be told.
“I think overtime in my life growing up, I felt shame of my Taiwanese and Chinese identities and pride. This pride became even more prominent when I heard the true story about a Chinese emperor and his male lover and this proved to be an epic love story”, Huang passionately expressed in a recent interview with AsAmNews.
“As a queer Asian, I wanted to tell this story and it has allowed me to feel free and unshackled, and living a dream that I once could never imagine ever doing”.
In more detail, The Emperor And The Endless Palace is a story that spans across unrelated timelines interwoven together only by the twists and turns of fate. Two men are reborn, lifetime after lifetime, going through different lives, experiences and emotions. The end result is that these two men are somehow drawn to each other unaware of how fate and destiny has continued to grant them feelings of love.
Inspired by the Han dynasty, whereby it was common for emperors to have male lovers, this was not necessarily about homosexuality, but it was more about power and influence that emperors could have both men and women as love and sexual companions.
“It is this rarely untold history/story (for obvious reasons) that inspired me to use The Emperor and the Endless Palace as the title. It represents everything that has been forgotten and is a reincarnation of this history/story- essentially bringing it back to life. This novel despite being fictional also pays homage to all the emperors who had male lovers”, Huang discussed.
The story is not just about male lovers, reincarnation and different lives, but it is also very sensual and covers all the emotions and feelings of lust, love and desire. These emotions and feelings can be found throughout Chinese ancient history and is the basis for many ancient poems, art works and writings.
This epic love story is what Huang wanted to convey.
“Regardless of sexuality – lust, love and various feelings is what fueled and sustained over 5,000 years of Chinese history. Why do we not see as much of this in English written novels? This was my aim and I hope readers will enjoy reading this timeless and eternal romance”.
Justinian Huang’s debut novel The Emperor and the Endless Palace can be purchased on websites such as Good Reads and Amazon and also sold in bookstores such as Barnes & Noble. You can also purchase it through this link with 10% of the proceeds going back to AsAmNews.
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