59 pages • 1 hour read
The Teller of Small Fortunes
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Background
Authorial Context: Navigating Bicultural Identity
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.
Julie Leong describes herself as Chinese Malaysian American. The daughter of Chinese Malaysian immigrants, Leong spent her childhood between a suburb of New Jersey and Beijing, and she says that she felt like she didn’t belong in either place. She felt “too Asian for suburban America and too American for China” (“Julie Leong.” Penguin Random House), and this shapes her portrayal of Tao’s experiences in The Teller of Small Fortunes.
Like Leong, Tao feels like she is stuck in between cultures. The novel is set in the land of Eshtera, which Leong describes as “the prototypical Western European medieval fantasy world” (“A Little Bit of Magic and Humor – An Interview With Julie Leong.” KPOP-TV). Tao is an immigrant from the neighboring Empire of Shinara (which is based on China), and she looks unmistakably Shinn. Her appearance constantly invites scrutiny, and she is aware that many Eshterans regard her with a mixture of fear, suspicion, and hostility. One of the innkeepers she encounters on her travels embodies these views, calling Shinns “cheats” and “dirty,” and claiming they “live in caves” and “worship demon-gods” (69).
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