Navigating forbidden histories: An interview with writer Su Chang

Chinese-Canadian writer Su Chang, author of The Immortal Woman

Su Chang is a Chinese-Canadian writer. Her debut novel, The Immortal Woman, was published by House of Anansi in March 2025. It has been nominated for 2025 Toronto Book Award and won the 2025 Independent

Publisher Book Award (Multicultural Fiction). It is also listed as a Rakuten Kobo Best Fiction in March 2025 and recommended as a “must-

read historical fiction novel” by CBC Books. 

The Immortal Woman, by writer Su Chang

The Immortal Woman is a generational story that reveals an insider’s view of Chinese modern history and the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind. It is described as a sweeping generational story of heartbreak, resilience, and yearning, revealing an insider’s view of the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind.

From the publisher's website: "Lemei, once a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai and a journalist at a state newspaper, was involved in a brutal act of violence during the Tiananmen Square protests and lost all hope for her country. Her daughter, Lin, is a student at an American university on a mission to become a true Westerner. She tirelessly erases her birth identity, abandons her Chinese suitor, and pursues a white lover, all the while haunted by the scars of her upbringing. Following China’s meteoric rise, Lemei is slowly dragged into a nationalistic perspective that stuns Lin. Their final confrontation results in tragic consequences, but ultimately, offers hope for a better future. By turns wry and lyrical, The Immortal Woman reminds us to hold tight to our humanity at any cost."

Su's short fiction has been recognized in Prairie Fire’s Short Fiction Contest, Canadian Authors' Association (Toronto) National Writing Contest, ILS/Fence Fiction Contest, the Masters Review's Novel Excerpt Contest, among others. Find Su on Instagram and suchangauthor.com. Su Chang on navigating forbidden histories and the rich life experiences that shape her writing.

The shaping of a writer: Isolation, identity, and navigating forbidden histories

OCW: What life experiences have shaped your writing style?

SC: So many life experiences have influenced my writing. If I had to pick the most significant ones, they would be the following:

1. Being the child of a reluctant student Red Guard leader (which

sparked my interest in tabooed histories and hidden trauma);

2. Immigrating to North America in my 20s without knowing anyone and

living on scholarships (which forced me to confront isolation and questions of identity, race, societal hierarchy, and mental health);

3. Becoming a mother (which brings both joy and challenge as I learn to

parent in a culture I didn’t grow up in);

3. Finding solace and joy in reading (which soothed my tired and lonely

soul and ultimately led me to writing).

OCW: Can you trace any common themes across your writing?

SC: Given my personal history, it’s not surprising that I find many “underdogs” in my stories – people who are displaced, who live on society’s margin, who are haunted by history, who sometimes cross the line from the persecuted to the persecutor. I also seem to have a fixation on forbidden love and forbidden - especially female and queer– desires. Being an “insider-outsider”, I also find my country-of-origin fascinating, with its numerous contradictions and social phenomena. I like to examine if my characters have “free will” when they make their life choices - a process that teaches me compassion in both writing and life.

Process and practice: Plotting, pacing, and the pursuit of surprise

OCW: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

SC: I’m mostly a plotter, especially when I’m working on a novel. I’d spend months figuring out the plot and structure before getting down to write. With short stories, I plot lightly and dive in. Sometimes it takes a few drafts to find out the story I’m trying to tell (motivation, meaning, what have you), often from some little things my character has said in passing. When that happens, it requires restructuring and adding/removing story layers. So even as a plotter, I feel I’m often in the semi-dark zone as I progress in a story. I always welcome surprises and spontaneous twists.

The existential threat: Generative AI and the future of the human writer

OCW: Do you see generative AI as a threat or benefit to writers?

SC: As a middle-aged working mother of young children, I see AI as a threat to my livelihood, to my children’s future, and to the entire humanity. As Silicon Valley rushes headlong into building the best thinking machines to replace human workers, the rest of us have had almost zero collective thinking and decision-making power. AI fits the capitalist logic perfectly. And the world’s governments, with their narrow-minded “us vs. them” focus on borders and nation-states, have done little to rein in the unfettered development that threatens all of humanity.

More specifically, for writers, many questions remain:

Would publishers succumb to the same capitalistic impulse and replace human writers/translators with AI?

1. Would readers, with increasingly shortened attention span, appreciate the hard labour that goes into writing, and instead, favour the cheap thrills AI-generated books may deliver?

2. If there is no longer a financial incentive for aspiring writers to enter the industry, would those aspirations die on the vine?

3. If “everyone can be a writer,” would new writers make the tremendous investment to learn and hone their craft, and if not, would quality suffer, and humanity’s cognitive and creative skills continue to deteriorate?

OCW: Do you edit as you write, or write and edit later?

SC: When I work on a novel, I need to move forward in my first draft as fast

as possible, so I don’t lose steam (or confidence to ever complete it). I don’t edit until I reach the end of a first draft. The first draft is a prototype of ideas, a blueprint of a more intricate narrative to come. Then edits and rewrites begin, and they can take seemingly endless rounds and a very long time. I like to walk away from each draft and let my subconsciousness do the heavy lifting for many weeks before I return to it again.