The Story of Lee: Volume 1 (1) - Softcover

Wilson, Sean Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1561635944 ISBN 13: 9781561635948

Publisher: NBM Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Lee, living in Hong Kong, meets Matt, a fine young Englishman. Their relationship becomes stronger by the day, despite their deep cultural differences. But there is Lee’s Dad to contend with who views this affair very suspiciously. And there is another contender for Lee’s heart, a Chinese young man, whose jealousy takes on twinges of xenophobia. Will Lee and Matt’s relationship successfully cross the cultural divide and overcome the negative odds? Two worlds collide creating good sparks... and bad ones.

About this title

From the Author:

Hi all, this is Sean, the writer of THE STORY OF LEE. 
There are many aspects in the Story of Lee book that seem to be autobiographical, or based on real experiences or real places. I thought I'd go into that for a bit. The first thing is that its not an autobiography. Matt is not me and Lee is not any girl I've dated.  But there are aspects of my experiences and attitudes in them both.For example, the back text matter mentions 'Page 83, Kens cafe, Chai wan road.'
That's a real place that a real lady took me too several times, and the waiter was a real chap, called Peter I think, who was very nice to me each time i went in. Rather than just bringing me my food, he would make an effort to talk in some funny way. The scene on that page is true, he did say i looked like a film star, which I was pleased about of course (presuming that he didn't mean i look like SHREK). In Japan where i live the people are famously polite and kind, but in a way that can appear stand-offish to a British person. There are cafe's here that i have been going to for 3 or 4 years in which the very nice staff don't make much effort to chat with me and rarely ask personal questions. They see it as invasive. But by contrast this Hong Kong man, starting from my very first visit to his cafe, always came over to my table 2 or 3 times to say or ask something. I was struck by the difference to Japan.
The setting of SOL is 'Chai Wan', on the east of Hong Kong island itself. An area that does not have many 'westerners', to use the imprecise and possibly ethnocentric label that is still common. I was also introduced to that by the same lady (who doesn't want to be named), and I thought it was an ideal place to situate the story. An ordinary unglamorous area, where the 'real' HK people live. Just the kind of place that can show you what people's lives are like on an everyday level, and the kind of place that a young lady would want to escape from to an ideal place of her imaginary longing.
But as it goes it was very nearly my place of death! They have a huge amount of VERY tall buildings in HK, but not particularly in good condition. I was walking along, just off the main Chai wan road one hot afternoon when a slab of concrete fell with a frightening WHAAKK a short distance in front of me - right in the place I would have walked 2 or 3 seconds afterwards. I looked up and saw the gap that it had come from of an apartment on the 12th floor. At that height it probably would have killed me - Chilling stuff... please buy THE STORY OF LEE to celebrate my good luck!

About the Author:

Sean Michael Wilson is a Scottish writer living in Japan. He has written more than 20 books, published by a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers and translated into ten languages. In 2016 his book of Lafcadio Hearn stories, The Faceless Ghost was nominated for the prestigious 'Eisner Book Awards', and received a medal in the 2016 'Independent Publisher Book Awards'. In 2017, his book Secrets of the Ninja won an 'International Manga Award' from the Japanese government - he is the first British person to receive this award. Chie Kutsuwada is the respected manga artist of Shakespeare's As You Like It and other works. She has lectured and taught manga workshops around Britain at such venues as Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Library. She lives in the U.K.

About this edition

• Publisher: NBM Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1561635944
• ISBN 13: 9781561635948
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 159