L.A. author Lisa See explains how her historical novel about a doctor, 'Lady Tan's Circle of Women,' was inspired by an antique bed in her family store.
” — “absolutely my breakout book” — that she discovered how much she loved to research. “It’s my favorite part of the process,” she says.
Lady Tan lived to be 96, “extraordinary even now,” says See. “One of the things the nephew who wrote up her cases noted is that she had become so expert later in life that she was like one of those doctors who could see through your body and diagnose you.”The author of ‘The Island of Sea Women’ joins Times readers on Jan. 25.
Fortunately for Lady Tan, her grandmother sees a rare opportunity to foster a friendship between her and Meiling, the daughter of midwife Shi — a friendship that might cement a sort of dual practice. As a physician, Tan Yunxian’s credibility would lend the practice status, while Meiling’s work in childbirth would bring it plenty of money. “If you delivered the future emperor, for example, you could be taken care of for life,” says See.
And crucially, Lady Tan’s profession serves human needs that cross all boundaries of wealth and class. “All the women of different ranks in history are living very different lives, but when it comes down to our reproduction, it doesn’t matter if you’re the empress or a servant,” See says. “You’re still going to get your period, you’re still going to go through years of fertility and years of menopause.
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