Queer Bookclub #39– ‚She Who Became the Sun‘ by Shelley Parker-Chan
About the event
Join us to discuss queer books! For our next book, we will be reading ‚She Who Became the Sun’ by Shelley Parker-Chan. Blurb: In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness… In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother's identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu takes the chance to claim another future her brother's abandoned greatness. The Plan 19:00 Meeting @ the venue 19:15 Discussion 20:45 Choosing a book for January 21:00 End Dinner The venue will be announced in the WhatsApp group chat. What to do 1. RSVP on this event page. 2. Read the book:) and think about your suggestion for the discussion in October\! 3. Come to the event and share your thoughts about the book with us. 4. Please enable DMs from other members and turn on notifications so that our team can communicate with you. Hope to see you there! Amy (she/they) & Izabella (she/her) Please note… 1. Tandem is a community of volunteers; everything you see is created by our members giving up their time and labour. None of our organisers profit from events; any charges listed are those from other parties and we never add a mark-up. In this context\, we need attendees to do their best to reduce the workload of our volunteer team by reading the event description and these notes carefully; and follow the instructions in order to register a place on the event. Please be considerate and helpful with our team – we are all volunteers. 2. We run all our event communication through WhatsApp. Please keep track of event related messages in the Whatsapp event group and respond to requests and instructions from organisers within 24hrs. Please don’t put the chat on mute. If our team don’t receive your response within 24hrs\, we will move you to “Not Going”. 3. If you require special accessibility accommodations for the event (i.e.\, accessible venue\, accessible restrooms\, noise levels\, lighting conditions\, etc) and are unsure whether they can be met\, please reach out to the organiser/host. 4. We encourage language inclusivity at all our events. If you aren't confident in English\, please let our team know. We will try to provide bilingual support where possible and/or will try and introduce you to other language speakers you're more comfortable with. Please be mindful that we might not be able to accommodate all languages at all events\, but we will do our best to make everyone feel welcome and heard. 5. If you sign up\, but can no longer make it\, please update your RSVP as soon as possible and tell the organiser. Updating your RSVP well ahead of the event allows us to manage the waitlist; allow other people to attend; know who to look out for at the start of the event; and manage any relevant bookings\, such as table reservations. 6. If you don’t have a clear face pic on your profile and/or your username doesn’t match the name you normally use\, we can’t identify your payments nor match your RSVP with who you are in real life. If this is you\, please ensure the organiser knows who you are. If we can’t work out who you are within 24hrs of your RSVP\, we will move you to “Not Going”. Only group members and their guests…
