Angela Liu is a Nebula-, Ignyte-, and Rhysling-nominated writer/poet from NYC who writes about intergenerational trauma and weird things. She formerly researched mixed reality storytelling at Keio University in Japan. Her stories and poetry are published in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, The Dark, Interzone Digital, Lightspeed, khōréō, and Logic(s), among others. Her debut short story collection, Beautiful Ways We Break Each Other Open, will be released in September 2024 with Dark Matter INK. “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” is her second story (and fifth overall appearance) in Uncanny, an evocative tale that weaves together elements of East Asian folklore, horror, and romance.
Uncanny Magazine: This is a beautifully dark tale of demons and curses. What was your starting point or inspiration?
Angela Liu: A long time ago, a friend was telling me about kodoku—a cursed jar where you throw in several creatures (usually insects, worms, snakes, and scorpions) and have them kill each other so that the one surviving by the end is not only the “strongest” but also imbued with the hatred of all the other creatures that died before it. It’s an idea derived from ancient Chinese gu magic, and one that I’ve always wanted to include in a story.
I also grew up with a lot of Chinese and Japanese folklore and loved the legend of Kiyohime (which is also referenced in the story). Kiyohime is usually painted as a beautiful woman who transforms into a monster after being abandoned, but I wanted to write a story where she didn’t need to die. One that explored what it would be like to live on as a demon created by circumstance, and what love means to those who are told they don’t deserve it.
Uncanny Magazine: The setting for “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” has a lovely immersive feel. What research did you do for the story?
Angela Liu: I used to lose myself for hours just reading into the history of Yoshiwara and similar areas in Kyoto and Osaka, about the lives of the oiran, studying prints and poems written about the time and its people. I majored in East Asian studies in college and was fascinated by Yoshiwara ever since a Japanese Lit professor called it the “floating world.”
Many of the details throughout the story are based off of things/places I encountered over the years while living/studying in Japan.
The lullaby that the cursed serpent half-sings when it starts transforming is inspired by “Takeda’s Lullaby,” a famous Japanese folksong. Traditional instrumental music has always been a vivid part of my experiences at older Japanese inns, so I listened to live clips of kokyū, shamisen, and koto performances while writing the scenes in the inn with Arata and Kiyo. Music and food are two things I try to put into every story I write.
The cursed blade in the story was inspired by a wonderfully crafted short sword I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a cicada and snake carved into the handle and scabbard (https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/samurai-splendor/exhibition-objects).
Uncanny Magazine: You write both prose and poetry—what draws you to each form? What is the most challenging aspect of each?
Angela Liu: I’ve always felt like poetry is a distillation of a feeling or a moment, so when I’m feeling strongly about something and don’t have a lot of time, I jot down lines of poetry like taking a verbal photograph. When I want someone else to feel/see something I experienced, I write a poem. When I want to take a journey on my own and have the time to really explore the characters and place, I write prose.
The most challenging thing about poetry for me is the ending line. While the ending is important in prose, that one single line/stanza in poetry can make or break the entire poem and its emotional impact.
The most challenging thing about prose is editing. While the editing process for poetry can feel like a satisfying puzzle (working through the right language choices and images/line-breaks), editing for prose feels more like a nerve-wracking eye exam where the doctor keeps asking you “better or worse?”
Uncanny Magazine: Ryunosuke brings good sake to the brothel as an offering, after first trying “fruits and breads, tasteless offerings to a demon.” If you were a demon, what kind of offerings would you demand?
Angela Liu: I love this question! If I was a demon, I’d ask for charcoal-grilled A5 wagyu beef and the juiciest white peaches. Then when I’m not hungry anymore, I’d love to have someone with a beautiful voice recite poetry to me by moonlight.
Uncanny Magazine: “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” combines elements of horror, history, fantasy, and even romance. What genre(s) do you like to read? What’s something you read recently and loved?
Angela Liu: I read mostly weird speculative/urban fantasy. Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, and Ocean Vuong are the authors I always go back to. I researched mixed reality in grad school and adore stories that take real historical events/people/objects and put them into the context of a whole new (speculative) reality. Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell is a great example where he imagines a fictional hit band in what feels like a very real 1960s rock scene with new horror-fantasy aspects (with some fun, fictional conversations with David Bowie and Little Richard).
Horror romance is a recent favorite genre. I loved The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo. As someone who grew up reading a lot of manga, I also love stories that read like old-school manga, and The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui is one I really enjoyed.
I commute frequently, and short fiction’s been perfect for that. Karen Russell, Isabel Yap, and Isabel J. Kim are long-time favorites. Recent short stories I loved are: “The Clown Watches the Clown” by Sara S. Messenger, “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones, and “The Worms that Ate the Universe” by Megan Chee—they all paint wildly imaginative worlds, but I love how every time you go back, you can peel off another layer and discover something new.
Uncanny Magazine: What are you working on next?
Angela Liu: I’m working on two novels now. One is a speculative mystery/thriller about a woman and the strange town she arrives in after dying. It’s a bit of The Good Place meets Death Parade and Alice in Borderlands with a slew of messy characters, and is a continuation of my novelette “The Day We Returned to Sunnytown.” The other is an urban fantasy about people who can summon cursed spirits out of famous paintings. I’m also writing a sci-fi novelette about a death-game tower that takes place in the same world as my story “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down the Moon.”
Uncanny Magazine: Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us!
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Caroline M. Yoachim is a three-time Hugo and six-time Nebula Award finalist. Her short stories have been translated into several languages and reprinted in multiple best-of anthologies, including four times in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Yoachim’s short story collection Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World & Other Stories and the print chapbook of her novelette The Archronology of Love are available from Fairwood Press. For more, check out her website at carolineyoachim.com.