By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The line for the event wrapped around the corner. Every seat in the auditorium was filled. It was very loud. Who were they waiting for? A best-selling author whose latest book hit the number one spot? Yes. Amy Tan. Was it a long-awaited novel? Not exactly. It’s a journal about birds. On May 29, Tan visited Seattle Public Library – Central Library to tell eager fans about her newest release, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles.” It was an historic evening of sorts.
“It was back in time 35 years and two months ago, down the street here, where Elliott Bay was then located, with a decidedly more intimate gathering on hand,” described Rick Simpson from Elliott Bay Book Company, a partner in the event. That was “the very first time Amy Tan was public with the ’Joy Luck Club.’” People this night seemed every bit, if not more excited, to talk about birds, although Tan herself had been reluctant at first to show the journal to the public.
Signed copies of “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” were offered for sale at the event. (Photo by Kai Curry.)
“This book, as with my very first book, was done without the knowledge it would ever be published,” Tan said. In other words, she had been journaling for herself, a collection of drawings, some serious, some cartoons, mixed with her own meditations and observations. She was supposed to be working on that long-awaited novel. Instead, she turned to nature when the world of people got to be a bit much surrounding the election of 2016. Specifically, Tan sought out the birds in her backyard. Occasionally, she would send an example of what she was working on to her editor, who wondered, why not publish it?
“I wasn’t really aware of what that would mean,” Tan said at the event. “I thought, if I was lucky, maybe 5,000 would buy a book.” (Which is apparently considered a “successful” number of sales for a first endeavor.) Turns out, more people than Tan expected still love her, and love birds.
“I’m so happy that people love birds…this was one of those private things that I did for myself. It’s more like a diary of my time with nature and so I felt some misgivings of making it so public…the double nature of private and public is really important to me in doing my work…If I have the feeling somebody’s watching, or will see this later, it has an impact on what I put out there.” Now Tan feels that she must carefully guard future projects and determine in advance whether or not she will let other people see them. Ultimately, though, Tan is “really happy this book is out there,” adding, half jokingly, “Now I can get some constructive work done.”
Clothed beautifully and classically in silky black with a bright blue scarf, her signature bob just so, Tan was surprisingly erudite about the topic of birds, and also surprisingly funny. Many people have probably seen by now her cartoon of the various expressions of the Great Horned Owl, for example. Mischievously done, every expression from “Sexy Face” to “Hangry” is basically the same face (and very well drawn). During the event, Tan joked about going on bird watching trips with serious birders, and having no idea what they were looking at as, in quick succession, “they’re calling it out, they’re saying, ’Look, Amy, it’s over there, see?’ Two-hundred meters away! ’Next to the red flower’—which is really an orange flower—I couldn’t see anything. After a while, when they’d say, ’You got it?’ I would say ‘yeah.’” But she hadn’t got it.
Amy Tan at her talk about her new book “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” at the Seattle Public Library – Central Library, on May 29, 2024. (Photo by Kai Curry)
Tan found the occupation of what some consider serious birding to be too competitive; yet she certainly became obsessed in her own way, and also very involved in bird conservancy, which is really environmental conservancy. In her view, if you spend any time observing a single species, you realize (or affirm) that we are all connected.
“For birds, the biggest threats have to do with the loss of habitat,” Tan explained in an interview with the Asian Weekly. “Conservation often has to do with restoring habitat, expanding habitat. It’s the entire environment. It’s the ecology, the insects, everything that supports that.” Every conservation group Tan is involved with is concerned with global warming. In addition to the particular species of focus, they are “looking at the other issues relating to what is happening in the environment, and it can include criminal activity, gang warfare, economic pressures…all [the groups] are involved with the environment.”
The distance from the birds when traveling with these serious birders also bothered Tan. She did not impose upon her backyard birds at all, she was wholly respectful of their territory and habits. Yet it was important to her to be able to look them in the eyes. Thus, you will find in her portraits—which she will only do of birds that she has personally observed—the subject is nearly always making eye contact. In the beginning of her forays into her backyard, she would sit for hours and hours at a time.
“I noticed a single bird in the yard…It always looked up…and looked at me and it was really, really cool…He didn’t fly off…and that’s when I felt that I had some kind of a relationship with it.” Not a friendship, not love, she was quick to elaborate. It was more that Tan was becoming part of the ecosystem herself.
As is evident, Tan was dead serious and then vulnerable, or funny, in turn. She told the audience about how, as a typical new mom, as she likened herself, she wanted only the best for her backyard birds, which led her to purchasing mealworms. In short order, she was keeping thousands of mealworms in the refrigerator she shares with her husband (it was a testament to the longevity of their marriage that he never complained, she said). She demonstrated the movements of the birds she observed, such as when one of them did a sort of figure-eight dance after eating. Tan concluded it might have had something to do with digestion as birds have more than one stomach. She had turned into an astute observer, backed by science, but she also defied those more “in the know,” such as when a Facebook “poobah” told her that ground feeding birds would never eat from a hanging feeder. Yes, they will. Tan proved it. Take that, Sir.
“When you love birds, you want to save them,” was her final statement, shown in the middle of a black screen. In the audience were young and old of all colors, riveted and totally on board. Some were veteran bird watchers and others asked Tan for advice about how to start, thanks to her book, they now also loved birds.
“There are many ways to do birding,” Tan answered, and advised starting somewhere nearby (your backyard, for instance); somewhere covered, if possible; somewhere you can sit quietly and observe. “It’s a very personal thing. You could follow one bird if you wanted…a crow is perfectly entertaining and has a lot of things going on.”
Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.