The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

When the deal goes awry, Guet Imm finds her role among the bandits shifting, and the experience of her years in the tokong or temple becomes useful in unexpected ways.Ĭho’s characters are hardly in any sense traditional wuxia heroes, and she uses elements of the tradition to develop a graceful and often quite witty interrogation of issues of loyalty, friendship, trust, and gender identity. The gang members, who describe themselves as ”roving contractors,” are at first reluctant to accept her offer of cooking and cleaning, especially after they learn she can’t really cook and after she informs them that, according to her vows, ”she’d have to chop off the dick of any man she fucked.” Guet Imm manages to charm most of the bandits, especially befriending Tet Sang (who turns out to have a few secrets of his own), and she insists on accompanying them as they deliver some secretive smuggled goods to the Malaysian town of Sungai Tombak. From there Cho heads off very much in her own direction, though: the waitress, actually a long-sequestered nun named Guet Imm from the Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, loses her job over the incident and decides to join the bandit and his gang, who turn out to be the subjects of that wanted poster. Replace the coffeehouse with a saloon, and this scene would not be out of place in any number of classic Westerns. The crucial opening scene of Zen Cho’s The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, for example, works just as well in either tradition: a bandit enters a coffeehouse, examines a wanted poster, and then steps in, along with an older bandit who has just entered, to defend a young waitress from a bullying, irate customer. Cover by Sija Hong.Īfter decades of movies, games, manga, and TV, it might well be that contemporary audiences are more familiar with the conventions of wuxia than with the classic American Western – not that there isn’t a fair amount of overlap.

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, Zen Cho ( Tor.com 978-5-6, $19.99, 160pp, hc) June 2020.

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho