Shakespeare in Shanghai: Five Questions for Chloe Gong, Author of These Violent Delights

These Violent Delights is a fierce and imaginative retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai that literally breathes new life into a story we all know and love. What inspired you to take this classic tale and reinvent it?
I just absolutely loved the themes that were present in Romeo and Juliet. When I set out to write something involving star-crossed lovers and rival families caught in a blood feud, I knew that there was a reason why Shakespeare’s original ideas have intrigued us for over four hundred years, and I wanted to pay homage to the very original touchstone text. However, I knew I had to bring something new to the table, or else people would just go back to the original play, so I approached it as looking at the same Shakespearean themes with an utterly new lens. That way, I was circling around the same core questions of love and hatred that I’ve always been so intrigued by but making it accessible to a whole new generation of teens who are more interested in a revamped setting and modern characters.
You got the rival gangs, star-crossed lovers, and age-old blood feuds, but there is also a healthy dose of monsters, madness and gore. What drew you to incorporate these thrilling elements of horror and fantasy?
I’ve always enjoyed these elements in the stories that I read! I also think it’s because the setting of 1920s Shanghai was poised for this sort of atmosphere: I gravitated toward it because it was this glittering, extravagant time with gangsters running amok on the streets … but it was also a time of imperialism and colonialism, and when you mix the glamorous exterior with the poisoned interior you get these aspects that do especially well in horror and fantasy. I wanted the aesthetic of 1920s Shanghai, but I also wanted to bring to the forefront this sense of foreign damage and fast-moving destruction, all of which might have been difficult to encompass as an abstract concept but could become super evident if there was a monster tearing through the city.
Towering empires, glittering nightlife! Your vivid, atmospheric descriptions invite readers to fully immerse themselves in 1920s Shanghai. What was the most interesting fact from this time and place that you stumbled upon?
That the Bund was height-restricted! Much of the Art Deco buildings that have become iconic landmarks of modern-day Shanghai were built during the 1920s and 1930s, and at this time they were only allowed to go up to a certain height.
Are there any other classic stories you want to reimagine?
I would love to keep reimagining Shakespearean plays for some time. Antony and Cleopatra is my next favorite play after Romeo and Juliet, and I think it would be extra interesting for me to reimagine that too since I’ve already done Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra run a lot of parallels as the grown-up versions of them. Since These Violent Delights is YA to reflect teenage Romeo and Juliet, I hope to do adult fantasy Antony and Cleopatra one day.
We love to ask: What are you reading and recommending right now? 
I’m currently reading a YA fantasy called Jade Fire Gold by June CL Tan, which is excellent so far and has one of the coolest elevator pitches as “What if Katara were the Dark Avatar and Zuko was hunting her down?” My top YA contemporary recommendation is Counting Down with You by Tashie Bhuiyan, about a Bangladeshi girl caught in a fake-dating scheme with the school bad boy, and my fave upcoming YA sci-fi recommendation is Gearbreakers by Zoe Hana Mikuta, featuring giant mecha-deities and found family.