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Reflections of life in Silicon Valley
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WHAT is it like being a woman in Silicon Valley? How do they balance running a company and having a family? Is the drive to succeed making them better or worse? Why bother working so hard when it seems that all the basic needs of the humans are met?
“Self-actualization is a term that has been used in various Western context, emphasizing the moral worth of the individual,” said Chinese American author Chen Qian, whose books focus on the up-and-coming and accomplished women in the startup world of the Bay Area.
The need to express one’s creativity, the quest for spiritual enlightenment, the pursuit of knowledge, and the desire to give to society are examples of self-actualization that Chen’s characters want to achieve in her latest book “Hall of Mirrors.” The book, which is in Chinese, serves as a journey to the heart, to explore the final level of psychological development — to realize one’s full potential.
Born in the 60s in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwest China, Chen went to the US to study engineering in 1989. She found a job at a startup company in Silicon Valley, and became one of the few female engineers in the male-dominated field.
“Silicon Valley is my second hometown. It is not only the place where I carry out the activities for my daily living, but also provides inspiration for my writing,” the former integrated circuit (IC) designer said.
Chen said she had benefitted from the Silicon Valley where stories of people getting rich overnight were not unusual.
“At that time, churning 60 billionaires in one day was no legend but a widely known fact. The open pursuit of material gains and the worship of money perturbed me. Having achieved my financial freedom, I quit my job and started writing as a way to gain perspective and overcome self-doubt,” Chen told Shanghai Daily.
Her first novel “Love in the Loveless Silicon Valley,” published in 2002, tried to find answers to the question — What does success really look like?
After the dot.com bubble burst, Silicon Valley continued to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world.
“Over the past decade, I feel Silicon Valley has matured a lot, with more innovative ideas aimed at improving human conditions and making the world a better place,” Chen said. “Seeing high-tech companies like Google grow into a good corporate citizen, supporting good causes and protecting the environment, gave me the idea to write a story about the startup world again.”
To address the timeless — and unanswered question — of “What does success look like,” Shan Ying, the female CEO of a startup company in Silicon Valley from Chen Qian’s fiction “Hall of Mirrors” came up with such an answer: It’s a mindset of perpetual pursuit; a belief that there is always something to learn from setback and that failure doesn’t exist unless you believe it does. It is the desire to live life like a bunch of fireworks, with no regrets.
How did you start writing novels?
I have been writing since I was little. Though I enrolled in the college as a science major, studied electrical engineering and later worked as an IC designer with a high-tech company in Silicon Valley for many years, my love for words and literature have never changed. By the middle of the 90s, I began to live a quiet and steady life in the US. It was also the time when online Chinese literature bloomed overseas. Many of my friends began writing online, so did I. I wrote about my experiences after coming to the US, which blew my mind open and even changed my views of the world. My stories were well received, which prompted me to take up writing.
What is the recurring theme of your books?
Silicon Valley is the place where I have worked and lived longest since coming to the US. It is the place that witnessed my growth and spiritual maturity over the past decade. Like all the others living at the Silicon Valley, we together, experienced the fall, the rise, the peak, and the tech bubbles of Silicon Valley. Right now it is going under a new round of shuffling.
For me, it was a battlefield of wealth and fame. People there cared nothing but new-tech startups, listed prices and profits. It was difficult not to get lost. However, someone like the characters in my books have more lofty ideals than the pursuit of material prosperity. They need to live a life of purpose — to achieve things in life and live out their dreams. I respect the desire and their resolutions.
Does the story have anything to do with the mirrors as the book title suggests?
The book is titled “Hall of Mirrors” for two things: it is a story on the development of an all-new chip for the second generation of Google Glass; on the other hand, it is my portrait of everyone’s life path with very distinct and unique character traits. The place we were born, the person who brought us up, the kind of education we received, the friends we have made and the experience we’ve been through… each of them serves as a mirror that creates a reflection of us. We are a combination of the reflections off the mirrors.
Most of your stories focus on female characters. Is there an attempt to appeal to career women?
No, there is no attempt to appeal to any women or men. I write about women because, as a woman, I am more confident in the portrayal of women than men. We all have big dreams when we are young. I am more interested in those who refuse to give up despite life’s inevitable setbacks.
Chen Qian is a late bloomer in the field of literature. She started writing online in the 1990s which gave her the confidence to work on novels. Her books are about women, essentially working in startups in San Francisco’s Bay Area, where she now resides.
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