Why We Read (And Or Write About) Jane Austen by Christina Hwang Dudley

Jane Austen's body of work delivers a nuanced understanding of life—especially as a woman, family dynamics, insights into the historical context of the period, and the social norms between men and women. For the last two decades, I have been fascinated by Austen’s diverse and massive fan following, scholars, and writers, and I love discovering why her words and characters still resonate with so many these two hundred years later. Over the next twelve months, I plan to feature one Austen fan a month to offer their insights.

My May guest writer is fellow Asian American and Pacific Northwest author Christina Hwang Dudley. Recently, she published a contemporary Asian American riff on Pride and Prejudice (terrific timing as it is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.)

Christina Hwang Dudley, author

By Christina Hwang Dudley

Jane Austen and I met on a blind date, really, because my sister and I went through a phase in our early teens where we devoured Signet Regency romances. We would go to the library and check out a stack of them, and every time we were at the mall, we would run into Walden Books to check for new releases. Favorites included works by Edith Layton, Diana Brown, Sandra Heath, Diana Campbell, and Marion Chesney. Little did I know, those wonderful romances traced their roots to Austen’s masterworks. Yes, Austen invented the modern novel, but she also invented the modern romance novel. So, when I finally got around to reading Pride and Prejudice, it was like meeting an old friend.

When I hit college, I discovered you could be this cool thing called an English Major and spend all your time sitting around reading books and thinking about books and talking about books, so of course my senior seminar was Austen, where the clearest memory I have was when another student, whose stylish boots I admired, asked the professor, “What does it mean in Persuasion when Sir Walter says Mr. Elliott is ‘very much under-hung’?” Seizing on the teaching moment, the professor ignored the muted snickering and introduced us all to the Oxford English Dictionary, where the very sentence in question is cited in entry 1a: underhung – “Having the lower jaw projecting beyond the upper or coming unusually far forward.” Poor, nefarious Mr. Elliott! You wouldn’t catch Darcy having a jaw like that.

Pride and Preston Lin, Published March 19, 2024

As Janeites will, who mourned her early death and truncated output, I eventually started writing my own Regency romances, paying her homage by setting my heroines in close-knit families outside of London and generally avoiding titled folk. And as Janeites might find familiar, my collection of Jane-related things grew and grew. Biographies, research books, tea towels, maps, action figures, even a purse based on a piece of fabric from her wardrobe. Is there a word for being an Austen-specific hoarder? If there is, that’s what I am. I went on pilgrimages to Bath and London and Winchester to go on Austen walking tours. I took a few English country dance lessons and wished for a bosom which could carry off Austen fashions.

But all along, the one area where I stuck out among Janeites (at least when I was growing up), was in my ethnic background. Before Austen became a global phenom, I didn’t know a lot of Chinese American Janeites. So, when I saw a Publishers Weekly article announcing a new book publisher called Third State Books, focused on Asian American writers, I instantly hit them up cold with the book idea that had been rattling in my head probably since puberty: a contemporary Chinese American spin on Pride and Prejudice set in the San Francisco Bay Area where I’d grown up. Third State liked the idea enough to buy the book after I’d written only two chapters, and this happy union led to Pride and Preston Lin, launching March 19, 2024. This time, the heroine is a fifth-year college student at San Jose State University, and the “Darcy” a Stanford PhD candidate and star swimmer. When perspiration meets privilege, will love school them both?

Christina Hwang Dudley, author

ABOUT CHRISTINA HWANG DUDLEY

Christina Hwang Dudley is the author of clean historical and contemporary romance. Her historical romances include the "Hapgoods of Bramleigh" and "Ellsworth Assortment" series of Regency romances, including The Naturalist and Tempted by Folly. In contemporary romance, her forthcoming Pride and Preston Lin (Third State Books, 2024) riffs on Austen, but this time the story is set in the San Francisco Bay Area, with Asian American protagonists who hail from different ends of the economic spectrum.

Connect with Christina via her website.