The Man Asian Literary Prize-winning, Chinese-Filipino novelist tells Patrick Brzeski about the headfuck of fast success and why he’s planning a move to Hong Kong

Handkerchief elegantly breast-pocketed, tan suit an immaculate fit, and the hair so cleanly parted you could measure the Earth’s curve by it, Miguel Syjuco sits down with us one recent morning looking every inch the 1950s Chinese matinee idol, as if direct from a Wong Kar-wai fever dream. The dapper Chinese-Filipino author is back in town to celebrate the Asian release of his debut novel Illustrado, winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize. Having interned at The New Yorker fiction desk, completed creative writing master’s studies in New York and Sydney, and now splitting time between Manila and Montreal, Syjuco is in many ways the embodiment of the ideals of the Man Asian Lit Prize: a talented young Asian writer who traverses Eastern and Western literary cultures with ease, humility and sly humour.

How has winning the Man Asia Literary Prize affected you? Vindication? Added pressure?
Well, practically, it’s brought my work to the attention of the world, which is a dream come true. My work’s coming out in 13 languages in 18 countries, and I’m a human being, so sometimes I think, you know, I’m the shit. But then I sit down to write something and it’s still the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I get humbled.

Has it caused you to rethink your work in any way?
It sometimes makes me wonder whether it’s been published and people are reading it only because of the prize, rather than because it’s actually good. So there’s that doubt. But on the other hand, it has given me confidence. I’ve written a book that’s very unconventional, and yet people like it. I gave up on the book so many times. Now I’m just glad I didn’t give up.

What initially brought you to literature?
I flunked out of my economics major in college. And I was always a big reader. I guess you could say it started when I was a kid. I had thick glasses, braces, bowl-cut hair. I was a classic dork and I didn’t have many friends, so I immersed myself in the world of books. And then when I went to college, I tried to get into economics to be a businessman, like my dad, and his dad before him, and his dad before him. But I just don’t have the mind for math. So I failed out of all the requisite economics courses and they told me you have to choose something else or we’re going to kick you out. So I choose English lit and got into creative writing then.

You created a fictitious Wikipedia page for Illustrado’s central character that tricked many of your early critics. What did you take away from that experiment?
It made me want to do that sort of thing even more. What writer doesn’t want to create a character that everyone believes is actually real? I like the fact that when I pitched the book to agents, a couple of them came back and said, the parts that you wrote are pretty good; but about all the parts that Crispin Salvador wrote, I don’t think we can sell a book that’s half written by someone else. They really thought he was real and I loved that. The book is all fiction.

You’re living in Montreal now, but you often make it to Hong Kong. What’s your impression of the city?
I’m actually trying to figure out a way to move here. To me it’s one of the greatest cities in the world.

Why’s that?
Well, all the different layers. Paris is a wonderful city, but if you can speak French you kinda assimilate. Here there are always so many different layers: are you an expat, are you a local Cantonese, are you a mainlander, where did you go to school, where are you coming from, where are you going? It’s mysterious and it’s challenging.

I’m sure there’s a great story to be told about the Filipino experience in Hong Kong.
Exactly. Honestly, one of the things I enjoy most every time I visit is going up through Central on a Sunday. I see the Filipina domestic helpers there and it makes me proud and it also makes me sad. It fills me with all these complicated emotions. Because you know, they’re there with their little boxes and people look down on them, but they’re also working hard and sending money to their families and doing well.

So, with book launches in Asia, Europe and North America, this must be an exciting moment.
Yeah, it sure is. It’s just great to be getting out of the house, after four long years of writing. Four years in cold Montreal. You get a lot done during those cold winters trapped indoors. Either that or you play a lot of video games and smoke a lot of weed, which is something I... well... sometimes. [Laughs]

Illustrado is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.