Her petite frame, round eyes, long dark hair and tightly fitting cheongsam draw attention on the streets of New York, but it's those who shake hands with Mingmei Yip who discover just how delicate she is. Her stunningly long, slim fingers can only have been created to produce beauty.
And they do. When they fiddle the guqin, a traditional Chinese instrument, music flows; when they hold a brush, calligraphy sweeps across paper; and when they run over the keyboard of a computer, they write novels.
Song of the Silk Road, Yip's third novel - her successful debut, Peach Blossom Pavilion, was published in 2008 - is a story of love between a Chinese girl and a mixed-race boy that unfolds in the treacherous Taklimakan Desert. The tale is based on a dream the author had - a common source of her inspiration.
Born in Hong Kong to a father who loved music but was addicted to gambling and a mother who loved painting but was consumed with worry, Yip was taught piano, painting and calligraphy as a child, but that failed to charm some members of the family.
When her maternal grandmother, a Chinese-Vietnamese who owned a Pepsi-Cola factory in Vietnam, visited Hong Kong, she showed a clear preference for Yip's brother.
'She thought that as a girl I was 'money losing merchandise',' says Yip, who rebelled in her own way. 'I sat in a chair staring out of the window without speaking a word for a whole day and my grandmother even asked my mother whether I was retarded.'
