IPOH: When reporter-turned-author Li Zi Shu wrote a novel in Chinese with Ipoh as the background, little did she know that readers in China would be visiting Ipoh to experience the scenes and places described in her book.

Liu Su Di, or the translated book with the name The Age of Goodbyes, is a novel about struggles of Malaysian Chinese women through the decades and generations.

One of the characters in the book is a blind girl living in Ipoh.

Published in 2020, the novel has attracted readers from China to visit Ipoh, apart from discussing the details of the book on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.

Bloggers go the extra mile to identify the actual places mentioned in the novel and post in their travel blogs in great details, including a stall that sells buns in the wet market and a home for the blind at Gunung Rapat.

Many have visited Ipoh to look for the flats, temple, school and delicious food mentioned in the novel written by Li Zi Shu, whose real name is Lim Pow Leng.

They come to visit the places and share the details on Xiaohongshu, encouraging more readers to visit Ipoh.

Lim met a reader in Beijing who managed to find the places she wrote in the novel except the mental hospital in Tanjung Rambutan.

Now, the novel is being adapted for a Chinese TV series, and filming is scheduled to start in Ipoh this month.

Besides TV series, a film director has also struck a deal with Lim to film it as a movie in future.

Lim said 90 percent of the places mentioned in the novel were actual places in Ipoh, including Kinta Heights Apartments, the restaurant and shops in Ipoh’s old town.

“I wrote about the life of poor people. They encounter many issues but aways help one another in life.

“What I have wanted to express that is no matter how hard one’s life is, the outcome will turn out to be okay. Many have the courage to move on and the readers like the novel.

“The story is based in Ipoh which is like the Chinese community in Malaysia where you can find some similar characters in Chinese new villages across the country,” she said.

Hoong Tho Restaurant’s third-generation owner is aware of the fact that Chinese tourists have ordered a noodle dish from the restaurant because of the novel, after reading the novel recommended by a friend.

Yang Xuan, a 31-year-old reporter from Guangzhou, China, opted to stop by Ipoh when she visited Malaysia in June, so that she could personally feel Ipoh after reading the novel three years ago.

“I can understand the novel better after visiting the places in Ipoh,” she said.

Seeing the apartments, Yang recalled the details of fixing grills after someone had fallen from high floor, and could relate the close relations mentioned in the novel.

Hailing from Guangzhou, Yang can relate the Cantonese words used in the novel.

The presence of Raju, an Indian character adds multi-racial element and inclusiveness into the story, making it even more interesting for non-Malaysian readers.