The Garden of Evening Mists

Retired Supreme Court judge Teoh Yun Ling is writing her memoirs to preserve them from aphasia, a neurological condition affecting her memory and ability to use language. The narrative is set in the late 1980s, but primarily recounts her time in the Cameron Highlands of Malaya in the early 1950s during the Malayan Emergency, as Malayan nationalists fought to overthrow their British colonizers. Her experiences are also shaped by the recent trauma of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, where she was the sole survivor of a forced labor camp.

Thirty-six years after leaving, Yun Ling awakens in Yugiri, the home of her former mentor, the gardener Aritomo. The housekeeper, Ah Cheong, serves her tea. 

At her retirement ceremony the previous day, she received a simple wooden stick as a gift from a Professor Yoshikawa Tatsuji, along with a note confirming that they are to meet in Yugiri. After saying goodbye to her secretary, Yun Ling called a man named Frederik Pretorius and drove to Yugiri.

In the present, at Yugiri, she greets Frederik, who manages the neighboring Majuba Tea Estate. He asks for permission to use one of Aritomo’s woodblock prints for his tea packaging, which she grants.