Caitlin Wang

   

Caitlin Mary Wang (also known as 'O Katorin' and as 'Caitlin Thomas') (b. 1948) is the main character of my story A Cautionary Tale. She is the daughter of Wang Ping Yuan and Marlene Wang nee Thomas. Although she is a Chinese American, she later comes to identify quite strongly with her Welsh heritage (her mother's parents were Welsh), possibly in reaction to her Western mother's eccentrically over-enthusiastic embrace of Chinese culture.

Having been discovered as a serious go talent by Huang Zi, Caitlin travels to Japan to become an insei in the early 1960s. She is very disturbed by the change in her surroundings, and finds puberty to be exruciatingly difficult, because she is unusually tall. Caitlin is also deeply troubled by not knowing her father. Unfortunately, Caitlin is unable to resolve her conflicts, and grows up to be a devious, cruel and rather solitary woman, who uses her beauty and go skill to hurt her rivals. She has one friend, Yoko, who may or may not be her lover.

In the 1970s Caitlin becomes dominant on the Japanese go scene, and causes a rapid increase in the popularity of the game in the USA. However, her sociopathic personality and cruelty lead to unfortunate consequences. Although she is greatly admired by her peers, she is bitterly resented by her fellow professionals. She is deferred to out of fear, although Koyama (whom she once rejected when he asked her out to a Godzilla movie) is one of the few people who is able to stand up to her. Her long-running battles with the ugly, stubborn and tenacious Koyama will be a highlight of the Japanese go scene in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1976 Catalin Wang was fined and punitively demoted to 3 dan by the Nihon Kiin for insulting an eight-year old go fan and her father when they interrupted Caitlin as she walking from the restaurant to the offices in the Nihon Kiin. Caitlin also appeared briefly as a character in an anime about a ten-year-old go prodigy posessed by a famous player's spirit, but the show was a flop, and she sued for producers for misrepresenting her. Apparently she lost the case, and there are rumours the judge actually decreed that the show only misrepresented her in so far as it was not possible to depict such a despicable person sufficiently accurately. Caitlin does have a softer side: she has a pet dog called Sam (in memory of her Uncle Sam), and apparently in a moment of uncharacteristic generosity she once donated 100 yen to a children's hospice.

I have not decided what Caitlin's long-term fate will be.

Caitlin is 6ft 1, and has dark auburn hair. She has Asian features, although her nose is more Western in shape. She is very beautiful and very slender. Her favourite hobby is *something unusual* (can't think what would be suitably strange, yet!). She is known as O Katorin in Japan, although she dislikes this reading of her name; in 1978 she formally changes her surname to Thomas (her mother's maiden name), although she is still often known by her original surname.

I don't care if Caitlin is not very realistic. I realise that my story is not going to be great literature, so I've decided to let my imagination run riot and write a wild soap-opera like fantasy set in the world of go. She is not a "Mary Sue" in that she is a horrible person and not a very happy one. As for me, I'm very gentle, easy-going and generally happy go lucky. And being such a kind person, I have made Caitlin even taller than me, so that she can feel the frustration of not being able to find nice shoes easily to an even greater degree. (Remember, she lives in Japan, where Western sizes are hard to come by.)

Tamsin


This is a copy of the living page "Caitlin Wang" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2005 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.
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