The Mouse Deer Kingdom is the book Chiew-Siah Tei worked on during her 2012 residency at Cove Park. It is a tale of love and betrayal set against the backdrop of a troubled time when hundreds of thousands of Chinese fled poverty and the Qing Empire for Southeast Asia. This is Chiew’s second novel; her first, the acclaimed Little Hut of Leaping Fishes, was listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize and Best Scottish Fiction Prize, and won the Readers’ Choice Award (Malaysia).