THE PEOPLE OF MA ZHISHEN
The Character Encyclopedia
A traveler through time never walks alone. Meet the people whose courage, curiosity, humor, and difficult decisions shape his journeys.
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Ma Zhishen
Ma Zhishen is a mysterious traveler with a quick mind, a mischievous sense of humor, and a habit of becoming involved in other people’s troubles. Beneath his eccentric manner lies a fierce concern for human life. His experience helps him ask difficult questions, but it cannot spare him from mistakes—or make another person’s choices for them.
Millie Turner
Millie Turner knows the streets of Whitechapel and has a sharp eye for details others overlook. A chance encounter with the mysterious Ma Zhishen draws her into an adventure that challenges everything she thinks she knows. Curious, resourceful, and unwilling to accept an easy explanation, Millie becomes a guide Ma cannot easily dismiss.
Thomas Mercer
Thomas Mercer is Clara’s husband and Elsie’s father. A working Londoner devoted to his family, he knows the importance of stretching a modest income and making do with what they have. His concern for Clara and Elsie brings the pressures of everyday life into focus as their story unfolds.
Clara Mercer
Clara Mercer helps support her family by sewing garments while raising her daughter, Elsie, with her husband, Thomas. Long hours and shrinking pay leave little room for comfort. Observant and determined, Clara questions the unfair treatment she is expected to accept, drawing Ma into a struggle rooted in the everyday lives of working Londoners.
Elsie Mercer
Four-year-old Elsie Mercer is Clara and Thomas’s spirited daughter. Fiercely attached to her wooden horse—especially after its troublesome wheel is repaired—she turns ordinary buttons into goods for her make-believe shop and expects everyone to follow her rules. Her curiosity, humor, and affection bring warmth to the Mercer household and often catch its visitors by surprise.
Walter Haines
Walter Haines operates a garment subcontracting business in Whitechapel, supplying work to women who depend on every penny they earn. Respectably dressed but worn at the edges, he presents himself as a practical middleman trying to manage pressures from above and below. As Clara Mercer begins questioning how the work is distributed and paid, Walter finds that the habits he has long defended are becoming harder to justify.