You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Regina Kanyu Wang, Yu Chen
4 reviews
adventurous
medium-paced
This was a pretty diverse but mixed bag of essays and SFF short stories entirely by women and nonbinary authors and translators with ties to China, either being from the country or as a member of the diaspora. I really appreciate that this collection exists and commend the editors for taking great care in curating the essays and stories in this book. It was fun to explore a different mode of SFF storytelling—specifically that they don’t follow Western conventions—though it did take getting used to. A lot of the way these stories were told was new territory for me as a non-Chinese reader, since the authors (not surprisingly) drew heavily from their culture, traditions, and history to craft their respective stories.
Unfortunately, for a book with nearly twenty short stories, I only enjoyed about a quarter of them. I think the main issue I ran into with the stories I didn’t enjoy as much was that I didn’t fully understand what was happening due to missing contextual information. That being said, and as Kaung aptly pointed out in her essay on translation, it’s incredibly tricky for translators to figure out just how much explaining needs to be done for readers unfamiliar with the culture/history, a lot of it being rather political. Translation aside, though, I did find some stories could have been more developed, as a few lacked substance (to me, at least).
Perhaps it’s the academic in me, but I found the essays incredibly insightful and a lot more interesting. It definitely helped fill in the blanks for some stories, too, but I just appreciated learning about the Chinese literary landscape and the state of translating from Chinese. Of the essays, I have to say the one that really stood out to me was “Net Novels and the ‘She Era’” by Xueting Christine Ni, who wrote in great detail about internet novels (e.g., dānměi) and their female readers and writers.
Overall, the intention behind this collection was one I really appreciated. Even if I didn’t end up enjoying most of it, I still think it’s worth picking up this book to read some of the stories and essays offered.
Some favorites: “The Futures of Genders in Chinese Science Fiction” by Jing Tsu (essay), “A Saccharophilic Earthworm” by BaiFanRuShuang (tr. Ru-Ping Chen), “The Way Spring Arrives” by Wang Nuonuo (tr. Rebecca F. Kuang), “New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village” by Chen Qian (tr. Emily Xeuni Jin), “The Woman Carrying a Corpse” by Chi Hui (tr. Judith Huang), “Net Novels and the ‘She Era’: How Internet Novels Opened the Door for Female Readers and Writers in China” by Xueting Christine Ni (essay), and “Writing and Translation: A Hundred Technical Tricks” by Rebecca F. Kuang (essay)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Medical content
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Violence
Minor: Cancer, Suicide, Car accident
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
At first I was like none of these have anything to do with spring! Then I got to the titular bitchular, and I see why she’s the titular bitchular. The stories were all cool. The lowest ratings I gave were 3.25, the highest were two 5 star stories (one of which was the titular bitchular). But I do wish all the stories would've had something to do with spring based on the title of the book as a whole. The book should've been something about contemporary Chinese writers instead. Very worth my purchase. I liked taking a peak into a culture I know almost nothing about really.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Misogyny, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War
Minor: Cancer, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
I read about half of the stories/essays, and just wasn’t really feeling them. I also didn’t understand a lot of them, but that could be a me problem. Here are the ones that I liked the most:
The Restaurant At The End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro by Anna Wu translated by Carmen Yiling
The Restaurant At The End of the Universe: Tai-Chi Mashed Taro by Anna Wu translated by Carmen Yiling
4⭐️ I liked the vibes. Curious about the hitchhiker’s guide references in the beginning.
Minor cw for suicide
The Alchemist of Lantian by BaiFanRuShuang translated by Ru-Ping Chen 3.5⭐️
Cw: illness
Essay: Translation As Retelling: An Approach To Translating Gu Shi’s “To Procure Jade” and Ling Chen’s “The Name of the Dragon” by Yilin Wang
The Alchemist of Lantian by BaiFanRuShuang translated by Ru-Ping Chen 3.5⭐️
Cw: illness
Essay: Translation As Retelling: An Approach To Translating Gu Shi’s “To Procure Jade” and Ling Chen’s “The Name of the Dragon” by Yilin Wang
3.5⭐️ cool to see the process behind translating a story.
The Name of the Dragon by Ling Chen translated by Yilin Wang
The Name of the Dragon by Ling Chen translated by Yilin Wang
3.5⭐️
Cw: death, violence, blood, injury
To Procure Jade by Gu Shi translated by Yilin Wang
3.5⭐️
Cw: blood
New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village by Chen Qian translated by Emily Xueni Jin
New Year Painting, Ink and Color on Rice Paper, Zhaoqiao Village by Chen Qian translated by Emily Xueni Jin
3.5⭐️
Cw: missing child, bullying, fire, death
I will say I was kind of expecting more actual non binary representation, I didn’t really see much of that. Also curious how many of the contributors are non binary because all but two use exclusively she/her, and of course pronouns ≠ gender (I’m a genderless she/her after all), but it still doesn’t seem very diverse within the non binary category (And for the two who used she/they, in their bios they only used she/her.. 🤔 to be fair idk if an editor wrote the bios or if everyone wrote their own, I assumed an editor).
Cw: missing child, bullying, fire, death
I will say I was kind of expecting more actual non binary representation, I didn’t really see much of that. Also curious how many of the contributors are non binary because all but two use exclusively she/her, and of course pronouns ≠ gender (I’m a genderless she/her after all), but it still doesn’t seem very diverse within the non binary category (And for the two who used she/they, in their bios they only used she/her.. 🤔 to be fair idk if an editor wrote the bios or if everyone wrote their own, I assumed an editor).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Suicide
Manipulation, missing child
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Gore