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Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories by Regina Kanyu Wang, Yu Chen
5 reviews
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Dementia, Sexism, Death, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny
Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Cancer, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy
maeverose's review
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: Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness
Minor: Suicide and Fatphobia
Manipulation, missing childszuum's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Medical trauma, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness
Minor: Animal death
laurareads87's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022 and the collection did not disappoint. While inevitably with any short story collection, particularly an anthology, any reader will enjoy some stories more than others, this is a fantastically curated collection -- wide-ranging, diverse, and I believe at least a few stories that'll appeal to any reader of sci-fi and/or fantasy. In addition, there are several short essays interspersed throughout the collection which deal with topics related to gender representation in Chinese literature and publishing, Chinese to English / English to Chinese translation, and gendered language. I found all of these essays interesting & they, like several of the stories, left me with lots to think about. Finally, the hardcover edition of this book is beautiful; I read most of my fiction digitally but I'm pleased to have this edition on my shelf. I'm looking forward to seeking out work by several of the authors featured in this collection.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma and Medical content
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Violence, and Terminal illness
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
'The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories: A Collection of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy in Translation' is an excellent collection of speculative short stories and essays on translation by female and nonbinary authors. The essays weave in an out of the short stories to provide context on translation right next to translated pieces. One of the essays is a direct commentary on the author's work translating two of the pieces in the series and because it comes directly before those two pieces, we get context about those pieces before we read them, which I found a really fascinating way to delve into the two fiction pieces. The stories span science fiction, fabulism, and fantasy and this, paired with the essays, makes it a really well-rounded anthology.
My favorite pieces in this anthology are 'Blackbird' by Shen Dacheng translated by Cara Healey, the titular 'The Way Spring Arrives' by Wang Nuonuo translated by Rebecca F. Kuang, 'The Woman Carrying a Corpse' by Chi Hui translated by Judith Huang, and 'The Mountain and the Secret of Their Names' by Wang Nuonuo translated by Rebecca F. Kuang.
The one downside to this collection is that I want to read more from these authors but many of their works are not yet translated. I hope that this collection helps to demonstrate to Western publishers that we need more translated speculative work from Chinese women and nonbinary authors.
My favorite pieces in this anthology are 'Blackbird' by Shen Dacheng translated by Cara Healey, the titular 'The Way Spring Arrives' by Wang Nuonuo translated by Rebecca F. Kuang, 'The Woman Carrying a Corpse' by Chi Hui translated by Judith Huang, and 'The Mountain and the Secret of Their Names' by Wang Nuonuo translated by Rebecca F. Kuang.
The one downside to this collection is that I want to read more from these authors but many of their works are not yet translated. I hope that this collection helps to demonstrate to Western publishers that we need more translated speculative work from Chinese women and nonbinary authors.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Violence
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