Books in the Modern Chinese Literature from Taiwan series

First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropes-heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologies-into a sensitive portrait of one young woman's quest for self-understanding.

In 1930, the Japanese colonial regime brought a Taiwanese tribe to the brink of genocide. Wu He investigates the atrocity in this milestone of Chinese experimental literature. Shifting among observation, philosophical musings, and fantastical leaps of imagination, Remains of Life is a powerful literary reckoning with Taiwan's colonial history.

From the preeminent writer of Taiwanese nativist fiction and the leading translator of Chinese literature come these poignant accounts of everyday life in rural and small-town Taiwan. Huang is frequently cited as one of the most original and gifted storytellers in the Chinese language, and these selections reveal his genius. In "e;The Two Sign Painters,"e; TV reporters ambush two young workers from the country taking a break atop a twenty-four-story building. "e;His Son's Big Doll"e; introduces the tortured soul inside a walking advertisement, and in "e;Xiaoqi's Cap"e; a dissatisfied pressure-cooker salesman is fascinated by a young schoolgirl.Huang's characters-generally the uneducated and disadvantaged who must cope with assaults on their traditionalism, hostility from their urban brethren and, of course, the debilitating effects of poverty-come to life in all their human uniqueness, free from idealization.