Fiction
The Membranes
by Chi Ta-Wei
Description
It is the late twenty-first century, and Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in all of T City. Humanity has migrated to domes at the bottom of the sea to escape devastating climate change. The world is dominated by powerful media conglomerates and runs on exploited cyborg labor. Momo prefers to keep to herself, and anyway she’s too busy for other relationships: her clients include some of the city’s best-known media personalities. But after meeting her estranged mother, she begins to explore her true identity, a journey that leads to questioning the bounds of gender, memory, self, and reality.
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. Predicting everything from fitness tracking to social media saturation, this visionary and sublime novel stands out for its queer and trans themes. The Membranes reveals the diversity and originality of contemporary speculative fiction in Chinese, exploring gender and sexuality, technological domination, and regimes of capital, all while applying an unflinching self-reflexivity to the reader’s own role.
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Rights Information
Foreign rights sold:
US (Columbia University Press)
France (L'Asiathèque)
Italy (Add editore)
Japan (Sakuhinsha)
Korea (Geulhangari)
For the rights inquiry, please contact: whsu@nurnberg.com.tw
Marketing Information
★United Daily News Literary Prize
Reviews
This rather astonishing science fiction novel is a powerful story about consciousness and connection with other people. It cuts right to the heart of our current moment by way of metaphor, but in a manner that is entirely Chi’s, and thus a new thing for English-language readers. What a surprising and exciting addition to science fiction and world literature. -- Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Red Mars
Readers will notice prescient echoes of modern life in Chi’s depictions of all-absorbing media consumption and loneliness in the midst of hyper-connection . . . [T]his captivating novel is rich and rewarding. ― Publishers Weekly
The Membranes is a welcome addition to the small but growing ranks of international science fiction available in English translation, and is an excellent early example of climate fiction. ― Booklist
The Membranes is an exceptionally well-conceived and turned science fiction story. Deceptively simple-looking on the surface, it is a truly impressive piece of work. ― Complete Review
Author Biography
Chi Ta-wei is a renowned writer and scholar from Taiwan. Chi’s scholarly work focuses on LGBT studies, disability studies, and Sinophone literary history, while his award-winning creative writing ranges from science fiction to queer short stories. He is an associate professor of Taiwanese literature at the National Chengchi University.
Ailbert Cultural Company Limited
Ailbert Cultural Company Limited was established in 2012 with the original purpose of promoting the works of Taiwanese writers to Mainland China, and then expanding the translation rights territory to Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, as well as the UK, US and European markets. Since 2018, we started to authorize TV/film rights across the world on behalf of our representative authors. 安伯文化事業有限公司成立於2012年，最初宗旨是將台灣作家的著作推向中國大陸，隨後拓展版權版圖至泰國、越南、印尼等東南亞地區，以及英美歐書市。我們授權代理的知名台灣導演和藝人作家包括：吳念真導演（《這些年，那些事》，中簡版在中國暢銷逾50萬冊）、小S（《國際廚娘的終極導師》）、陳昇（《9999滴眼淚》、《鹹魚的滋味》等共7本書）、曲家瑞（《誰說我沒有影響力》等共3本書）、黃子佼（《我還在》）、鄭華娟（《氣質卡小狗學堂》）；以及台灣年度暢銷作家：肆一（《可不可以，你也剛好喜歡我？》等共4本書）、Peter Su（《夢想這條路踏上了，跪著也要走完》等共3本書；同時代理著作文學小說家，包括囊括多座文學獎項的張貴興（《野豬渡河》和《沙龍祖母》等3本小說）、香港知名小說家董啟章（《愛妻》和《命子》等2本小說）；自2018年為旗下代理作家授權影視版權，包括董啟章的《體育時期》授權全球電影版權等。
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Linking Publishing
- Orginal LanguageChinese complex
- ISBN/Identifier 9789570837698
- Publication Country or regionTaiwan
- FormatPaperback
- Pages456
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Original Language Title膜
- Original Language Authors紀大偉
- Copyright Year2011
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