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      • The Membranes
        Fiction

        The Membranes

        by Chi Ta-Wei

        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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      • The Piano Tuner
        Fiction
        April 2020

        The Piano Tuner

        by Kuo Chiang-Sheng(Johnny Kuo)

        “In the beginning, we were souls without bodies.” When God planned to give us souls a physical shape, souls lost freedom forever.   Our protagonist is a piano tuner with an extraordinary musical gift. Not only does he possess a mastery over musicality and pitch, he is also able to distinguish the distinct characteristics of each piano. A chance encounter in his teen derails the dreams of becoming a professional pianist, leaving him stuck in time against the memories of what has been lost – he is now over forty, unkept, and lacks achievement of any kind.   A grieving businessman of over sixty meets the tuner when he is left behind a piano by his wife. The pair become business partners with the plan of dealing second-hand pianos – they embark on a journey to locate a piano in New York.   As the journey unfolds, the tuner comes to understand the twists and turns of a love story that is hidden out of sight under the elegant sound of the piano: the love of an older man and his young wife – their love tested against the trials and tribulations of life. He learns that there is a universality to the secrets hidden behind each narrative of love, whether it is between teachers and students, husband and wife, and even in friendship.   Their final destination is an old piano cemetery, a whole field of bare, stripped, and abandoned piano remains. This evokes an emotional response from the tuner, as he recognizes it as a dark parallel to the final ruins of emotions.    THE PIANO TUNER utilizes musical stories from history, such as Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Richter, and Gould to represent the characters’ thoughts in the story. Kuo Chiang-Sheng’s extensive research is evident: from Richter, the second-hand piano distribution center in Manhattan, to the piano tuner profession, etc. all are set against the sound and backdrop of the everchanging, contemporary media age.   Everyone has an innate program for resonance. Some find it in musical instruments, some in singing, while some are more fortunate to find a vibration amid the world, awakening resonance between the past, present, and future. The novel tells a story of sound and emotion, and the medium of communication between the two is the piano. A book filled with sorrow and temperance, Kuo Chiang-Sheng’s first foray into musical fiction leaves one breathless with praise.

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      • Taming Of the Sheep
        Fiction
        April 2021

        Taming Of the Sheep

        by Chen-Fu Hsu

        The novel integrates Tibet's natural history, travel notes, and lyrical literature in describing the demise and dilemmas of Tibet's natural scenery and humanistic customs – a sorrowful elegy lamenting the passing of utopia.   In search of snow leopards, a traveler broke through countless obstacles to reach the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and was allowed to conduct a 72-day snow leopard survey at the Conservation Research Station. Time passes, and he opens his travel log by accident only to find that his heart is still in Tibet – the decision to take a leave of absence from school, returning to the Plateau thrice – what is he looking for now?   In the 1950s, Udagawa Huihai entered Tibet illegally through India to understand the subtleties of Buddhism at a time when the Tibetan army and the People's Liberation Army engaged in guerrilla warfare. He eventually settles down in Lhasa, living together with Rinpoche, resulting in TAMING THE SHEEP.   Utilizing two different time and space plot lines, Chen-Fu Hsu supplements his tale with the Tibetan drama "Princess Wencheng," folding together important historical scenes from the seventh century, twentieth century, and contemporary Tibet. All events traverse beyond the limitations of time. In detail, one observes the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where most people think the Buddha's light shines – we recognize that it has never been calm. After cultural transplantation in the Han Dynasty, the Cultural Revolution swept through, afforestation and grazing ceased, Tibetans not only lived like mayflies but their original nature and life had already gone through several calamities and drifted with the times.   From the perspective of contemporary travelers, we observe the biological phenomena of Tibet. Mirroring the natural balance of grassland ecology and the Tibetan natural history, from shale to pikas, snow leopards, vultures, etc., Hsu also describes sheep epidemics from environmental history and geography. Ecological issues such as mining pollution, prairie rat disaster, and agricultural and animal husbandry conflicts reflect Tibet's emotional identity and economic development battles.   Exquisite philosophies, metaphors, integrating ecology, geography, drama, architecture, travel notes, against a beautiful context – the book depicts the human landscape, herder culture, and the nature of Tibetan in a meticulous manner. In addition to showing the author's depth and displaying his rich experience in learning and training, we also witness his loving care for the land. In an elegiac form, THE TAMING OF THE SHEEP allows readers to see how history repeats itself on this Plateau and the plight of its people.

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