bazhsw
5/29/2022
I read this as part of a 'Women of Genre fiction' challenge as my 'random' author. The short story is available to read for free at https://apex-magazine.com/short-ficti...
his is a short piece, translated by Ken Liu about a schoolgirl who is rumoured to be a sex worker for wealthy men. Without getting into spoilers this is very much rooted in the magical realism genre and the story is very much open to interpretation with an almost dreamlike quality to it. It won't make a lot of sense read literally and I wonder if there is some allegory in here I have missed in translation or due to my limited awareness of Chinese cultural motifs. The story only slightly teases a sexual element and it isn't a sleazy story about a child prostitute. There are is some beautiful prose in here which I wanted to bathe in whilst reading but I missed an overall emotive connection with the story.
It won't take long to read and won't be a waste of your time if you do but I'm not sure this will stay with me.