Xífù by K-Ming Chang

Daughter-in-law.

April was productive month for my reading goals, culminating in a total of 39 reviews! May is already shaping up to be quite busy, which will likely impact my ability to sustain this remarkable pace I've been on. However, I remain cautiously optimistic that it will be possible to review at least one short-story per day. First up, we have "Xífù" by K-Ming Chang. I'm not up to speed with newer authors and tend to gravitate towards the more recognizable household names. Although lately, I have started to broaden my reading horizons, especially when it comes to POC writers. This story was fantastic with a great mixture of pathos and comedy. We are presented with three generations of a Chinese family, all from the perspective of women. Intergenerational trauma, gender roles and cultural estrangement are important themes running throughout the story. 

The primary narrative voice is a mother telling a story about her tumultuous relationship with the cantankerous mother-in-law prone to histrionics. As someone with an Asian background, catastrophizing and living a life of hyperbole feels quite relatable. This formidable matriarch, disapproving of her son's chosen spouse, resorts to dramatic gestures, feigning suicide repeatedly in protest against the marriage. The story is filled with surreal and dark irreverent humor, especially pertaining to the mother-in-laws outlandish suicide attempts. The mother's daughter is also queer, which is a radical departure from heteronormative expectations and perhaps an attempt to break the inherited trauma of marrying a man with an overbearing mother-in-law. Despite the serious subject matter, the author somehow makes it all very funny in a weird and twisted way. K-Ming Chang is  young author to keep an eye on I look forward to checking out some of her other works. 

You can read this story HERE.