The Membranes - BookWyrm

eBook, 168 pages

English language

Published June 2021 by Columbia University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-231-55144-1

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, …

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. Ari Larissa Heinrich’s translation brings Chi’s hybrid punk sensibility to all readers interested in books that test the limits of where speculative fiction can go.

– cup.columbia.edu/book/the-membranes/9780231195713/

5 editions

martattack reviewed The Membranes by Ta-wei Chi

Review of 'The Membranes' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Holy shit what did I just read?

So I went in knowing only that a) it was dystopian sci-fi and b) nothing else, tbh this is more than enough to get me to read a book.

Context: this book was written in 1996, right when Taiwan ended its martial law, leaving the country exposed to the rest of the world (aka capitalism) (but also other nice things like (queer) ideas!!).

The presented dystopia: ozone layer is gone, UV radiation is so strong that humans need to make Atlantis-like replicas of countries, occupying ocean beds of the planet. Clearly a critique on growthism and techno optimism, and almost literally where we're heading lol (if you substitute the ocean for Mars) (somebody stop Elon Musk pls lol im scared)

In any case, crazy plot and plot twist and, once you look into the context, it makes much more sense - as with …

Holy shit what did I just read?

So I went in knowing only that a) it was dystopian sci-fi and b) nothing else, tbh this is more than enough to get me to read a book.

Context: this book was written in 1996, right when Taiwan ended its martial law, leaving the country exposed to the rest of the world (aka capitalism) (but also other nice things like (queer) ideas!!).

The presented dystopia: ozone layer is gone, UV radiation is so strong that humans need to make Atlantis-like replicas of countries, occupying ocean beds of the planet. Clearly a critique on growthism and techno optimism, and almost literally where we're heading lol (if you substitute the ocean for Mars) (somebody stop Elon Musk pls lol im scared)

In any case, crazy plot and plot twist and, once you look into the context, it makes much more sense - as with any dystopia, this is a piece that unveils the turmoil and anxieties of its time by projecting onto a certain future. In this case, this future presents ubiquitous commodification, mass surveillance, omnipotent corporations (this is getting too real....) but also adding many queer elements (hooray!).

Quite a mind-boggling short read, and a cool way to peep into 90s Taiwan through queer sci-fi!

@Foskea this goes out to you cuz I'm reading this after you clicked "Want to Read" on this very website! And also today is your bday what a coinkindink! Happy bday Fossie xxxx

mario

rated it

Feb. 17, 2022

Daniel

rated it

July 19, 2023