The Paper Menagerie and other stories

Ken Liu

☆☆☆☆☆ 4/5

I first encountered Ken Liu’s writing through his translation of Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem. I didn’t view Cixin Liu’s story particularly favorably, but appreciated the translated writing and the effort involved in translating across fundamentally different languages. And so I picked up this highly acclaimed collection of stories with great anticipation.

The common thread in Ken Liu’s short story collection, The Paper Menagerie and other stories, is not Science Fiction/Fantasy which is the genre attributed to this book. Nor is it the Asian characters and settings, present in almost every story. To me, it’s pathos.

From the titular and multi award winning short story The Paper Menagerie, to the novella All the Flavors, the stories left me with lingering sadness.

I’ve savored these stories, from the preface to the last, over an entire month (The collection is sizable—at 450 pages in smaller than usual font). Each story is clearly the result of a labor of love—crafted with great care and at considerable emotional effort by Mr. Liu. But there is undeniable poignance in every one of them— sentiments of silent suffering; of loss that is irreparable, arbitrary and therefore unfair; of sacrifices made from parents, friends and lovers. The writing is beautiful and a result of profound empathy with suffering which earns it four stars from me.

But from suffering can arise forgiveness, wisdom and hope for a brighter future. Unfortunately these stories don’t provide that. And so in the end this book is not uplifting. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Mr. Liu provides a window to his worldview in his elegant, must-read preface in the book:

We spend our entire lives trying to tell stories about ourselves—they’re the essence of memory. It shows how we make a living in this unfeeling, accidental universe tolerable

Unfeeling, accidental universe. This unfortunately, is not how I view the world. Yes, there is unimaginable suffering, much of it senseless, making it hard to imagine a cause, let alone a purpose. But surely the events of the universe and our own consciousness are not all solely governed by randomness. If anything, I believe a vast inter-connectedness across everything, the comprehension and awareness of which is one of life’s purposes. And so it’s unlikely I will read any more of Ken Liu’s books.

Personal philosophical differences aside, I do appreciate Mr. Liu’s immense talents as a writer. Mr. Liu does an incredible job of mixing Asian culture, mythology and history with science fiction and fantasy: all of which are very much a part of the stories and much of it, a revelation to me. Also on the plus side, the family and I spent an enjoyable 30 minutes crafting origami deer for the paper tiger cover image to chase (using this video tutorial), for the post title image.

My top 3 stories in the collection:

The Paper Menagerie: A truly magical story about a child’s desire and eagerness to fit into his society and a mother’s love for her child that transcends every suffering she has to endure. Deserving of every accolade it has received—and it has gotten many. It is available to read online here.

You know what the Chinese think is the saddest feeling in the world? It's for a child to finally grow the desire to take care of his parents, only to realize that they were long gone.

All the Flavors: The longest story in the collection—a novella. Brilliantly mixes ancient Chinese folklore with Chinese immigrant history in the US during the gold rush. (available online here)

Those are wise words: Not everyone sees a loss as an opportunity

The Man who ended History: a documentary: Perhaps the most heartfelt, evocative and thought provoking story in the collection. Mr. Liu uses a form of time travel to call out the barbarous crimes of Japanese military unit 371’s against Chinese civilians during WW2 and the current conflicted acknowledgement of those events by Japan and the world. This history was new to me. It is written in the documentary style used at least a couple of times by my current favorite sci-fi author Ted Chiang (Ken Liu acknowledges Chiang as the inspiration for the documentary narrative). The story raises pertinent questions on the need, utility and consequences of dredging up the past argued from various perspectives.

The story is available to read on Ken Liu’s site here.

In an extraordinary time, he faced extraordinary choices, and maybe some would say this means that we cannot judge him. But how can we really judge anyone except in the most extraordinary circumstances?