What do you think?
Rate this book
The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China
If it runs in the family, you better get movingModern China moves fast, leaving its people trailing behind. The mirage of a picture-perfect home compels some to gamble away the family house, while others have to live with debts of a shameful past. Nevertheless, when something inevitably cracks, it’s always the women who are left to pick up the pieces.
Yao Emei shines a brutally honest light on the crumbling foundations of the Chinese family unit with scalpel-sharp precision. In these four short stories, she sensitively depicts the struggle to escape a vicious cycle of abuse where no one comes out looking good.
To keep things simple, don’t ask Dr Feng’s wife about what her husband’s got up to lately, or Elder Sister about where her son’s gone. Most importantly, beware the enigmatic Gran trading lives on the maternity ward.
Come inside – or stare through the window – at your after all, what’s a closet without its skeletons?
Yao Emei shines a brutally honest light on the crumbling foundations of the Chinese family unit with scalpel-sharp precision. In these four short stories, she sensitively depicts the struggle to escape a vicious cycle of abuse where no one comes out looking good.
To keep things simple, don’t ask Dr Feng’s wife about what her husband’s got up to lately, or Elder Sister about where her son’s gone. Most importantly, beware the enigmatic Gran trading lives on the maternity ward.
Come inside – or stare through the window – at your after all, what’s a closet without its skeletons?
- GenresChina
299 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 27, 2024
5 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 2, 2024
This is a collection of four novellas from an author who has won prizes in China and who has been translated fairly widely. I hadn't read her before but found the prose instantly engaging despite the low-key, no fireworks technique. These stories reminded me a bit of Eileen Chang with their domestic focus that is also quietly revealing of a wider social and cultural environment but are obviously set in a more modern period where social media is available.
It's worth saying something briefly about the individual pieces:
1. It Runs in the Family
What starts off looking like a story built on femicide and masculine privilege gets turned on its head with a family cursed in the male line.
2. Gran is on Her Way
A distressing story about maternity and motherhood which sent me off to Google abortion laws in China. The title only makes horrific sense once you've read this tale.
3. Skeletons in the Closet
Again, the title has an explicit cultural meaning. A twisting story of deception and exploitation that is also revealing of attitudes towards marriage and affairs.
4. You'll Do the Job With Skill and Ease
Perhaps the quirkiest and strangest of the tales and maybe my least favourite possibly because it involves a masculine perspective.
In each case, the title comes to have a specific, sometimes ironic, relationship to the story being told, causing us to re-look at it in light of the text which it heads. Something I appreciate is the subtle ways in which a modern Chinese thought-world is conveyed through the use of myths or just similes or metaphors. On the surface the prose is plainly elegant but not flashy or self-conscious but it works to hook me and keep me engaged throughout the stories which unwind. And one of the reasons why this made me think of Eileen Chang is the focus and interest in the lives of women: as workers, as mothers, as young women trying to make a place for themselves, a older women trying to manage their husbands and sons.
I found myself absorbed every time I picked this book up.
It's worth saying something briefly about the individual pieces:
1. It Runs in the Family
What starts off looking like a story built on femicide and masculine privilege gets turned on its head with a family cursed in the male line.
2. Gran is on Her Way
A distressing story about maternity and motherhood which sent me off to Google abortion laws in China. The title only makes horrific sense once you've read this tale.
3. Skeletons in the Closet
Again, the title has an explicit cultural meaning. A twisting story of deception and exploitation that is also revealing of attitudes towards marriage and affairs.
4. You'll Do the Job With Skill and Ease
Perhaps the quirkiest and strangest of the tales and maybe my least favourite possibly because it involves a masculine perspective.
In each case, the title comes to have a specific, sometimes ironic, relationship to the story being told, causing us to re-look at it in light of the text which it heads. Something I appreciate is the subtle ways in which a modern Chinese thought-world is conveyed through the use of myths or just similes or metaphors. On the surface the prose is plainly elegant but not flashy or self-conscious but it works to hook me and keep me engaged throughout the stories which unwind. And one of the reasons why this made me think of Eileen Chang is the focus and interest in the lives of women: as workers, as mothers, as young women trying to make a place for themselves, a older women trying to manage their husbands and sons.
I found myself absorbed every time I picked this book up.
November 23, 2024
“I’ve had enough,” Sister said. “I can’t take it any more. Ever since I was small, the men of this family have brought me nothing but shame, not a button’s worth of good.”
It was true. Sister had captured it perfectly. I had only just been thinking to myself whether there was something wrong with our family, and her words suddenly made it clear. It wasn’t the family who was sick, it was the men of the family. Every time something bad happened, it was because of them. It was always them who brought trouble into our home, who ruined all that was good.
“I’m telling you, look after Xiaobo, he’s the only normal one left.”
The Unfilial by Yao Emei is translated by Will Spence, Olivia Milburn, Honey Watson and Martin Ward.
The book, subtitled "Four Tragic Tales of Modern China" is a collection of four novellas - 60, 73, 63 and 85 pages - all telling of the difficulties of family life in modern-day China. Style wise the stories are told in pithy and irreverant prose, to me more blackly comic than tragic - or perhaps that's my warped view - typically starting with some present-day scene setting before flitting back in time.
It Runs in The Family, as the quote which opens my review is taken, opens We didn't panic when we first heard the news that a man named Zichen had killed his girlfriend by throwing her into a river. Our Zichen wasn't capable of such savagery, we reassured each other, and besides, there must be more than three thousand Zichen's in China. But the Zichen concerned does indeed turn out to be the estranged son of the female narrator's sister. And the story both carries forward as the narrator and her sister attempt to intervene in Zichen's case, calling in some favours but not entirely successfully, as well as the wider history of the family and the rather disastrous run of trouble caused by men, to the extend that the narrator ends up wondering if she should persuade Xianbo, her own son and Zichen's cousin, to change his name to a female one.
Gran Is On Her Way centres on a woman who works in a maternity ward, and who helps arranging off-the-books adoptions of those (e.g. unmarried mothers, spurned by their family or partner) who don't want to keep their babies. This is typically done by the adopting family visiting in the guise of a relative, for example a mother-in-law (hence Gran Is On Her way) but then taking the baby away when the mother is discharged. We learn of the narrator's own history and what led her to this work, but also see her naivety, not realising she is abetting a smuggling ring (the visiting 'Grans' are not who they seem).
Skeletons on The Closet focuses on a woman having an affair with a doctor, who she met when she started tutoring his son in calligraphy, arranged through the doctor's wife who is her colleague. But the son is also infatuated with her, and, while she conceals her affair from the doctor's wife, it gradually becomes clear it may have been her who facilitated the arrangement.
You'll Do The Job With Skill And Ease is told in the first person perspective from a young man who opens the story describing his current tutoring role, and telling us his father has passed away, before going into his rather bizarre family history. His parents, he a high-school art teacher, her an employee in a bookshop, just about made ends meet. But first they end up spending much of their savings on medical bills for his aunt and then, trying to restore the family fortunes, the father gets tricked into becoming the sucker in a mahjong gambling ring. They lose the family house, but rather than move in with their inlaws, or rent a small property, while they save up for another house, the father comes up with a scheme to simply not bother having a family home. The son is sent to a weekly boarding school, while husband and wife try to manage to sleep at their places of work, taking showers in gyms, spending their spare time in coffee shops, offering to house-sit for others, and, at weekends with the money saved on rent and household bills, staying in a hotel.
"Think about it," he said. "How many planes, trains and boats do we travel on and how few of us think we need to buy one for ourselves? In fact, the same goes for houses, without which we still live under the same roof, still sleep in beds, sit in chairs. And yet your bottom will never remind you that the chair is not owned by you and that you can't sit in it. You may say that a house is needed every day and a plane and a train are not. Well, yes, that's true, but think again - when we have a house, during the day we go to work, you go to school, and who lives in our house? No one, not a single person. Our house sits there empty, unused and wasted. Or you may say that a house is real estate, an asset that belongs to us. That's correct, but do you know our family's most valuable asset? It's intellectual investment, and educational investment, and it's turning you into a capable person. Human resources such as these have the ability to increase in value.
It's actually quite an interesting suggestion - I did find myself working out how much I pay in household bills and maintenance, let alone the imputed rent from the value of my house - but of course, and particularly in this book, it doesn't work out as well as expected. And this story has a nicely ambiguous end, after the father's death in a car crash, while working as a ride-sharing driver, where his will and papers reveal a different side to his story and suggest his death may not have been an accident.
Very enjoyable and well done, as well as an interesting insight into a different, or perhaps not so different, culture.
The publisher
Sinoist Books is a UK-based independent press that publishes only the best in translated Chinese literature and contemporary fiction. Our mission is to act as a bridge between the Chinese and English-speaking worlds, so that the best Sinophone authors and their works can transcend the language barrier. We believe that literature is a summation of the struggles, aspirations and ideals of the authors, and only by appreciating them can we truly achieve a deeper level of understanding.
We partner with award-winning translators and maintain the highest editorial and design standards in order to ensure that these titles are presented in their best possible light. We pair these titles with energetic marketing and events campaigns in order to introduce English readers to these gems of Chinese literature and culture
It was true. Sister had captured it perfectly. I had only just been thinking to myself whether there was something wrong with our family, and her words suddenly made it clear. It wasn’t the family who was sick, it was the men of the family. Every time something bad happened, it was because of them. It was always them who brought trouble into our home, who ruined all that was good.
“I’m telling you, look after Xiaobo, he’s the only normal one left.”
The Unfilial by Yao Emei is translated by Will Spence, Olivia Milburn, Honey Watson and Martin Ward.
The book, subtitled "Four Tragic Tales of Modern China" is a collection of four novellas - 60, 73, 63 and 85 pages - all telling of the difficulties of family life in modern-day China. Style wise the stories are told in pithy and irreverant prose, to me more blackly comic than tragic - or perhaps that's my warped view - typically starting with some present-day scene setting before flitting back in time.
It Runs in The Family, as the quote which opens my review is taken, opens We didn't panic when we first heard the news that a man named Zichen had killed his girlfriend by throwing her into a river. Our Zichen wasn't capable of such savagery, we reassured each other, and besides, there must be more than three thousand Zichen's in China. But the Zichen concerned does indeed turn out to be the estranged son of the female narrator's sister. And the story both carries forward as the narrator and her sister attempt to intervene in Zichen's case, calling in some favours but not entirely successfully, as well as the wider history of the family and the rather disastrous run of trouble caused by men, to the extend that the narrator ends up wondering if she should persuade Xianbo, her own son and Zichen's cousin, to change his name to a female one.
Gran Is On Her Way centres on a woman who works in a maternity ward, and who helps arranging off-the-books adoptions of those (e.g. unmarried mothers, spurned by their family or partner) who don't want to keep their babies. This is typically done by the adopting family visiting in the guise of a relative, for example a mother-in-law (hence Gran Is On Her way) but then taking the baby away when the mother is discharged. We learn of the narrator's own history and what led her to this work, but also see her naivety, not realising she is abetting a smuggling ring (the visiting 'Grans' are not who they seem).
Skeletons on The Closet focuses on a woman having an affair with a doctor, who she met when she started tutoring his son in calligraphy, arranged through the doctor's wife who is her colleague. But the son is also infatuated with her, and, while she conceals her affair from the doctor's wife, it gradually becomes clear it may have been her who facilitated the arrangement.
You'll Do The Job With Skill And Ease is told in the first person perspective from a young man who opens the story describing his current tutoring role, and telling us his father has passed away, before going into his rather bizarre family history. His parents, he a high-school art teacher, her an employee in a bookshop, just about made ends meet. But first they end up spending much of their savings on medical bills for his aunt and then, trying to restore the family fortunes, the father gets tricked into becoming the sucker in a mahjong gambling ring. They lose the family house, but rather than move in with their inlaws, or rent a small property, while they save up for another house, the father comes up with a scheme to simply not bother having a family home. The son is sent to a weekly boarding school, while husband and wife try to manage to sleep at their places of work, taking showers in gyms, spending their spare time in coffee shops, offering to house-sit for others, and, at weekends with the money saved on rent and household bills, staying in a hotel.
"Think about it," he said. "How many planes, trains and boats do we travel on and how few of us think we need to buy one for ourselves? In fact, the same goes for houses, without which we still live under the same roof, still sleep in beds, sit in chairs. And yet your bottom will never remind you that the chair is not owned by you and that you can't sit in it. You may say that a house is needed every day and a plane and a train are not. Well, yes, that's true, but think again - when we have a house, during the day we go to work, you go to school, and who lives in our house? No one, not a single person. Our house sits there empty, unused and wasted. Or you may say that a house is real estate, an asset that belongs to us. That's correct, but do you know our family's most valuable asset? It's intellectual investment, and educational investment, and it's turning you into a capable person. Human resources such as these have the ability to increase in value.
It's actually quite an interesting suggestion - I did find myself working out how much I pay in household bills and maintenance, let alone the imputed rent from the value of my house - but of course, and particularly in this book, it doesn't work out as well as expected. And this story has a nicely ambiguous end, after the father's death in a car crash, while working as a ride-sharing driver, where his will and papers reveal a different side to his story and suggest his death may not have been an accident.
Very enjoyable and well done, as well as an interesting insight into a different, or perhaps not so different, culture.
The publisher
Sinoist Books is a UK-based independent press that publishes only the best in translated Chinese literature and contemporary fiction. Our mission is to act as a bridge between the Chinese and English-speaking worlds, so that the best Sinophone authors and their works can transcend the language barrier. We believe that literature is a summation of the struggles, aspirations and ideals of the authors, and only by appreciating them can we truly achieve a deeper level of understanding.
We partner with award-winning translators and maintain the highest editorial and design standards in order to ensure that these titles are presented in their best possible light. We pair these titles with energetic marketing and events campaigns in order to introduce English readers to these gems of Chinese literature and culture
July 21, 2024
While the prose is decent, sometimes even very funny, I failed to be engaged. I can't really put a finger on the issue, perhaps the issues were too mundane - marriage, reproduction, home are hardly topics that move me. I prefer something that can shock me to attention like Yan Lianke or Can Xue, which is not to say that I wouldn't read more from Yao Emei.
January 21, 2026
I found this to be an excellent introduction to Yao Emei, an author I had never heard of before receiving this collection of novellas as part of the Republic of Consciousness book of the month subscription. She writes in an easy style about characters dealing with the circumstances of their lives the best they can. Emei has a way of chatting with the reader in an effortless way until in no time at all the various strands of her story are in place and moving with confident volution. In this volume, each novella has been translated by someone different, which was also an interesting experience, and I think I came out of it better acquainted with Emei overall. As with any collection there are some stories I prefer over others but none stray very far from the group.
December 22, 2024
Kudos to Sinoist Press for bringing us these stories from a society that is changing so rapidly that it’s probably beyond the imaginings of any of us here in the West. What is happening to traditional family values when market forces and other disruptors are exerting such pressure? I found it interesting that they chose to explicitly call these tales ‘tragic’, when to me they feel certainly challenging, unfair and sad, but somehow the characters find the resilience to carry on.
https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress....
https://findingtimetowrite.wordpress....
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews