Zebra: A memoir

by Cathy Yang

"My parents remind me of hedgehogs. In childhood, they were not properly cared for, and the spines that originally grew on their backs were pulled out and stuck onto their soft bellies. They tried to please their parents with their smooth backs. These spines in bellies hurt them and grew inside them. When they grew up, they could no longer embrace their own young often. Their young, which is me, grew up covered in holes poked by their belly spines."

The book Zebra spans from 1960 to 2011 in China, and from 2011 to 2023 in the US. The narrator recounts stories of how events such as the famine (1959-1961), Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), and economic reforms (1979-2011) affected multiple grandparents, parents, parents' coworkers and friends, childhood friends, and the narrator herself. The family endured significant trauma during the Cultural Revolution due to their scholarly background, resulting in unhealthy family dynamics, suicidal attempts, and decline. The narrator witnessed China's economic boom and the implementation of the one-child policy, which does not immediately resolve gender inequality issues. Across generations, girls continue to face mistreatment, perpetuating a cycle of inequality.

186 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 23, 2024