Chi, Ta-wei: The Membranes

First published in Taiwan in 1995, The Membranes is a classic of queer speculative fiction in Chinese. Chi Ta-wei weaves dystopian tropesâ?"heirloom animals, radiation-proof combat drones, sinister surveillance technologiesâ?"into a sensitive portrait of one young womanâ??s quest for self-understanding.Chi's rendering of certain surveillance and communications technologies is strikingly accurate. The novel offers a fin de siècle vision of a bleak future, while distilling kaleidoscopic influences into the textured intimacy of a mother-daughter tale that alternately reads as a quest for one's origins.