suggested reading method
To best savour this artwork, please take a moment to eliminate distractions. Consider minimizing all other windows on your computer; putting other devices (phone, tv etc) aside; taking a deep breath, to the full extent of your lung capacity; and focusing solely on the “artwork” section.
Once you’ve processed that to your satisfaction, the rest of the post is optional reading, provided only to share my own impressions and reasons for choosing this piece.
artwork
Lost on a Lanai (迷失在阳台上)
Lanais, they’re heaven and earth for city people.
Grace planted an asparagus fern in a pot and put it in this heavenly place after they’d moved into their new residence. She liked this kind of willowy plant, thinking that the dull green leaves were reminiscent of a complacent frame of mind.
Sea, on the other hand, seemed not to care much for the asparagus fern. He often stood out on the lanai, but his gaze was pulled off into the distance. Following his gaze, Grace saw a spectacularly red bougainvillea across the way. That kind of red, overflowing with warmth, lifted one’s heart.
Grace quietly exchanged the fern. What she replaced it with was a brilliantly burning, flaming red bougainvillea.
But Sea’s gaze was still far away in the distance, as though it were pulled by something.
Grace edged up to him gently. “What is it?” she asked softly.
“It’s nothing. There’s nothing to look at,” he said.
Following his vacant stare, Grace saw to her surprise that the bougainvillea on the lanai across the way had at some point disappeared without a trace. And the plant there now, throwing out threads of greenness, wasn’t it an asparagus fern? – The thing she’d just thrown away.
by Liu Wufu (刘吾福); found here translated by Fannyi from Flash Fiction Monthly.
interpretation
I first enjoyed the flash fiction genre in an e-book I randomly borrowed from the LA Library: The Pearl Jacket, edited and translated by Shouhua Qi, published nearly 20 years ago. I already like short stories, and the forced economy of these flash fiction pieces is even more compelling: no sentence, no detail has the luxury of being superfluous. Every element contains more than one level of meaning, ripe for analysis.
Browsing through the work Fannyi kindly translated to share on the Internet, I was most drawn to this story because of the use of the word “lanai” for “balcony.” I grew up only seeing this term used in Hawaii, and so “lanai” connotes a light cheeriness in my memory. One might feel fortunate to gain the luxury of outdoor space, among the cramped apartments of a Chinese city – yet human nature is such that we’re rarely satisfied with what we have.
Indeed, this story adds a fun twist to the trope that the “grass is greener on the other side.”
I bring in visual aids to emphasize the contrast: one plant is fuzzy and green – quite “grassy” in appearance – while the other bursts with sharp red flowers. As red is rich with symbolism in Chinese culture (e.g. happiness, fire, vitality, fortune, success), the bougainvillea is a fitting object of desire. And yet, when the plants are reversed, Sea is still drawn to the other side.
How did the asparagus fern become transplanted to the opposite lanai – and why? Were those distant residents envious of Grace and Sea’s plant, just as these two main characters were envious of the red bougainvillea across the way? And what other aspects of Grace and Sea’s relationship & life could these plants symbolize?
The more I think about this tantalizingly brief narrative, the more I’m drawn in.
context
Liu Wufu (刘吾福, 1950 - present) was born in Hunan province. He has worked the editor of a magazine called Humor and Satire Short Fiction, and published more than 900 short stories, novels, stories, and essays. (Thanks to my friend Vera for finding this information on the Chinese-language web!)
The translator Fannyi keeps fairly anonymous, but describes himself as an “American man who wiles away his golden years sitting in a rocking chair doing crossword puzzles and trying to figure out English expressions for Chinese concepts.”
What is something in your life that you used to be excited about and now take for granted? (One that comes to mind is my car.) Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!