The Unfilial: Four Tragic Tales from Modern China

"A brutally honest view of family life in modern China, in four tales. With sharp-edged observation, Yao Emei shows that when a household crumbles, it’s always the women who are left picking up the pieces, but no one comes out looking good when caught in a vicious cycle of abuse. The mirage of a picture-perfect home compels some to gamble away the family house, while others have to live with the debts of a shameful past. Other stories include an account of trafficking at a maternity ward, and a mistress’s revenge on a serial adulterer. Come inside – or stare through the window – at your peril: after all, what’s a closet without its skeletons? The Unfilial presents the all too familiar struggle of women as caretakers, caught up in systemic and systematic disadvantages. With unflinching poetic realism, Yao’s stories explore darker aspects of society, exploring territories both moral and legal that push the boundaries of acceptable expression. Cutting back the seemingly unblemished skin of traditional family values, she exposes the wounds of women pushed into self-sacrificial roles to maintain harmony. Through raw, disillusioned perspectives on women’s position in society, the male irresponsibility that may have previously been tolerated is almost surgically dissected, and hints at the minor victories women extract where institutions have failed them."