Salt Fish Girl The Durian Stench Salt Fish

Salt Fish Girl: The Durian Stench

Salt Fish Girl: The Durian Stench ¡ ¡ In the city Serendipity in 2044, Miranda and her family live in a future when high technology develops to an extreme. [e. g. “Interactive Electronic Books”(24), “Business Suit”(25), “Spy Goggles”(35), “Swimming Suits”(65)] The foul smell can be read as an ironic presentation of the exploitation of imperialism and capitalism which are the relentless forces from the civilized world.

Outline: The Durian Stench ¡ ¡ ¡ The cause of Miranda’s foul smell -Biotechnology -Implication As inkling -race issue: at school -Ian Chestnut/ his mother Miranda’s Shame -The letters between her father and Dr. Flowers -Miranda taking a bath Reek of Other People in other Compounds or out in the Unregulated Zone Symptoms of the Patients/ the dreaming disease

The Cause of Miranda’s Foul Smell Miranda’s conception: durian scent ¡ the smuggled durian (14) ¡ Durians in the Unregulated Zone (14) ¡ Biotechnology ¡ Mutation (32) (62) ¡

As Inkling ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ Miranda’s classmates ignore and scorn her because of her durian stink. (21) Larissa Lai doesn’t specially describe Miranda’s Asian appearance. “the only Asian child” (23) Her social stature (33) Ian Chestnut befriends Miranda. Ian’s house (64) His mother has a smell of rusting iron.

Miranda’s Shame Miranda didn’t care a lot about her smell. (34) ¡ “Suddenly, and for the first time, I felt dirty. ” (72) ¡ Her father’s shame (72) (69) ¡ Miranda taking a bath: She scrubs her skin hard but she can’t get away the stink. (73) ¡

Reek of Other People in other Compounds or out in the Unregulated Zone ¡ ¡ ¡ There are other people stink of various smells (70): orange, tobacco, rotten eggs, cabbage silk, cotton, coffee, blood and carnage, coal, freshly baked bread, machine oil, dust and rain and mud Those are the scents from the workers in the colonized countries or the capitalistic society, also from the immigrants who could not find better jobs in the new land. Salt Fish Girl and Nu Wa in Canton (118)

Symptoms of the Patients ¡ ¡ ¡ When Miranda becomes Dr. Flowers’s assistant doing “blood tests” and “skin scrapings, ” she met different patients who tell her different stories. a man smells of milk -memory of the famines caused by war (101) a girl smells of stainless steel -memory of tuberculosis (102) a woman reeks of radishes -tales of stealing of fruit a boy smells of oranges -telling of tragic romances

Conclusion ¡ ¡ ¡ The Durian Stench The dreaming disease, or the drowning disease -the case of the girl who smelled of cooking oil (85) Water -returning to the root of human being -cleansing the ideology of status