常勇趴在地上开始抽泣，那只罐头瓶像只多余的骨节一样妖冶地长在她两手中间，好像她无论怎样使劲都不能把它从她的骨骼中剔除，它就那么坚硬地茂密地在她两手中间越长越大，长成了一片浩大的湖泊，而她则成了浸泡在湖泊里的尸骸。她终于被尿憋得忍不住了，一边抽泣一边站了起来，她在月光下分辨着爷爷的方向，然后背对着他褪掉了短裤，她站在月光下光着屁股叉开双腿开始对着那只罐头瓶撒尿，淅淅沥沥地一尿完，裤子都没有提她就开始蹲在地上大声呜咽，她边哭便喊，我就不是男的，我就是个女的，我本来就是个女的。 Chang Yong laid prone on the ground and began to sob. Like an extra joint bewitchingly sprouted from between her hands, the jar couldn’t be detached from her skeleton, no matter how hard she tried. Hard and lush, it continued to grow larger and larger between her two hands, until it turned into a massive lake, whereas she turned into the skeletal remains immersed in the water. Ultimately, she could no longer hold in her pee. She continued sobbing as she stood up. Distinguishing Grandpa’s direction under the moonlight, she turned her back to him and took off her shorts, standing there butt-naked in the moonlight. She spread her two legs and began to pee into the jar, making a pattering sound until she finished. Then, without even pulling her shorts back up, she crouched down on the ground and began to whimper, tears falling from her face as she shouted: “I’m NOT a boy! I’m a girl, I’ve always been a girl!"
The Sciomantic Medium (乩身) by Sun Pin (孙频). 2017. Translated by Chelsea Shieh.
Sun Pin is a young, up-and-coming Chinese female writer. Born in 1983, Sun graduated from Lanzhou University’s Chinese Language Department, and is currently studying creative writing at Renmin University in Beijing. She began writing short stories in 2008, and her works have widely been published in magazines, as well as in her short story collections Salt (盐) and Pain (疼), among others. Her works are known for exploring heavy topics, and are often set in rural mountain villages, featuring characters that have little to no way out of their troubled lives.
Sun’s short story “乩身”, which approximately translates to “The Sciomantic Medium”, is about a blind girl named Chang Yong, who is abandoned by her parents as an infant, and taken in by an old man who raises her as a boy in order to protect her from the evils of society. The story explores the themes of societal alienation, disability, gender performance, and trauma.
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