A genealogy of fish women and other imagined identities: “The mechanics of fluids” in Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl
Fluidity invigorates a utopian home in Chinese Canadian author Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl (2002). In the novel, the fishlike lesbian couple cyclically returns to their aquatic habitat between mortal reincarnations: from last‐century colonial South China to near‐future bio‐capitalistic Canada,...
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| Vydané v: | Orbis litterarum Ročník 80; číslo 6; s. 602 - 618 |
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01.12.2025
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| Abstract | Fluidity invigorates a utopian home in Chinese Canadian author Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl (2002). In the novel, the fishlike lesbian couple cyclically returns to their aquatic habitat between mortal reincarnations: from last‐century colonial South China to near‐future bio‐capitalistic Canada, where they recurrently experience displacement. While previous studies interpret the titular Salt Fish Girl as a rebellious figure due to her saltfish stink in all her human incarnations, my study does not consider malodor for its disruptive qualities. I propose that the saltfish smell signifies less a symbolic marker of rebellion than a sign of displacement. Naturally, fish do not reek in their homely waters; fish stink once caught and die ashore. Fish heroines, therefore, emerge as diasporic figures, representing those who experience a permanent sense of displacement on earth because of their ethnicity, gender, and more factors. My study shows that in Lai's novel, fluidity constitutes a symbolic habitable space for imagining more than the reified identities within the real‐world gender binary, ethnic categories, national rhetoric, and even “humanism.” While both Chinese and Canadian landscapes in Lai's depictions prove unlivable for ethnic queer women, my study explores the fluid habitat where the fish heroines can be constantly reborn before they vengefully land on earth. |
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| AbstractList | Fluidity invigorates a utopian home in Chinese Canadian author Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl (2002). In the novel, the fishlike lesbian couple cyclically returns to their aquatic habitat between mortal reincarnations: from last‐century colonial South China to near‐future bio‐capitalistic Canada, where they recurrently experience displacement. While previous studies interpret the titular Salt Fish Girl as a rebellious figure due to her saltfish stink in all her human incarnations, my study does not consider malodor for its disruptive qualities. I propose that the saltfish smell signifies less a symbolic marker of rebellion than a sign of displacement. Naturally, fish do not reek in their homely waters; fish stink once caught and die ashore. Fish heroines, therefore, emerge as diasporic figures, representing those who experience a permanent sense of displacement on earth because of their ethnicity, gender, and more factors. My study shows that in Lai's novel, fluidity constitutes a symbolic habitable space for imagining more than the reified identities within the real‐world gender binary, ethnic categories, national rhetoric, and even “humanism.” While both Chinese and Canadian landscapes in Lai's depictions prove unlivable for ethnic queer women, my study explores the fluid habitat where the fish heroines can be constantly reborn before they vengefully land on earth. |
| Author | Ma, Qianyi |
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| Cites_doi | 10.1093/melus/33.4.167 10.1515/9781400827503 10.51644/9781554581399-006 10.51644/9781771120425 10.1525/9780520935280 10.1353/book1369 |
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| Copyright | 2025 The Author(s). published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2025. This work is published under Creative Commons Attribution License~https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the "License"). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License. |
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| References_xml | – year: 1985 – volume: 44 38 start-page: 21 issue: 2 year: 2004 end-page: 30 article-title: ‘Sites of Articulation’ – An Interview with Larissa Lai: Robyn Morris in Conversation with Larissa Lai publication-title: West Coast Line – year: 2002 – year: 2001 – year: 2007 – year: 2000 – year: 1996 – year: 1991 – volume: 33 start-page: 167 issue: 4 year: 2008b end-page: 187 article-title: Stinky bodies: Mythological futures and the olfactory sense in Larissa Lai's ‘ ’ publication-title: Melus – start-page: 87 year: 2008a end-page: 111 – year: 2014 – volume: 38 start-page: 121 issue: 2 year: 2004 end-page: 133 article-title: Abject origins: Uncanny strangers and figures of fetishism in Larissa Lai's salt fish girl publication-title: West Coast Line – year: 2010 – year: 1999 – volume-title: This sex which is not one year: 1985 ident: e_1_2_7_6_1 – volume-title: Restless subjects in rigid systems risk and speculation in millennial fictions of the North American Pacific Rim year: 2014 ident: e_1_2_7_19_1 – volume-title: The protestant ethnic and the spirit of capitalism year: 2002 ident: e_1_2_7_4_1 – volume-title: The Chinese in Vancouver, 1945–80: The pursuit of identity and power year: 1999 ident: e_1_2_7_14_1 – ident: e_1_2_7_12_1 doi: 10.1093/melus/33.4.167 – volume: 44 start-page: 21 issue: 2 year: 2004 ident: e_1_2_7_9_1 article-title: ‘Sites of Articulation’ – An Interview with Larissa Lai: Robyn Morris in Conversation with Larissa Lai publication-title: West Coast Line – volume: 38 start-page: 121 issue: 2 year: 2004 ident: e_1_2_7_13_1 article-title: Abject origins: Uncanny strangers and figures of fetishism in Larissa Lai's salt fish girl publication-title: West Coast Line – ident: e_1_2_7_16_1 doi: 10.1515/9781400827503 – ident: e_1_2_7_18_1 – volume-title: Salt fish girl year: 2002 ident: e_1_2_7_8_1 – ident: e_1_2_7_10_1 doi: 10.51644/9781554581399-006 – volume-title: Bringing it Home: Women Talk About Feminism in Their Lives year: 1996 ident: e_1_2_7_7_1 – volume-title: Strange encounters: Embodied others in post‐coloniality year: 2000 ident: e_1_2_7_2_1 – ident: e_1_2_7_11_1 doi: 10.51644/9781771120425 – volume-title: On not speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the west year: 2001 ident: e_1_2_7_3_1 – ident: e_1_2_7_17_1 doi: 10.1525/9780520935280 – volume-title: Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature year: 1991 ident: e_1_2_7_5_1 – ident: e_1_2_7_15_1 doi: 10.1353/book1369 |
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| Title | A genealogy of fish women and other imagined identities: “The mechanics of fluids” in Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl |
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