“Filling the empty spaces with silhouettes”: Trans Women’s Friendship and Healing in jia qing wilson-yang’s Small Beauty

Abstract

This paper explores how wilson-yang’s main character, Mei, who is Chinese-Canadian and a trans woman, deals with trauma from physical and sexual assault as well as grief from the loss of family. Through visits from the ghosts of her family—blood relatives and chosen family alike—Mei is able to begin to accept the loss she has experienced. I argue that Small Beauty blends elements of the Chinese ghost story, the homing narrative, and trans literary genres, creating a space where both generic storytelling elements and trauma are intersectional. This chapter examines how women’s healing is promoted by Mei’s trans women friends, Annette and Connie, who fashion a community in which Mei can belong in the city. Like other texts in the feminist healing narrative, Small Beauty initiates the healing process when Mei returns to tradition in the forms of food, spirituality, and ancestry, rediscovering her roots.

Keywords

• chinese canadian
• communal healing
• women’s trauma
• chosen family
• lgbtq stories