A beautiful and heart wrenching short story, almost made me cry!

"Are you as devastated as I am?" - LeVar BurtonHaven't cried this much in a while. A story full of unbelievable loss, so universal in immigrants who enter a seemingly callous America. Made me google zhezhi (Chinese origami), Hebei province, and Sigulu village. Like probably every reader, I so want to believe the magic is real..

What a powerful story...

An incredibly sad story of an immigrant mother whose Americanised son start to ignore her out of his feelings of inferiority regarding his mixed race and Chinese roots. Mom began to mime things if she needed to let me know something. She tried to hug me the way she saw American mothers did on TV. I thought her movements exaggerated, uncertain, ridiculous, graceless. She saw that I was annoyed, and stopped.

Oh wow! What an amazing story. It almost made me cry. Yes, me. I kid you not.It’s about a young man that was born to an American father and a Chinese mother, and how the relationship between Jack and his mother deteriorated because of her ancestry and how said ancestry affected Jack’s life, especially when he was a young boy.A story about love and loss, about family and about acceptance. It touches on so many themes that are of great importance. The racism and prejudices made me extremely angry....

Second time reading this. Such a moving and heart-breaking story. Brings me to tears.

Did I cry reading this gorgeous short?You bet your ass I did!!It's truly amazing how such a short work of fiction can carry so much emotional heft. This truly is a perfect story - elegant, mesmerising, and insightful.

NOBODY TOUCH ME I AM NOT OKAY 😭😭😭😭(off to buy the anthology that includes this short story because I am now a Ken Liu stan)

I have seen this title before. It's a short story included in a collection I have seen around in the past, but I've never read anything by this author before. However, it is the first fiction story to win the Hugo, the Nebula, AND the World Fantasy Award so it had to be good. This and today's recommendation made me pick it up finally.The story is that of a young man, the son of an American father and a Chinese mother. It's the story of a son getting estranged from his own mother simply because o...

I am rating this short story separately from the entire collection as I believe it really stands above most things I have read and deserves to be highlighted. The Paper Menagerie is one of the best stories I have ever come across. It is very rare for an author to pack this much emotion into a 15 page short story and Ken Liu truly deserves all the praise for making that happen. It absolutely shook me to my core and it was very difficult to pick anything else up for hours after as I just felt holl...

4.5 StarsHoly hell. That hurt. In a scant 30ish pages, this will make you re-evaluate every broken, estranged relationship currently in your life and how you want to go about it - for better or for worse.Brutally devastating in the choices you can’t unmake and the lost chance you’ll never get back.

cried for what felt like the entirety of this short story wtf. i’m so upset.

The Paper Menagerie is devastating. Keep a box of tissues handy.It's the story of a mother and her son. She made paper animals for him and breathed life into them, and they became his friends. For a while, mother and son delighted in this magic together. But after an incident with a bully, the son Jack changes his mind. He doesn't want to be half Chinese and half American anymore. He wants to be all American. He doesn't want his eyes or his hair or his language or his little paper friends. He do...

5 starsThere is just so much to reflect upon within this sad, beautiful tale.It left my heart heavy and my mind full...This is a journey worth taking for many reasons. My hope is that you'll take some time to read this short story in order to experience it for yourself. It is a gift for which the price has been paid many times over by those who have lived it in some way, shape, or form.Life's journey comes with many lessons and there are few who live without some deeper heartache and/or regret.....

Heartrending and powerful!Ken Liu packed a huge emotional punch in 20 pages.Available, for free, here.

Completely mesmerizing and deeply affecting, I never dreamt that such an incredibly powerful story could be told in a mere handful of pages.Free to read here

This lovely short story involves the recollections of a man who grew up in a loving home of a Chinese mother and an American father. He describes the wonderful creations of animals his mother frequently fashioned for him of origami. He was delighted and entranced by these figures for a long time. As the years progressed and he became more involved with his Caucasian peers, he confronted much bigotry and shunning. The results of these situations are clearly demonstrated in Ken Liu's sensitive ren...

As close to perfect as a short story can be. I think there are a few notable achievements for Liu’s piece of short fiction; you know, other than winning the triple crown of awards for speculative fiction (Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy). The first achievement I would call emotional density. This is a short story, literally. It’s roughly 30 pages long and most readers will finish it in well under an hour. I cried the first time I read it, and I cried twice on the reread. For a story so small to pack...

This story is 32 pages long and will leave your heart in pieces. I cried. A lot."You know what the Chinese think is the saddest feeling in the world? It's for a child to finally grow the desire to take care of his parents, only to realise that they were long gone."Jack is the son an American man and a mail-order Hong Kong bride. In his youth, Jack delights in the origami animals that his mother makes for him, breathing her life into them so that they move. As he grows, however, he comes to disli...

This is beautifully written but poignantly sad short story.Highly recommended but prepare for a broken heart.