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Abstract
Written in 2020 and compiled into Wong Yi’s 2021 short story collection Ways to Love in a Crowded City, “Overseas Bride” delves into the emotional and cultural complexities of emigration, particularly what is left behind. Set against the backdrop of a mass exodus from a city that is presumably Hong Kong, the story unfolds from the perspective of a narrator grappling with a loved one’s proposal to marry as a means of escape, contemplating the profound sacrifices involved in leaving one’s homeland, including the loss of cultural identity and one’s mother tongue. The story vividly portrays the challenges of assimilating into a new environment, where familiar comforts and linguistic nuances are absent, and the struggle to find a sense of belonging in a minority community. Themes of love, cultural identity, language, and belonging are intricately woven throughout the story, which ponders the bittersweet reality of emigration, not as a process of simple physical relocation but as a complex emotional journey. Showcasing a vibrant array of Cantonese idioms, the story serves as an homage to the many facets of the language.
Acknowledgment
Chinese text originally published in Fleurs des lettres ‧ Other Words issue 32; reprinted in Wong Yi, Ways to Love in a Crowded City (Taipei: Unitas, 2021).