Severance

Candace describes her four uncles. The first uncle lives in Fuzhou, a southern coastal city in the Fujian province. The first uncle has stretches of deep depression where he refuses to eat or speak, and he spends all day online. He occasionally sneaks out past his kids and wife to sing Taiwanese pop songs alone at a local karaoke bar. Candace’s grandmother comes to cook him dinner when his family is out, and she always spies him kneeling by the phone in his room, speaking passionately to somebody unknown

The second uncle also lives in Fuzhou. He is tall, quiet, and wears glasses. He has such a bad spine condition that he cannot work, and he spends most of the day lying flat on the floor. He surfaces for just long enough to eat with his family. The meals are joyful and sometimes it seems like he will continue his upright existence, but he shrinks back to the floor once the meal ends.

The third uncle is Candace’s only blood relative of the four. Although different in stature, tone, and personality, the third uncle has a face identical to Candace’s father. He’s a driver for the local government and prone to spats of violent anger. Candace recalls him being restrained after trying to stab her father with a paring knife, furious at his infrequent returns after leaving the family behind in China. Candace’s grandmother tries to deescalate by reminding them of their similarities, and the third uncle breaks down into tears.

The fourth uncle is practically unknown to Candace. He never speaks to her. All she knows is that he is bald and slightly overweight, and he owns a olive oil store that sells bootleg American movies and porn out the back. The fourth uncle’s son is Bing Bing, Candace’s favorite cousin and first friend. She remembers walking the streets of Fuzhou at night with him, surrounded and stimulated by the excess of fake goods, brand logos, palm trees and neon lights. She describes the feelings of those summer nights as the “Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling,” a nebulous, contradictory feeling that is partially sexual, encapsulating the ambivalent hunger of those moments. With Bing Bing she jokes about moving back to China. Inwardly, though, she imagines a life in Fuzhou where she is happy and content.