Spring, Summer, Asteroid, Bird: The Art of Eastern Storytelling

Middle grade novelist Lien (the Peasprout Chen series) presents a perceptive primer on common narrative techniques in East Asian cultures. The four-act structure common in China, Japan, and Korea is defined by a third-act twist that changes the story’s genre, Lien contends, citing the big reveal in Parasite as a paradigmatic example that shifts the movie from social satire to thriller. He argues that other East Asian narratives are defined by a circular/nested structure that revisits the same events or locations from different angles, discussing how Nintendo’s Metroid video game series invites players to return to previously explored areas as they acquire new abilities that unlock pathways that were inaccessible when players first encountered them. Positing that the four-act and circular/nested structures reflect broader societal values, Lien suggests that the latter stems from valuing collectivism over individualism. To illustrate, he analyzes how Rashomon’s divergent depictions of a samurai’s murder from different characters’ perspectives imply that truth emerges from the cumulative views of a community rather than any one person’s account. Lien offers smart commentary on a varied selection of books, films, and games, upending conventional wisdom in Western storytelling along the way. (Contrasting My Neighbor Totoro with Pixar fare, Lien notes that Totoro succeeds despite lacking a villain, substantial conflict, or character arcs.) This fascinates. (Feb.)