Chinese Literature Podcast

In today's podcast, we return to the Historian of the Weird, that is the late, great Pu Songling. Previously, we did a podcast on his touching love story about a man and his rock. This time, we take a look at an equally 'touching' love story, though here, we are talking about bad touch. In the story that is literally translated as Human Prodigy (人妖), a family named Ma tries to play the old trick-a-roo where you invite the local virgin to give your wife a massage and then, in the darkness the husband takes the wife's place. But when Mrs. Ma slips out of bed and Mr. Ma slips into bed, Mr. Ma finds a surprise. The young virgin he wanted to rape is actually a man...we'll leave the rest to be discussed on the podcast. This disturbing, gender-bending story makes for an interesting read and an even more interesting discussion.