54 pages • 1 hour read
Larissa LaiThe Tiger Flu
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Biomechanics
In Larissa Lai’s dystopia, there are several instances where technological and biological matter converge to form not only the ultimate tools (as with the Isabelle Chow’s batterkites and Madame Dearborn’s catcoats) but also to transform life itself (as with the Kora Tree). When technology and biology meet, it is not necessarily for the greater good, but it is always powerful: The tiger flu itself was borne from technology (Jemini’s cloning abilities) that spawned and proliferated a deadly biological material, the tiger flu. The power that comes from this sort of technological/biological merging is coveted by humans—and they will do anything it takes to take control of that power.
A Stressed Environment
Another feature of The Tiger Flu’s dystopia is that the environment is now nearly as plagued as the people themselves. Kora notes in Chapter 4 that they have limited access to water: “I open the tap and let run a precious trickle of water from our rooftop cistern, opened to the sky only on clean rain days” (38). Monsoons occur throughout the book; in Chapter 18, Kiri observes that “the new monsoons have arrived decisively” (116); in Chapter 20, Kiri and Calyx walk to Pente-Hik-Ton through a vicious rainstorm (128); in Chapter 22, Kiri refers to the “morning rains” that pour down on them as they make their way toward the Cordova School for Dancing Girls.
Felines
Feline imagery abounds in The Tiger Flu, from the tiger flu pandemic to the catcoats worn by the Cordova girls. In these instances, this imagery underscores how a feline energy is externalized and internalized by the characters. Historically, the tiger is a powerful cultural symbol for many communities within China. The opening matter of The Tiger Flu includes an epigraph of a quote ascribed to the mythical Yellow Emperor from the book The Yin Fu Ching, translated by Fredric Henry Balfour. The Yellow Emperor is a deity in Taoist tradition and is considered a symbol of Chinese nationalism. The quote asserts that when Heaven and Man send forth their “engines of destruction” together in concert, that “all the disorganized phenomena are re-established on a new basis.” This connects to the disorganization and regeneration precipitated by the novel’s tiger flu pandemic.
