The letter X provides us with our only duplicate author of the year, with a second story by Xia Jia, which, it should be noted, is the pen name used by Wang Yao. As with last week’s story, “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight,” Xia’s story “Tongtong’s Summer” also appears in Ken Liu’s anthology Invisible Planets.  It was originally published in Chinese in 2014 in ZUI Novel and later that year was translated by Ken Liu for the Neil Clarke edited anthology Upgraded.

“Tongtong’s Summer” is a very different story than “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight.” While the other was a ghost tale that draws upon Chinese mythology, “Tongtong’s Summer” is a science fiction story about the impact of technology on individuals, particularly the aging.

 

The story opens with Tongtong’s grandfather living with her family and in need of more care than the family can provide. Tongtong’s father brings home a robot prototype called Ah Fu to provide the care he needs, but something about the arrangement seems odd to Tongtong, who quickly realizes that rather than an actual robot, Ah Fu is a remote controlled device. She starts talking to the operator through the remote device and learns he is Uncle Wang, and they are prototyping a way of providing eldercare from a centralized location.

The robotic bodies are capable of the physical activities required, but have the guidance from individuals who are freed from the need to travel to take care of their charges and can care for more people, and be better connected to individuals whose needs and backgrounds they match.  Uncle Wang, for instance, can understand the topolect Tongtong’s Grandfather spoke.

Eventually, Tongtong is given a pair of glasses that allow her to keep in touch with he grandfather when she goes out to play, although the discovery that they communications, including visual, is two way, makes Tongtong reluctant to use the glasses when she feels her grandfather is trying to curtail her normal activities.

While Xia begins the stories by exploring the way the combination of robots and remote monitoring can offer new possibilities in elder care, Tongtong’s grandfather’s attempts to protect Tongtong when he sees her doing something he considers dangerous opens the doors for Xia to take the concept into different areas, showing that despite his physical limitations Tongtong’s grandfather is still vibrant and has the potential to offer society his experience.

The last section of the story is really what sets it apart, with Xia taking the relatively obvious advantages of the situation she has created and pushing it a further step. Elder care becomes not just a physical, but a mental process and the use of robotics and distance monitoring creates a new prototype program that looks to the complete wellbeing of the individuals who are participating.

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Steven H Silver is a twenty-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference six times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.