Hybrid: “departure of / the bride / enters” by Jenne Hsien Patrick
departure of / the bride / enters
/
his bride, young
his ancestors
his parents
a child
his
ceremonies
groom the family
tendered in paper
he has taken
the Joy
this bride
a bundle
in a large padlocked box
the unicorn
a male child
to render imperial
the bride herself
is adjoining
mirrors
purchased
and
polished
and
ordinary
//
the bride enters
the cage
the red bride
being performed
a cyclic birth of fire
the bride leaves
her thought
spirits
pretend
penetrate
the holes
resemble eyes
they wish
youth and take
luck
young lady,
her person
simply
a ceremony
of vinegar
fortune
the new bride
a saddle
meaning
the shoes
of the groom
Note: This is an erasure of pages from “Researches Into Chinese Superstitions Volumes 1-3” by Henri Doré published by T’usewei Press in 1914. This piece is from a larger project where I am using papercutting and erasure of this text written by a French Jesuit missionary about China and the beliefs of “The Chinese,” through the western gaze for missionary work, still referred to as an authoritative text in early anthropological research. I am peeling and looking for the echoes of unnamed women from ancestral family trees, cutting and uncovering the things I have heard my grandmother say or didn't have to say. The text is found and preserved in order and titles are from chapter titles. The papercutting is a further attempt to de-text the erasure and embody the shape of their voices from the page, re-found.
About Jenne Hsien Patrick
Jenne Hsien Patrick is a writer and an artist currently based in Seattle. She incorporates text into textiles, papercutting and stop action animation and creates spaces for healing and storytelling in her community. Jenne’s work has appeared or is forthcoming from the Asian American Literary Review, wildness, Capsule Stories, and elsewhere. http://www.jennehsienpatrick.com